# Josh Ellis

> Josh Ellis is the Maui-based co-founder and CEO of Abra Hospitality, an AI guest-intelligence company built to help hotel teams remember what their guests have already told them. His route to hotel technology ran through philosophy at Colgate, restaurant work, a Colorado meditation retreat, management consulting, enterprise partnerships at Lyra Health, and a marriage to luxury hotelier Dana Ellis. Founded in 2025, Abra won the 2026 HITEC E20X People’s Choice Award and has expanded from a two-founder project with no paying customers to partnerships with independent hotels and multi-property groups.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Abra Hospitality
- **Organizations:** Abra Hospitality, Lyra Health, The Initiatives Group, Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, Maui Mindful Adventures, Blue Startups
- **Education:** Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Colgate University, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded Abra Hospitality in 2025., Won the 2026 HITEC E20X People’s Choice Award with Abra Hospitality., Selected as a 2025 Virtuoso Featured Startup.

## Career timeline

- **2011-2015** — Studied philosophy at Colgate University while also working in restaurants during high school and college.
- **Before 2019** — Helped open and then ran Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center in Colorado for a year; later worked in management consulting.
- **2019** — Moved from Manhattan to Maui with Dana Ellis in July.
- **2021-2023** — Founded and led Maui Mindful Adventures, offering donation-based mindfulness hikes and outdoor practices.
- **Before 2025** — Worked in partnerships at Lyra Health, selling six- and seven-figure enterprise technology agreements.
- **2025** — Co-founded Abra Hospitality with Dana Ellis; the company joined Blue Startups Cohort 17 and appeared as a Virtuoso Featured Startup.
- **2025** — Paul Dumais joined Abra as technical co-founder and CTO.
- **2026** — Abra won the People’s Choice Award at the HITEC E20X startup competition in San Antonio.
- **2026** — Abra announced broader hotel partnerships, including a brand-wide partnership with Staypineapple, and became a finalist for the Independent Lodging Congress Best Tech Innovation award.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Abra Hospitality in 2025.
- Won the 2026 HITEC E20X People’s Choice Award with Abra Hospitality.
- Selected as a 2025 Virtuoso Featured Startup.
- Selected for Blue Startups Cohort 17.
- Built Maui Mindful Adventures into a community listed with more than 650 members and 28 ratings on Meetup.
- Certified to teach mindfulness through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program associated with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Abra Hospitality was named a finalist for the Independent Lodging Congress Best Tech Innovation award.
- **2026-09** — Ellis was featured as a Hawaii Tech Week Investor Night panelist representing the founder perspective.
- **2026-08** — Abra announced a brand-wide partnership with Staypineapple and introduced its Sidekick browser extension publicly.
- **2026-08** — Ellis marked one year since Abra’s public introduction at Virtuoso Travel Week, reporting that the company had grown from two founders and no paying customers to a team serving hotels around the world.
- **2026-07** — Ellis appeared on The Modern Hotelier after Abra won the HITEC E20X People’s Choice Award.
- **2026-07** — Ellis and Dana Ellis spoke at Maui Tech 'Ohana about building an AI hospitality company from Maui.

## Links

- Website: https://abrahospitality.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-ellis1126/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/josh-ellis
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28