Hub Coworking Hawaii

Hawai‘i's Best Coworking Space

Andrea Bertoli

Member Spotlight: Meghdad Abbaszadegan of Startup Grind

Today we’re sharing a Member spotlight featuring Meghdad Abbaszadegan. He’s the local Director for Startup Grind sponsored by Google for Startups. He’s coordinating an event next week featuring Jiwon Moon from Wefunder (the company we chose for our campaign). We chatted with Meghdad about his work with Startup Grind, his entrepreneurial background and about the coming event.

Click here to register for the event: Impact Hub HNL Members get a $5 discount with code: impacthubmember

What is your background and history – how did you get into your current role as a director for Startup Grind?

Back in 2014 I built a company in Phoenix, Arizona with a mission to create connected, collaborative communities; the project failed due to co-founder conflict, however, I got in contact with amazing organizations such as Startup Grind Phoenix. The local chapter helped us feel like we were part of a family. I was able to meet like minded people who are still to this day some of my closest friends. When I moved to Honolulu, I was surprised that there was no active Startup Grind chapter. So I decided to start one and give back to a community that gave so much to me.

Tell us more about Startup Grind: this organization promotes itself as ‘We are the community for the world’s entrepreneurs.’ – What does that mean for you as the director, for the Honolulu chapter, and for the global movement?

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community with over 500 chapters across the world. We have hosted amazing speakers like Clayton Christensen (Innovators Dilemma), Scott Cook (Intuit), Jessica Livingston (Y Combinator), Ben Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz) and more.

We believe our values have brought us this far. Relying on these values, I want to create a community where new ideas are generated and people are inspired to build meaningful projects together.

Tell us more about the events you’ve hosted here in Honolulu and the coming event with Jiwon. What are the goals and ideas we’re focused on and what can people expect from this event?

This chapter was inactive for two years, so this will be our first event. We want to document the process of entrepreneurship and highlight those who are active in the community. We love good stories that will inspire positive action in others. Our goal is to educate people on what it takes to build successful companies; ultimately spreading the entrepreneurship bug around leading to more inspiring stories.

We couldn’t have asked for a better speaker than Jiwon Moon for our first event. She is the Head of Community at Wefunder, running Workaway here in Hawaii! She has has hosted fireside chat with likes Nate Blecharczyk (Airbnb), Holly Liu (Kabam), Siri Srinivas (Draper Associates) and more via her accelerator XX.

We will be hosting Jules Sukhabut on July 18th. Jules Sukhabut is the Founder & Management Consultant of TeraVault, a boutique software development firm operating in Honolulu and Cebu. He has had multiple successful technology exits. He was a co-founder of OrderDynamics, an e-commerce SaaS platform and order management system. On May 2013 the company was acquired by eCommera, and acquired a second time in 2018 for $13.4 million by Tecsys.

Thanks, Meghdad, for sharing your thoughts! We’re looking forward to these coming events! 

Stories from the Raise: A Crowdfunding Showcase

Raising funds for your project, business, or launch is an exciting way to gather community support and bring in funds needed for your work. Crowdfunding allows everyone to support projects they love – promoting good work and democratizing investment for the 99%.

A few weeks ago we hosted a Crowdfunding Showcase to share some of the stories from local companies and organizations that have raised funds (or are currently raising funds) for their projects. There were brief presentations from the participating organizations, a panel discussion, and a time for Q&A.

Here are some takeaways from the presenters and their projects:

It takes a village, says Jim Murphy of Honolulu Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit housing developer committed to improving communities by increasing homeownership opportunities. They work with families and communities to build and repair homes and provides a zero interest mortgage. In addition, they work with the communities they serve to provide volunteer opportunities supporting the mission’s work. Their goal is to build 40 single family homes in the next 5 years. They have tried crowdfunding unsuccessfully in the past, and are looking forward to more strategic campaigns in the future. Jim said some of his crowdfunding efforts were ‘cautionary tales.’

Keep momentum going through the whole campaign. Plan ahead.

Mia Moore, is a local student that was just accepted into the Interlochen Arts Academy starting Fall 2019. This prestigious school has high tuition costs, and she’s raising funds on Go Fund Me to cover her school fees. She is currently at ~$4300 of her $28,000 goal.

