Your people are here. They're just in their garages (converted into very nice home offices, thank you very much).

You've been here long enough. Three years, five years, maybe more. You've figured out your home office—maybe an extra bedroom, maybe an in-law apartment, maybe a garage you converted into something properly useful. The wifi works. The lighting's right. You've got your system.

And there's almost no reason to leave.

Which is the problem.

The Costa del Sol is quietly shifting. Not the tourism part—that's permanent. But underneath it, something else is happening. Málaga province is drawing founders, operators, consultants, and remote executives who think about business the way you do. The entrepreneurial density is growing. Your people are here.

You just can't see them. Because they're all in their home offices too.

Making friends after 40 is hard. Not because something's wrong with you, but because the structure that used to create friendships disappears.

At 25, you were thrown together with people. University, first jobs, shared flats, the pub after work. Repeated exposure. Low stakes. Friendships formed almost by accident.

At 45, you've optimised everything. Your home. Your schedule. Your work. You can go weeks without an unplanned conversation with someone who thinks at your level. The efficiency that makes your professional life work is the same efficiency that keeps you invisible to your peers.

The Costa amplifies this. Beautiful weather. Gorgeous home. Perfect setup. Zero friction to leave. Everyone else in the same position.

Málaga's tech and startup scene has been growing for 5 years now, but it's starting to reach critical mass. Innovation Campus, the TechPark, the coworking clusters—these aren't just for 26-year-old nomads anymore. There's serious capital flowing through. Real businesses are being built. People who've run things before, running things again.

The profile is shifting from "early retirees and tourists" toward "location-independent operators who chose weather and quality of life without giving up ambition."

You probably know two or three of these people already. The question is why you don't know twenty.

Business ideas don't emerge from planning. They emerge from friction—the random conversation at the bar, the offhand comment at someone's kitchen table, the "wait, you're dealing with that too?" moment that turns into a partnership or a referral or just a genuinely valuable relationship.

The Costa has the raw material. It doesn't have the collision infrastructure.

Coworking helps occasionally. The Pool in Marbella (€50/day, inside El Corte Inglés El Capricho) or Innovation Campus in Málaga (€19+VAT/day, Calle Álamos 7) are helpful for a change of scene. But if your home setup works, you're not going to commute for the WiFi you already have.

The real gap is something else: repeated, low-friction encounters with people who think about building things. Not networking events. Not mixers. Not golf four times a week. Something that fits around school runs, client calls, and actual life.

We're mapping where readers actually are.

Reply with ZONE and your town—Marbella, Estepona, Málaga, Fuengirola, wherever.

When enough business-minded people cluster in the same area, we'll organise something simple. A 60-minute coffee. Eight people maximum. No pitches, no sponsors, no plus-ones. Everyone brings one operational question—something they're actually working through. Tax structure, contractor pipeline, cross-border contracts, whatever's live.

The format works because it's useful first and social second. You leave with something concrete. You see the same faces again in six weeks. Relationships form because you're actually helping each other, not exchanging business cards.

This isn't a product launch. We're just tired of the invisibility problem, and we think our readers might be, too.

If you want to get out of the house with family and maybe brush past some of the neighbours you don't know yet:

Cáritas Marbella Christmas Bazaar Palacio de Congresos, Avenida Juan Carlos I, Marbella December 11–14 | 12:00–21:00 | Free entry

The 20th edition. Over 100 stalls—clothing, crafts, food, decorations. Children's activities, face painting, and workshops. All proceeds to Cáritas. The crowd is mostly residents, not tourists. Worth a wander, and the kids will be occupied long enough for you to have an actual conversation with another adult.

San Pedro Christmas Market Calle Lagasca, San Pedro Alcántara Saturday, December 13 | Opens with dancers and live music

If you're on the west side, this is the lower-key option. Batucada drummers, choirs, and market stalls. The kind of thing where you bump into school parents and remember that your social circle could actually expand if you left the house occasionally.

Three to eight years in, and your network still feels thinner than it should. That's not a personal failing—it's a structural one. The Costa is full of people who think like you. The problem is visibility, not availability.

We're working on it. Reply ZONE and your town if you want in.

Enjoy the weekend — A. and super networking Waypoint Sur team

With Waypoint Sur, you can always expect plain-English guidance to land, settle, and thrive on the Costa del Sol—work, schools, healthcare, visas, taxes, home, and daily life.  
Made Mostly Under the Costa del Sol Sun. 💛