Billionaire Larry Ellison Is Teaming Up With Steve Jobs' Former Doctor To Launch A Mysterious Wellness Company On His Private Island

Erin Brodwin

Billionaire Larry Ellison is teaming up with Steve Jobs' former doctor to create a mysterious new wellness company.

• The company, called Sensei, will start with food grown and harvested on Lanai, the Hawaiian island Ellison owns.
• Eventually, Sensei will also offer other practical goods and services aimed at helping people live healthier, longer lives.

The Hawaiian island of Lanai is billionaire Larry Ellison's oyster.

After purchasing the island for $300 million in 2012, the Oracle founder has now announced plans to transform it into a giant experiment for his new business — a mysterious consumer wellness company aimed at giving people simple, practical solutions for living more healthily.

The new company, called Sensei, was announced by company president Daniel Gruneberg during a 10-minute pitch at the Fortune Brainstorm Health conference in Laguna Niguel, California.

Gruneberg, an East Coast native who founded a travel startup that was acquired last year, sat down with Business Insider to discuss some of Sensei's details, which are still sparse.

Sensei is starting its journey into health with food. The company will begin growing produce on Lanai with heirloom, organically-farmed fruits and vegetables like Black Trifele tomatoes and Komatsuna mustard greens.

The company will use hydroponics and solar power (via a partnership with Tesla) to slash energy and water usage, which it claims will be only a fraction of what other farms use. The food will be sold to restaurants and eventually to retailers under the Sensei Farms brand.

"We'll tell you the story about the produce," Gruneberg said.

A no-nonsense approach to health

The son of a nutritionist and graduate of Fordham University, Gruneberg struggled for years with his weight and a general feeling of being unwell.

Last year he met Ellison and David Agus, the company's other co-founder and a Los Angeles-based cancer doctor. Agus also co-chaired the conference where Gruneberg delivered the new company's pitch.

The idea of offering up practical health advice was naturally appealing to Gruneberg.

"People have a really hard time caring about their future selves," Gruneberg told Business Insider.

Agus, meanwhile, has made a reputation for himself as a celebrity doctor who once treated Steve Jobs.

He has a no-nonsense approach to general health and wellbeing which involves eating fish; skipping shortcuts like vitamins, juices, and detoxes; and incorporating regular exercise, along with positive psychology and meditation, into daily life. All of these staples are generally regarded as the best ways to quickly and immediately improve health.

Given the strong role of diet in overall wellness, it makes sense that Agus' new company is focusing first on food.

Although Sensei's initial offerings will be focused on fruits and vegetables, Ellison has previously discussed the idea of farming fish on the island, as well using aquaponics — an alternative to traditional farming which, like hydroponics, uses less water and fewer resources.

Pineapple Island has a long history

Ellison is not the first wealthy white man to use Lanai as a farming hub.

In 1922, American industrialist James Drummond Dole purchased most of the island and recruited laborers from the Philippines and Japan who worked long, hard days earning low wages. By 1930, their labor allowed Lanai to export 65,000 tons of pineapples a year, earning the island the nickname "Pineapple Island." Some of their descendants still live on the island; many work in the service industry.

But many of them have emigrated elsewhere.