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In the quiet mountain town of Eden, Utah, a network of artists, activists, and Silicon Valley titans are building a global community for social entrepreneurs.

Began just eight years ago, a handful of young 20-somethings grew a tiny annual business conference into what is now a +$100M project to build a permanent city atop the largest ski resort in America, a global conference aimed at competing with Davos, and a network of satellite events in major cities across the world.

Summit Series’ long term goal is just getting started, but the impressive pace of the organization’s growth has convinced their star-studded network, including Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Virgin CEO Richard Branson, to help wrangle the resources for their outsized ambition.

At its simplest, Summit Series is an events business–a convener of like-minded folks who want to share experiences and ideas. But, it’s the organization’s unique customer base that makes it so distinct.

Before the likes of Schmidt and Branson were household names, they were young, eccentric, wide-eyed optimists trying to craft their vision of the world through risky, trailblazing businesses. Indeed, much has been written–and not all of it positive–about the growing ranks of self-described “world changers”, a label for utopian social entrepreneurs who aim for large scale impact through inventions, artistry, and policy.

Discovering a group of social entrepreneurs at the cusp of their rising success and designing events unique enough to sustain their divided attention takes a team of over 90 of full time employees. It’s how Summit Series gets a reputation for rather eclectic events programming, from tagging endangered sharks in the Caribbean to hosting talks on cognitive optimization technology on the top of the Utah mountains.

It’s a rather tricky customer base to satisfy. So, Summit Series’ business strategy is to redesign conventional meeting spaces, whether parks or conferences, for a new class of entrepreneur that craves novelty, impact, and self-improvement.

This post takes a dive into Summit Series long-term vision.

The confidence of pace

Summit series began just 8-years ago, when a DC-based owner of a real estate marketing and conference startup, Elliott Bisnow, cold-called his wish list of rising business stars and invited them to an all-expense paid retreat in Park City, Utah.

“I cold called and cold emailed people that I read about,” recalls Bisnow. “I didn’t know anyone or get invited to events and the idea that I could meet creative, entrepreneurially minded people was a huge idea.”

Six years ago when I first met Bisnow, he told that the inaugural event was a mad scramble to secure the location and resources at the same time as more attendees agreed to his invitation. It was a risky move. This kind of building-the-train-tracks-as-the-train-is-moving approach would eventually become a strategy for Summit’s more ambitious projects down the line and is important for why investors today have confidence in their larger vision.The original roster of attendees would eventually become a who’s who of millennial business magnates, including TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie.

The event was evidently a success, as positive word-of-mouth grew their annual reunion into a premier conference over the next 4 years, with at least a few thousand attendees every year paying over $3,000 a piece.

I first attended the year Bill Clinton spoke in 2010, and met Chris Sacca, a then-obscure tech investor with a penchant for cowboy clothing who would eventually become the investor with what is arguably the single most successful portfolio in all of Silicon Valley.

With a growing fan base and even wealthier attendees, the team decided to build a permanent home on the largest ski resort in the country, Powder Mountain, Utah, after their new partner, education venture capitalist, Greg Mauro, tipped them off to the land’s upcoming sale.

Summit needed to sell 40 plots of land at $1 million each for future home sites to seed their new city. It was an enormous risk; around 2012, many familiar with the situation were deeply skeptical and one team member privately described the negotiations as just barely meeting their sales goals.

But like in their first gathering, the ever-hustling team scraped by and announced the mountain project as final deals were being inked on paper. The mountain project now includes homes to be built by the likes of eccentric billionaire Richard Branson.

Once again, Summit Series has plans for conferences and real estate plays far bigger than its current capabilities, including building an entire new city and a conference that rivals Switzerland’s annual elite gathering, Davos. Their investors are betting that Summit’s promises can keep up their past growth.

“I’m very optimistic because of what they’ve done so far,” said Summit Series investor and founder of the invention prize competition group, X-Prize, Peter Diamandis. It’s appropriate to note that Diamandis has a similar story, as X-Prize’s initial funding came from an insurance company that bet it was impossible for anyone team to meet their first $10M competition of launching a commercial aircraft into space.

