Michael Schwab spent years keeping his portfolio and his interests separate. A nudge from his father changed everything.
Michael Schwab had been investing since he was a teenager—venture capital by 18, his own firm by 30—but for years, he treated surfing, wellness, and adventure as hobbies, not opportunities. That shifted in 2012, when his father, Charles Schwab, pushed him to put his money where his passions were. Schwab took the advice seriously. Over the decade that followed, he built Big Sky Partners into a firm that backs wave basin communities, boutique surf resorts, and clean energy infrastructure, helping to define an asset class that barely existed when he started.
Eva Crouse: You founded Big Sky Partners in 1999—well before lifestyle-driven and sports-anchored assets were mainstream. Looking through your career, it’s clear you have a talent for identifying these opportunities early. What do you think you’re able to see that other people aren’t?
Michael Schwab: It’s interesting. I really focus on what has excited me over the years. I got into investing early—my dad taught me how to buy stocks when I was 12, and we dabbled in a little venture capital when I was about 18. I had a successful investment at around 21, and I thought, I really like venture capital. So I started focusing on things that genuinely excited me. My father has been a huge inspiration. So much of what he’s done and taught me comes down to people—find great people to invest in, find things that excite you, and make sure you have great operators running them.
In terms of identifying those great people, what are the character traits you look for in someone you’re considering investing in?
Experience, for one. I feel like I’m a pretty good reader of people in general. It really comes down to an innate sense of: Do I believe in this person? Do I believe they can execute? And do I want to spend time with this person? That last one is a big factor for me.
Your portfolio spans venture capital, clean energy, logistics, infrastructure, and experiential real estate. What underlying thesis connects those investments, and how does Nihi Rote fit into that broader strategy?
I just want to make the world a better place. I want my children to live somewhere amazing and to experience amazing things. My filter is really: Do I want to live in a world with clean energy? Do I want to live in a world where communities are built around adventure sports? Adventure, wellness, and community—that’s a big focus for me.
When did those passions—surfing and sports—start for you? Where did that come from?
I actually wasn’t very athletic growing up, believe it or not. I don’t think I had a gym membership before I was 30. I played baseball, soccer, tennis, and a lot of golf growing up, but I wasn’t a surfer. I barely learned at 16 and didn’t really get back into it until I was 30.
Did something switch when you hit 30? Like you decided you wanted to take care of yourself differently?
I was living in San Francisco, had a restaurant and bar, and wasn’t living the healthiest lifestyle. I was sick of San Francisco, so I moved down to LA. Early on, I met an amazing trainer and committed to him five days a week. I went from about 217 pounds to 175 pounds in basically a year. I started spending more time near the water and a lot of time in Hawaii each Christmas. A good friend of mine, T-Bear, saw where my head was at and kind of took me under his wing. We started training together, he took me to Tahiti for the first time, and I just fell in love with surfing. It gave me a real sense of purpose.
The finance and investing side—that was something my father had been teaching me from a young age, and I was passionate about it. But I wasn’t really pursuing what lit me up personally. That changed when I turned 30.
Then in 2012, my dad said to me, “Why don’t you invest in what you’re passionate about?” I thought that was kind of crazy coming from him—he was 75 at the time and had never surfed in his life. I’d always been a little afraid to go down that road because I assumed he wouldn’t look favorably on it. But he’s a deeply passionate person and really believes in following what drives you. That was the moment I finally committed to it. And here we are, almost 20 years later.
Happy belated 50th, by the way! I’d love to dig into that a bit more. Our audience is comprised of high-net-worth individuals, and our motto is “Worth Beyond Wealth”—it’s about using power and influence to make the world a better place. I think a lot of people struggle to balance passion against the credibility and stability of safer investments. What’s your mindset around making that leap of faith?
I’ve always been a bit of a risk taker—high risk, honestly. Once I start on something, I commit. I didn’t know if any of these projects would turn out to be successful. I just went for it.
Can you tell me a little more about the Kelly Slater Wave Company and what drew you to that investment?
Every surfer in the world dreams of an artificial wave—press a button, perfect wave, anytime you want. Because waves only show up when conditions are right, and that’s not always when you are. I met Kelly Slater around 2010, and he showed me what he was working on. I was getting deeper into surfing, I loved technology, and the combination was just really compelling to me. I told him if he was ever looking for investors, to let me know.
Around 2013—right after that conversation with my dad—Kelly came to me and said he was looking for capital. We did the deal. Then about a year later, we realized we were trying to sell this technology to developers, but nobody was going to build a wave pool without a working prototype. So we said, forget it—let’s just build one. We went out to the Central Valley of California, bought a small piece of land, and started building what is now known as Surf Ranch. We didn’t have all the money we needed, and honestly, we didn’t know if it would work. If it didn’t, we were going to bury the whole thing in sand. Kelly didn’t want his name on substandard technology.
We built it in 2014–2015, turned it on at the end of 2015, and it worked. It basically broke the internet for about a week. Every surfer on the planet saw it.
Back when breaking the internet still meant something—before it just became a daily occurrence.
Exactly. So after that, I’m looking at this thing thinking—I grew up around golf course communities and country clubs. Why not a wave basin community? I’d love to have a home next to a wave I could surf anytime I want. That idea really took root.
I started networking and in April 2016 I found a great group of guys—Graham, Garrett, and Noah from Meriwether. Graham came from Discovery Land Company, Noah is a heavy finance guy, Garrett is construction and entitlement. They had a lot of real estate development experience, just not in the adventure sports world I was envisioning. I sat down with them, shared my ideas, and we started working together from there.
So you met 10 years ago this month. How much has grown from that partnership?
