誓 The Gate

Lose your banner. Keep your sword.

HI Combinator is a founding-stage holding council, forged in Hawaiʻi: one guiding hand, one written code, and every house supplying the others from its first day. We take a guiding stake at the founding, put the whole council to work for your company, and train you until you are formidable. The standard is high and the hand is open. If both of those pull at you, this is your call.

Take the Trial Read the Terms

01 / 約 The Terms

Plain words,both directions.

What the council gives

The services of every house: Marketing, software development, hosting, domains, AI inference and more as the council grows, supplied to your company from day one at the price the world pays.
Capital: Set out in each house's founding agreement, and deployed where the work has earned it.
The shogun's direct guidance: A newly admitted founder builds as hatamoto, under the shogun's own banner, with a direct line for every hard decision.
The Dojo: The council's school: its playbooks, the lessons taught at every council, and the written post-mortem of every fall.
A seat at the hyojo: The quarterly council, in person, alongside every daimyo. Your seat stays yours if your house falls.

What the council asks

A guiding stake of 30 to 50 percent: Taken at the founding, before outside capital, and held for the long run. It buys a seat at your table, the right to set the standard, and the duty to guide.
The Code: Ten laws, the same for every rank, the shogun first. You bring your blade to every council, buy from the council first, charge the council what you charge the world, and raise the fire while it is small. Read the Code.
Cadence and accountability: Weekly numbers, quarterly hyojo, failures named first and in the open. Every consequence is sized to the breach and arrives with a plan for recovery the same day.

A strong share of a great company, built inside a council that buys what you make. That is the trade.

02 / 試 The Trial

Seven questions.Two answers each.

Both answers are honest ways to build a company, and each one leads somewhere real. Answer as you act on a hard Tuesday, and the Trial will show you which road is yours.

03 / 門 The application

Approachthe gate.

The council reads every word. Write the way you would speak at the hyojo: short, specific and true.

Your name As it appears on your company's papers.

Email Where the council answers you.

Your house The name of your company.

Where your house stands

What you are building, in one line One sentence a stranger understands on first read.

The service your house could supply the council Name the service, who in the council would buy it, and what it costs the world today.

Why you want a guiding partner What you want a 30 to 50 percent partner to bring to your table, and what you will hold yourself to in return.

Your blade A link to the thing you shipped: live product, repository, store page or customer case.

I have read the Terms and the Code, and I am applying on them.

Every application is read in full. Hard standards. Open hand.