Technology Entrepreneurship — Adventure Sports — Human Performance
The Holokai Silicon Valley Adventure House is where technology meets adventure. John Seely Brown and John Hagel, in The Power of Pull, describe how the culture of technology and the culture of extreme/adventure sports share many characteristics (competition, collaboration, innovation, information sharing).
Holokai Adventure House is Robert Lee and Aaron Culliney.
HOLOKAI means JOURNEY or ADVENTURE in Hawaiian (literally, “ocean voyage”).
Hawaii is to ocean sports (surfing, kiteboarding) as Silicon Valley is to technology. The analogy is so plain and strong that we need not elaborate.
We believe in technology entrepreneurship, and life, as a journey. We seek it out, both for the experience itself, and as a means of improving the human condition and experience. We don’t believe in technology for technology’s sake, or as a means of becoming SUPER human, but MORE human. Technology enables the collective human voyage of discovery.
We are old-school technologists:
We were coding, pouring test tubes, and playing with cell cultures before they were mainstream / glamorized.
…back in the 20th century
…before August 9, 1995 (study your ancient history)
…at Punahou (Barack O’s high school) and the Ivy League
…before billion dollar investment valuations and infinite acquisition multiples. Before geek was chic. Which means…
We are not, and never will be, cool:
We’d rather go to a lecture on the problems with industrial agriculture, read a book by James Gleick, or hike the Nā Pali coast than go clubbing or bar hopping. We are thoughtful, humanist, and in extroverted, with perhaps a bit of an adrenaline addiction…
We work hard on things that matter:
We have real experience in technology, entrepreneurship, academia and sports science.
We push our boundaries outside of work:
On Maui, the Big Island of Hawai’i, and California.
If you have’t guessed by now, we are old (at least by Silicon Valley standards):
Though we run and jump and swim like the college athletes we once were, we’re both over 35 (a tough thing to admit in the most ageist culture on around (other than the California antipodes, Los Angeles).
We believe in a robust singularity:
We believe in and are optimistic about a future of abundance for all, but not as a shiny, pill-popping, technological singularity. Perhaps it’s the adrenaline tinting our glasses, but, we see a future that allows us real and authentic human experience. Not a trans-humanist future where we necessarily live forever, but a future that allows us to be robust and active into old age. A furture where we can ridge-soar Olympus Mons on vacation, and come back to an Earth with a healthy biosphere and equality of opportunity.
Come live with us.
Holokai Silicon Adventure House is a subset of the SU (Singularity University) Villa in Atherton, CA
Learn about our Adventure Projects
Attend one of our lectures
- Technology Entrepreneurship, e.g., FitBit
- Adventure Sports, e.g., Naish Kitesurfing
- Human Performance, e.g., Stanford Human Performance Lab
Come on an adventure
- Kitesurfing clinics & long-distance crossings
- Local food foraging
- Breathhold survival classes
Have your sports/health tech company apply for angel investment or incubation
- Sports + tech accelerator
SV Accelerator 