Selin Türman
The Coding Chef
· 49 min · Community Manager, Burgas Coliving · Founder, Co Club · Based: Burgas Coliving, Bulgaria
About Selin’s Work #
Selin Türman is the community manager at Burgas Coliving in Bulgaria, the creator of Recipes that Build Communities, a seasonal cookbook series whose Summer Edition arrived from the printers the day before we recorded, and the founder of Co Club, a credit-based booking platform for curated co-livings across Europe and beyond. She holds a Master’s degree in AI tools and content personalisation, and she built Co Club with those tools rather than with a computer science degree.
Episode Description #
I’m in the courtyard at Burgas Coliving with Selin, my first guest here in Bulgaria, and we aren’t alone. Sat with us is her first printed copy of Recipes that Build Communities: Summer Edition, fresh from the printers. “Until I had it in my hand, it felt like a joke. Like a dream.” This is what happens when you give a community manager who loves feeding people the space to create something. You get a cookbook that matters.
But this conversation isn’t just about recipes. It’s about how one person has built community through food, code and curation: from a seasonal cookbook, to an AI chatbot that helps nomads cook for a crowd, to Co Club, a platform that’s reimagining how digital nomads find home. One subscription, credits the way ClassPass does it, and eighteen co-livings on it so far, every one of them with her name on the recommendation. “I don’t have to put my hand on the stove to know that it’s hot.”
Along the way Selin shares something many guests decline to discuss: her genuine passion for AI, and what it means for community building. Co Club was built with Lovable and vibe-coding, no traditional coding required, because she wanted to build it, not because she studied computer science. You don’t have to be technical to build something technical. Once you see that it’s possible, the fear falls away.
Timestamps
- 00:00-00:29Introduction: people with interesting lives, and welcome Selin
- 00:29-01:42The cookbook arrived yesterday: “until I had it in my hand, it felt like a joke”
- 01:42-02:28Like a baby: the Summer Edition, and maybe the other three seasons after all
- 02:28-04:50Every recipe has a story: shared dinners at Duo, the Azores, and coffee by the ocean
- 04:50-07:43Why food: a year and a half as community manager, and always on the cooking team
- 07:43-08:48A cookbook on every bed, and Katya’s point that some people hate cooking
- 08:48-11:37Ask Selin: an AI chatbot that cooks for eight, and a cookbook the community adds to
- 11:37-13:15Co Club was vibe-coded: you don’t have to be technical, and the dawn of a new era
- 13:15-16:56Why Lovable: a master’s thesis on AI tools, Nordic startups, and an interview with Victor
- 16:56-19:21The butterfly effect: from WhatsApp photo albums to a booking platform
- 19:21-21:14Modelling excellence: a recipe is copying someone who did it well
- 21:14-25:13Ibi’s AI setup: the $200 plan, prompts that run all day, and six solutions visualised
- 25:13-30:35The handpan example: a viral video, six agents, and four hours instead of two days
- 30:35-33:04What Co Club is: ClassPass credits for co-livings
- 33:04-36:23Pay one rent and the whole world is home: Barcelona, and dropping the word “subscription”
- 36:23-37:51Tax deductibility, and earning credits by photographing the Sunday board
- 37:51-39:33Curation is what I pay for: psychologists, therapists and that uncle
- 39:33-42:23Eighteen co-livings: “you don’t have to put your hand on the stove to know it’s hot”
- 42:23-44:14Mexico next, Nomadico and Outsite: more options above a standard
- 44:14-46:50Why places become trends: Bali, Chiang Mai, curiosity and word of mouth
- 46:50-48:13Self-fulfilling prophecies, and calling it at time