I’m actually sitting in our partner meeting right now—they just stepped out to lunch. It’s crazy how much has developed. We have Cabo Real Surf Club, which is a partnership with the Sanchez Navarro family in Cabo. We’re building an artificial wave, 250 homes in the first phase, a beach club, mountain bike trails, pump tracks for skateboarding, and a full health and wellness component. We’ve sold $200 million worth of real estate in the last 18 months down there—which is really exciting. We honestly didn’t expect to see that level of sales before the wave basin was even finished, and it won’t be completed until November of this year.
Are you selling land or built homes?
Both. We’re selling lots, completed casitas, and for the lots we offer a design program—or buyers can go fully custom on the estate lots with their own builder and design. We’ve also created casita products for both projects: three-bedroom units that we build and deliver as a complete package.
What nationality is your primary buyer demographic?
Americans, primarily. Close to 100%.
The culture around golf communities is very specific—and I mean that in the sense that it doesn’t fit everyone. It can feel like a prescribed lifestyle. What was it about that world that worked for you, and what drew you toward building community around surfing instead? They’re pretty different vibes.
Growing up around golf courses and country clubs, I get why people love it. But when I look at where golf originated—Scotland and Ireland—clubs used to shut down on Sundays, and the whole community would walk across the course. Even during the week, there were trails where golfers were warned to watch out for people passing through. Golf started as a community thing.
In the United States, it evolved into something more elitist—fenced off, members only, be quiet because someone’s lining up a putt. When I sat down with David McLay Kidd to design the Coral Mountain Golf Course, he described exactly this evolution. I told him my dream was to have a wave basin golf course with trails, skateboarding, and mountain biking woven into the course. He loved it. Both Cabo and Coral Mountain will now have surf and golf, and we’re deliberately designing a more relaxed, community-centered version of the sport.
Can you tell me a little more about Nihi Rote—what that project is and what it means to you?
Absolutely. What we were attempting was geotextile bags filled with sand—but unfortunately that’s not a reliable model. On sandy bottoms, they get undermined and fall apart, and your $3 million perfect wave is gone. That business was really tough. But I kept working with the group. The following year I came back for the same trip with friends, and I suggested Panji and Greg come down to Rote with us—neither of them had ever been to the island. When we arrived, the local mayor, police, everyone showed up to the airport. I had no idea what was going on. Anyway, we connected with the mayor, and Panji asked if there was any land in the area worth developing. They mentioned a beach called Boa. I said, I know Boa—I’ve been surfing there. It was a beautiful beach, but completely bare—like a desert, not a single tree. We ended up leasing land from the government for the first five or six years without doing much with it. It was right in front of a beautiful surf break, and I knew we’d eventually do something there. I just wasn’t ready—I didn’t have the confidence or the capital to commit yet.
It wasn’t until 2019 that we connected with Nihi. Nihi is a hotel on the island of Sumba—formerly known as Nihi Watu. Chris Burch, Tory Burch’s ex-husband, bought it in 2012, put $30 million into it, and it was voted the number one hotel in the world by Travel + Leisure readers in 2016 and 2017. It’s this extraordinary jungle resort on the water with a beautiful left-hand surf break.
We started talking to them, showed them the land—250 miles south of Nihi Sumba—and they were interested. I’d actually already built a villa, a small restaurant, and a pool on the property a couple years prior, but I’d never spent a single night in any of it. It was just my desire to get something moving, without a serious plan or operator behind it.
In 2019 we started working with Nihi formally. They proposed coming in as a sub-brand, which made sense—Nihi Sumba was getting $2,000 a night, and we didn’t think we could get anywhere close to that initially. Then in 2020 we started construction. We’ve since bought the 60 acres surrounding the original five or six, and we’re now about 95% finished. We ended up dropping the sub-brand concept and are calling it Nihi Rote.
One of the first things we did was start a nursery—led by Chris Brumswith—and today we’ve planted over two million plants, all locally sourced from neighboring communities. A lot of developers in Indonesia just barge plants in from Bali, and half die in transit and half die once they get there because they’re not suited to the local environment. We did the opposite: go local, grow local.
What impact are you hoping Nihi Rote will have on the surrounding Indonesian community?
The biggest thing is the hospitality academy we’ve started. The village of Boa has around 1,200 people, and there just aren’t many jobs or opportunities. Education often ends before or during high school. James McBride from Nihi came up with the idea—inspired by the Sumba Foundation, which Nihi Sumba started to address malaria and fresh water access on that island. I wanted to do something similar for Rote, and the hospitality academy was the answer.
We’re now three classes in. Each class has about 20 students
the surrounding villages—Boa and two others nearby. We teach them English, front-of-house and back-of-house skills, landscaping, security, boat handling—whatever is relevant. We’re giving them life skills and real credentials they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Students are compensated with food and travel during the program. Once they graduate and take a real job with us, they’re paid like any other employee. We don’t hire all of them—many go on to find work in Bali, Coupang, Jakarta—but they go with skills they never would have had before.
I want to be mindful of your time, but I do want to end with a question we ask everyone. Our motto, as I mentioned, is “Worth Beyond Wealth.” What does that mean to you?
Worth is what you create in life. My father built a company that gave everyone access to what was once reserved for the privileged. That is worth, to me. I’m trying to do something similar—clean, abundant energy for all; resort communities that bring people closer to nature and sport; wellness for all; giving back to the local communities and employees who make everything possible. Wealth only matters if it enables long-lasting impact. I want to leave the world a better place—and I want to have fun doing it.
Thank you so much for your time, Michael. Really cool, unique ideas that are actually getting executed and pulling more people into the wellness space.
Thank you so much, Eva. I really appreciate it—and thank you for thinking of us.
