Our Story
Some places are built. This one was meant to exist.
In 2020, Mike Gentile, founder and CEO of CISOSHARE, bought a building at 1315 N. El Camino Real in San Clemente. He arrived with a vision for a space where innovation, talent, and community could collide. He didn't know it yet, but the building already had a history that would shape everything.
The History
Built on a legend. Building for what's next.
This site was once home to surf visionary Dale Velzy's legendary surf shop. One of the most influential figures in surf history, retail and marketing , Velzy opened one of the first surf shops in the world at this address.
Velzy didn't set out to build a culture. He just built things he believed in — surfboards, community, craft — and a culture formed around him. What Velzy understood is that when you create the right environment and fill it with people who care about what they're building, something bigger than any one person takes shape.
That's the energy The Visionary was built to carry forward.
All we're trying to do is replicate that feeling. That dreamer-friendly environment where the right people, in the right space, build something bigger than themselves.
“When you create the right environment and fill it with people who care about what they're building, something bigger than any one person takes shape.”
Why San Clemente
The surf ghetto. The innovation capital.
One of the most innovative places in the world, San Clemente's surf ghetto is where beauty, talent, and community come together to create conditions for greatness. The kind of place where craftspeople, athletes, artists, and makers share the same streets and the same stoke. Where creativity flows as naturally as the tide.
The Visionary was created to be worthy of that legacy and to make sure that talent comes here, grows here, and builds something lasting.
The Philosophy
Structure and creative play.
San Clemente produced great innovators because the environment delivered proper aspects of discipline, freedom and community. The same principle that shapes the world's best soccer players, where structured training and unstructured creative play work together to develop something no playbook can produce on its own. The Visionary was built around that same principle.
Every space in this building is intentional. The levels, the environments, the connection points were all designed to put you in the right state of mind for the work you're doing when you need isolation and with access and support to the right people when you need them. By yourself when you need focus. In community when you need collision. Always with the support structure to move forward.
You need structure to deliver. You need freedom to create. The Visionary gives you both.
“Everyone is a visionary in their own life. Everyone has something new they're trying to bring into the world.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions, answered.
The Visionary is a new kind of innovation center and workspace at 1315 N. El Camino Real in San Clemente — built for the next generation of doers, builders, and dreamers who want more than four walls and a Wi-Fi password.
Find your vision here