火 A founding-stage holding council · Honolulu · Tokyo
The council is the first soil: marketing, domains, hosting and AI inference, supplied to every house from day one. We take a guiding stake at the founding, bind your company into the council, and train you until you are formidable.
01 / 志 The Vision
HI Combinator forges a council of companies before the first outside dollar arrives: each one supplying the others, each one led by a founder made formidable.
We take a guiding stake at the founding, make every company a supplier to the council, and train every founder until they are formidable. We build, grow and learn together, and we hold the line on the standard.
The founding houses are the founder's own companies, built with their partners. The guiding stake applies to every founder admitted from here.
02 / 鍛 The Spectrum
An idea becomes a company.
A young company is pressed to speed in a few months.
Outside capital buys minority stakes, round by round.
Proven companies scale with larger minority capital.
Owners take control of mature companies and drive them.
The company opens its ownership to the public.
Ownership and guidance arrive late. We bring them first.
Read the road on two axes and the pattern appears: the deepest commitment from an owner comes only once a company is mature. HI Combinator takes a 30 to 50 percent stake at the founding, before outside capital, and stays. We hold the corner the rest of the road leaves open.
Heat. Hammer.Quench.Temper.
03 / 結 The Model
We take 30 to 50 percent at the founding, before outside capital, while the value of a company still reflects the work ahead. The stake is held for the long run. It buys a seat at the table, the right to set the standard, and the duty to guide.
Every company in the council supplies one service the others need: digital marketing, software development, web hosting, domains, AI inference, and more as the council grows. Each new house opens with the council as its first market.
Every house buys from the council first. Every sale makes the supplier stronger, a stronger supplier serves every house better, and each house that takes root becomes ground for the next.
Education is the core of the machine. Each leader teaches their craft to the council, each failure becomes a lesson, and each rank is earned by what a founder delivers and what they pass on.
04 / 輪 The Flywheel
This is how new land forms in Hawaiʻi. The first life on fresh lava, ʻōhiʻa lehua and ʻāmaʻu fern, roots on bare rock and makes the soil everything after depends on.
Every company we forge becomes soil for the next one. A new house opens with marketing, domains, hosting and AI inference already supplied, and with the council as the first market for what it makes.
Every house buys from the council first · Every sale makes the supplier stronger · Every house becomes soil for the next
05 / 議 The Council
Each company is a house. Each house has a leader. All houses meet in council, under a written code and a rank earned in service.
Sets the standard, convenes the council, holds the guiding stake in each admitted house.
Elder counsel. Their service has carried a new house to revenue.
Commands a house. Three houses in council run on their service.
A newly admitted founder, building under the shogun's own banner.
06 / 律 The Code
At every hyojo, lay one forged artifact on the table before you speak: a thing that shipped, went live and is used by someone other than its maker.
Every hyojo opens with each daimyo naming the sharpest failure of the season, and only then may wins be spoken.
Asking for help is free, scheduled and expected. Silence while a fire spreads is the offense, and the fire itself is forgiven.
07 / 将 The Founder
Darshaun Nadeau came to Japan as a student and entered the Japanese internet in 1999. In 2001 he founded Solis, a Tokyo domain registrar that GMO Internet acquired in 2005. He has built and run companies across Japan and Hawaiʻi ever since.
The standard is high and the hand is open. Seven questions show you which road is yours. Take the Trial, then approach the gate.