So, as this article describes the group’s outsized ambitions, it’s worth noting that their backers are a network of folks dedicated to these types of risky, ambitious bets.

Finding business partnership through friendship

Summit had an exceedingly simple theory from the beginning: the best business partners start as friends.

“We believe that the events and community have the maximum impact for our participants through a choose your own adventure, social and collaborative format, which is different from the traditional conference formats followed by most of our predecessors,” explains Summit Series Co-Founder, Jeff Rosenthal.

Even the most successful entrepreneurs fail a few times, yet networking conferences typically cater to folks who want to hand business cards to colleagues who can help them meet their immediate goals.

“I can’t think of the last time I’ve been to a traditional networking event,” says Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and co-creator of WordPress, a content management system that runs roughly 25% of the most visited websites on the Internet. “The generation of entrepreneurs that attends things like Summit approaches meeting people more from a place of open-mindedness and generosity, providing help where possible without the expectation of anything in return.”

In other words, the kind of ephemeral transactions of traditional conferences have less value for people who blur work/life balance and who need a network of support through all of their yet-to-be attempted ventures.

“Summit has traditionally attracted people who are looking to challenge the status quo. I’ve found the community built around Summit to drive a different level of “network” than the classic cocktail mixer and that certainly has been more valuable to me,” says Ryan Graves, Uber’s first CEO and current board member.

The theory goes that a friend who can engage in an inspiring discussion while willing to engage in novel recreation is worth (much) more than an email acquaintance.

“I found that the types of thought provoking events and discussions that the Summit team organizes really do curate the group well,” continues Graves. “[Film Maker] Jon Chu led a discussion on film and it’s place in driving change in the world… that prompt ended up as a powerful discussion on race, gender, and diversity in the industry. You don’t get that kind of honest discussion at any other event like this unless the community is as strong as Summits’.”

These carefully crafted events is why Summit appears to have been so successful simply by word of mouth.

A World’s Fair To Rival Davos

Summit’s hallmark product is an experience-driven conference. Their annual event will once again take place on a giant cruise ship, chock full of experiences led by up-and-coming figures who border the line between mainstream acceptance and fringe avant-garde.

For instance, this year, Wim Hof will lead a famous class on ice-cold water immersion, which is increasingly becoming popular among self-improvement junkies for its impacts on disease resistance and athletic recovery. Hoff’s shivering strategy would have been dismissed as quackery, were it not for an academic study published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found Hoff’s students could (surprisingly) consciously control their autonomic nervous system.

In this way, Summit’s conference series is a kind of 21st century World’s Fair of experiences, showcasing an exhaustive and eclectic buffet of contemporary trailblazers in a variety of fields who have a particular appeal to young entrepreneurs, much like the 1915′s famous fair helped revitalize San Francisco as an epicenter of new ideas.

“Summit is a multi-disciplinary gathering of thought leaders and innovators, from every imaginable background and focus,” says Rosenthal.

As with most conferences, Summit entices potential guests with headline acts: last year, Google’s Eric Schmidt conducted a rare interview of Uber’s Travis Kalanick on the future of transportation. Both Kalanick and Schmidt were spotted wandering around the ship, chatting up attendees for the weekend at sea.

Satellite lesser-known, but still notable names, also pepper the conference. This year up-and-coming dancer, Lil Buck, will reprise his unique combination of classical ballet and Tennessee street-style “jookin”, which he hopes can illustrate the creativity hidden in impoverished communities (below is video of Buck performing with Violinist YoYo Ma).

These artists compliment bigger names, such as Grammy award-winning artist Kendrick Lamar, who recently agreed to speak on the cruise.

But, unlike a traditional world’s fair, there are no booths hawking products: speakers and performers are selling ideas and experiences.

2016 will be the final journey of the cruise ship, as it’s being transitioned into a much more ambitious conference to rival Davos. Details are still scant, but Summit hopes to significantly ramp up the number of star attendees and turn it into a global summit for world-changing ideas.

Summit Town, USA and My Own Experience.