Crowdfunding builds community, not just funds.

James Koshiba is volunteer co-founder of Hui Aloha and the Aloha Lives Here Campaign, which has been created to give Puuhonua O Waianae a permanent home. The campaign combines crowdfunding, major donors, and in-kind contributions to enable POW to acquire land and add permanent structures to what is already a model village community. Funding will also allow the village to test innovative technologies in housing, water, waste management, and agriculture. It will also enable the village to continue their outreach to other houseless communities, and provide lessons in modern-day village-building across Hawaii and beyond.

Innovate, but you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel.

David Aquino, is Blue Planet Foundation’s Creative Director, and has helped to grow their unique energy efficiency loan program called WeEfficiency. The program raises funds from the community for non-profits or schools to cover energy efficiency upgrades. These upgrades can be costly at the offset, but energy savings can be huge. With the money they save, they can pay back their donors and do more good work for their communities.

Don’t be afraid to get started.

Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin is a 7th grade teacher at the STEM Lab at Ilima Intermediate in Ewa Beach, Campbell/Kapolei Complex. Prior to teaching in Ewa Beach, she taught for 11 years in Houston, Texas. Sarah is a DonorsChoose Ambassador, personally earning over $15,000 in supplies for her students from DonorsChoose since 2007. She talked about how amazing the program is, and how it makes it easy for her to fund the things she needs to make her classroom a great place for her students and student groups.

Give back to your supporters.

We also heard from Nam Vu, co-founder of Impact Hub and ‘chief geeky officer.’ Nam talked about our experience with Wefunder, and why we chose this program for our investment campaign. Nam says that, “We chose Wefunder because it aligns with our community building focus and enables our community to invest in our success was well as benefit from our success.”

Thanks to all of those that presented at the event!

Death or Taxes?! How You can Plan for a Successful 2019 Tax Season

You’re probably familiar with the saying, attributed to Benjamin Franklin in 1789, that ‘nothing can be certain besides death and taxes.’

We are in the shadow of 2018’s tax season now, and based on conversations with friends and members, it certainly seems like most people still seem to treat taxes akin to death: something to be avoided and even ignored!

Yet, of course, paying our Federal, State, and for small business owners and freelancers, GET taxes in Hawaii, is something that we simply must do – even if many of us take to the task at the last minute, kicking and screaming.

Lucky for us, we have a tax expert at Impact Hub HNL that can help individuals, freelancers, and small businesses make sense of taxes and – gasp – even make it enjoyable (yes, really)!

Milton Drageset, who has been a guest speaker twice previously at Impact Hub HNL events, is coming back as the guest expert for our May Freelancer’s Network meeting. At this event, held Wednesday, May 22 from 12pm-1:30pm, Milton will offer a tax season roundup, a discussion about how to make your 2019 taxes more organized, and help you create better and more effective financial management strategies.

What else will Milton talk about during this Freelancer’s Meeting?

  • 2018 tax code changes: How did the 2018 changes affect both individuals and businesses?
  • How to plan ahead for 2019: How can you better strategize and organize your expenses. Tips to help you pay estimated taxes on time, organize your Hawaii GET filings, and better manage money so that you’re ahead of the game next tax season.
  • How many extensions he filed this year – and why. How late is too late to do your taxes? Many people wait until the very last minute to file – what is the psychology behind this type of procrastination, and what habits can you build to be more timely?
  • What’s behind money behaviors: Why are taxes are so scary, why we avoid them, and how you can cultivate a better relationship with money generally.

Miton has been working in the financial services industry for almost three decades. He currently works with self-employed individuals and small business owners for the preparation of their income taxes, and offers tax and business strategy services during the year to help individuals and businesses reduce their tax liability; he also offers financial coaching services to those looking to dig deeper into their money story.

An Opportunity to Invest in Impact Hub HNL

The Impact Hub team is so excited to announce the launch our crowdsourced debt investment campaign! You can see our campaign LIVE on WeFunder right now.

This campaign will allow anyone and everyone to invest into the coworking and community space that they love. The funds will primarily be used for our rapid expansion plans: we are growing beyond our Kaka’ako location to new locations on Oahu and eventually, to the neighbor islands – with a goal of 11 new Impact Hubs in the coming years. To get us started, we’ve just signed a lease on a new location in Hawaii Kai, with a tentative opening date of December 2019!

