How this happened
Elysium started in Exeter, as Seb’s idea. The problem was simple. There were internationals everywhere and nowhere designed for them to actually meet each other. Nights out existed. Rooms you left with a new friend from did not. So we built those instead.
Marc joined and it moved to London. Same problem, bigger city. People arrive here for work or study, get busy, and their world narrows to the office and two friends from before. We build the room that widens it again. Ambitious, well travelled, and particular about where they spend a Saturday.
Trips are the same thing, further from home and for longer. A week in Mykonos with 21 people from ten countries, most of whom had never met. Six days does something a single night cannot. Half the group booked St Tropez together the following weekend. Cape Town is next.
Sebastian Hinckley
I was born in a small town in Maine to Finnish and American parents. Like most New England kids, I took up ice hockey early, and it soon became what I poured everything into.
After moving five times to chase that goal, I realised the only constant was the relationships I built with teammates along the way. New places never quite felt like home, but being surrounded by people chasing the same goal replaced that sense of instability. At 20, I left America to study in Exeter in the UK, once again leaving friends and family behind. By then, I was used to it. But after stepping away from ice hockey, I realised my stability, and the way I met people, had gone with it.
That's why my friends and I started Elysium Social Club. We saw countless international students in a new country without a place to call theirs and nowhere to share what we loved about meeting people at home. Four years later, we're still here. Different team, same values: bringing together people who never quite had a place to connect with others who share their interests. Because home was never the place. It was always the people.
Marc Livingston
I was born in South Africa and moved to Singapore at two. Six schools across three continents and three completely different cultures before eighteen. Always being the new kid teaches you to read a room fast, and every culture teaches you to read people differently. I use that every day. Whoever walks into an Elysium room, wherever they've come from, I can meet them there.
Elysium started in Exeter. I saw what happens when the right people end up in the same room: friendships, business partnerships, and a few moments that changed the course of someone's life. That's how I met Seb, and most of my closest friends.
My mom's golden principle was "manners maketh man", and that you should leave the world better than you found it. That's why I keep building: a place where people, and the connections between them, come first.
Tanaka Shoko
I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to the UK at twelve to attend boarding school. Growing up alongside people from different countries and cultures broadened my perspective and sparked an interest that continues to shape me today: bringing people together across backgrounds.
I’ve witnessed Elysium’s journey from small rooms in Exeter to the community it is today. Having seen it from the beginning, I feel personally connected to its roots and ambitious about what we can build next. I believe the best experiences create a sense of belonging and connections that continue long after an event ends.
Alongside Elysium, I work in private equity, and I bring that same commercial discipline, attention to detail and commitment to execution to the club. For me, building Elysium means putting my energy into something that reflects my own values: connecting people, creating lasting memories and delivering experiences people want to return to.