01
Distance
Leaving home creates psychological space. Parents and emerging adults step outside routine, roles and old scripts.
Japan · parent + emerging adult · 16–20
A shared rite of passage before life pulls you in different directions.
Threshold is a premium, limited-cohort Japan expedition for parents and young adults standing at the edge of a new relationship.
Pilot cohort
10 parent–young adult pairs
A founder-led demand test for Canadian families
Not school. Not tourism.
A high-trust experience for a relationship in transition.
At 16, 18 or 20, your child is no longer simply a child. They are becoming an adult with their own instincts, ambitions, taste, fears and private world.
Threshold uses Japan as a cinematic setting for something rare: distance from everyday roles, carefully designed intensity, and conversations that can change how parent and young adult see each other.
This is built for people who have achieved a great deal and now understand that the scarcest asset is not money. It is meaningful time with the people who matter.
Tokyo
The future is not theoretical here.
Robotics, AI, gaming, design, density and youth culture create a backdrop for questions most families rarely ask directly: What kind of adult are you becoming? What world are you entering? What do we need to release?
The architecture
A premium expedition with emotional design.
The itinerary is intentionally restrained: fewer places, better encounters, more space to absorb what is happening.
02
Intensity
Tokyo’s velocity, Japan’s rituals and selected encounters make the journey feel consequential without becoming performative.
03
Conversation
Guided prompts and private reflection moments help families say the things daily life makes easy to postpone.
Kyoto · craft · continuity
Transformation often arrives quietly.
A country of precision, restraint and beauty becomes a mirror: for ambition, attention, independence, patience and the kind of adult life worth building.
Why this exists
Designed by someone who has spent a career around technology, founders and transformation.
Threshold is led by Jean-François Ouellet, professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at HEC Montréal, one of Canada’s leading business schools.
An MIT graduate, entrepreneur and long-time advisor to entrepreneurs and technology companies, Jean-François has been working around startups, technological disruption and founder ambition since before the dot-com bubble.
For more than a decade, he has designed and led high-intensity international experiences for graduate-level cohorts. Threshold brings that same ability to curate people, places and moments — but shifts the purpose from business insight to personal transformation.
HEC MontréalProfessor of innovation & entrepreneurship
MITGraduate-level training and global technology perspective
25+ yearsStartups, technology companies and entrepreneurial ecosystems
Who it is for
For parents who have built things — and now want to protect what matters most.
The first cohort is designed for accomplished Canadian parents, especially founders, executives, investors and technology professionals, travelling with a 16–20-year-old son or daughter who is beginning to step into adulthood.
Pilot cohort · Japan
Request an invitation.
This is a demand test for a limited first cohort. Share your details and we will follow up personally.
No payment is collected here. This is an expression of serious interest.