The keystone of Summit’s vision is a permanent settlement nestled an hour north of Salt Lake City in Eden, Utah, built on top of the largest ski resort in the country, Powder Mountain. A trial of eco-friendly, biophilic architecture homes will surround a brand new city if shops, hotels, parks and schools in the image of the company’s utopian ideal.

The goal is a retreat for social entrepreneurs: the ultimate long-term getaway for those looking to finish a creative project or find their new calling. Why wouldn’t wealthy folks just hole up in a quiet lodge in the woods for some uninterrupted self-reflection, instead of coming to a Summit’s city?

“When I get time off I’m looking to creatively recharge, Summit does a great job of creating events and curating groups that are fun, challenging, and holistic in the sense they are good for your heart, soul, and brain,” explains Mullenweg.

Summit’s theory is that surrounding oneself with an eclectic mix of like-minded free spirits is a much more productive, creative experience than solitude in a distant cabin cut off from society.

So does it work as intended?

I can speak to my limited experience with their early prototype. I was intrigued enough to test out their theory, and spent about two weeks last Summer finishing up a book project. Every morning, I’d wake up and tour the mountain vistas, then get a good chunk of my most difficult writing done for an hour or two.

The nice thing about the Summit experience is that instead of being alone, I refreshed my brain with novel experiences, in between bouts of isolated creativity. Instead of a cramped gym, I might try a new adventure exercise. For instance, during one visit, I helped world-renowned land artist Simon Beck create a massive snow mandala by carefully stomping snow in geometric patterns only discernible from a bird’s eye view. The hike was a workout and oddly meditative, as attendees worked in tandem to methodically walk in Beck’s outline (image below):

That was just during the week. On weekends, I’d meet hundreds of other members of the community, all taking their own mini-retreat. Over hikes and multi-course dinners (made by their Gordon Ramsey-trained chef, Haru Kishi), I’d converse with others about ideas in my book.

The constant flow of people open to new ideas was inspiring and gave me confidence that my ideas were not so crazy.

The product, that I ended up publishing, a short visual table of contents, during my stay ended up being much more popular than I expected and helped shape the book’s initial rollout.

I was not the only person seeking a creative breakthrough. During my time there, I got to know Zach Allia, a successful internet founder who was taking an early retirement. Allia had a side passion for photography, which became so popular it was labeled by Buzzfeed in their list of Instagram accounts that will “make you want to travel”. Allia eventually turned into a professional photography business.

For myself, Allia, and others, Summit appears to show promise. The mix of nature, novelty and community is a nice retreat to work on big new ideas.

Now Summit wants to broaden the city’s reach to include even those who don’t have an exclusive invite. So, it started to ink deals with major hotel chains allowing anyone to schedule a weekend in the mountains.

“Summit will still continue to host some invitation-only events in our future village, however we’re much more interested in seeing what will grow from the platform of a physical community through what others will bring to it,” concludes Rosenthal.

“I guess when we looked at the Summit Powder Mountain project, we realized that something that only would benefit a small group of people wouldn’t be worth the life’s work that we knew would go into the building of this town, its values and its culture.”


The final and still conceptual leg of Summit’s grand vision is a network of self-sustaining communities in major cities around the world. Their recently released Atlas mobile app offers previous attendees subscription-based access to an on-going series of smaller events throughout the year.

In essence, Summit is building out their own fully integrated social network, as the glue for their expanding community (which the company estimates at around 10,000 people).

Community, then, is an actual product; for entrepreneurs who make their living off of meeting new people with novel ideas, it’s a price they are evidently happy to pay. Atlas plans to roll out in 2017.


Summit Series is very a much a 21st Century story of hustle and optimism. It hopes to be a modern version of places like Sundance and Aspen, which were also designed to bring an eclectic mix of trailblazing entrepreneurs together.

Summit, imbued with the modern values of Silicon Valley and digital activists, brings with it even bigger and more inclusive ambitions than its predecessors. It is a story yet to be told. But, if its brief history is any indication, we could be witnessing the birth of a new city and community that helps shape the rest of this Century.

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