What’s Crowdsourced Investing?

Crowdsourced investing is a unique type of investment opportunity that allows non-accredited investors (ie: those without millions in their bank accounts) to invest in companies and teams that they love and want to help scale up.

Impact Hub Honolulu is running this type of campaign because it gives us a great opportunity to continue to build our network (in Hawaii and beyond) with a foundation of people and organizations that fully believe in our vision for a more interconnected Hawaii.

This type of crowdfunding allows investors to support us with any amount (our minimum is a $100 investment), and receive a return on the investment as we grow. Invested funds go right into the expansion of our network, helping to benefit our growing network and support our #StartupParadise.

Why are We Raising Funds?

We’ve had a busy few years. We started as the ProtoHub in 2014, and then we needed to expand beyond those walls. We were incubated at Sultan Ventures while we waited for our dream location at 1050 Queen Street – which is where we’re based currently. We opened our doors at this location in August of 2017 and have been moving along smoothly since then: we reached our membership goals a full quarter ahead of schedule, and we see a clear need to continue expansion and solidify our place as the leading coworking, community space and managed office provider in Hawaii.

As our Founding team wrote on our WeFunder page, “A diversified and collaborative future economy for Hawaii will provide more opportunities for success. We are helping to build this new world where we see everyone do well while doing good. Together, we can make Hawaii and the world a better place.”

How you Can Help Support Impact Hub HNL?

We have had many awesome community partnerships to help get us where we are today: the State of Hawaii gave us a generous Grant-in-Aid to help us get started in our current location, and the support we received over the years from our multiple Impact Partners has been invaluable to our success within the Hawaii innovation ecosystem.

Hosting a crowdfunding campaign allows our members, friends, and family to help support us, too. If investing isn’t in your budget at the moment, we’d be grateful for Facebook shares, likes, and tweets to friends and followers that would be interested in seeing us grow. Thank you for being a part of this with us!

Meet the Team: Prerna Kalra, our Marketing Intern

In this spotlight, we’re chatting with Impact Hub HNL intern, Prerna Kalra. Prerna has been interning with us since October 2018, and it’s been so valuable having her marketing expertise, design skills, and event planning experience on our team.

In addition to helping the team with our social media and events, she’s hosting a big event to bring Indian dance, music, and food to Honolulu! On May 18, our space will be transformed into an Indian dance party: Jai Ho! Bollywood Dance Night will happen on Saturday, May 18, at 6:30pm: everyone is welcome to listen to great music, enjoy Bollywood dance performance, and eat yummy Indian food.

Andrea Bertoli (AB): Tell me a little bit more about you – how did you find yourself in Honolulu?

Prerna Kalra (PK): When I met my husband in 2017, the last thing on my mind was to leave my job and family and move to a new country… But I told myself that not everyone gets the privilege of living the island life, so just after my wedding in 2018, I moved to Hawaii to create a bag full of new experiences, learnings, and memories – My Hawaii Diaries is what I call it. I moved here for six months, but the charisma of Hawaii held me back, and I am still here living the Aloha life.

AB: Can you tell me a little bit more about your background? 

PK: I am a marketing and sales professional with more than five years of experience across telecom and insurance industries, with a key focus on customer success, client management, business development, and revenue assurance. I hold a Master’s degree holder with a specialization in Marketing. Marketing is something that helps me open my creative mind, while my sales experience has enhanced my focus on the importance of relationship building and the hunger to achieve targets. When I move back to India, I want to explore more creative pursuits.

AB: What inspired you to host this coming event, and what can people expect from this type of dance party?

PK: I had a customer-facing role while I was working in India, however, event planning has always made me happy. Beginning from my school to my Master’s work, I worked with various clubs to host college festivals and events. Impact Hub HNL has given me an opportunity to explore these pursuits even more. I’ve been about learning various ways of hosting events and really digging deeper into my areas of interest in marketing and event planning. As I am originally from India, a common thread of conversation with people here in Hawaii has been about the craze for Bollywood music and Indian food, so that has been my inspiration behind organizing this event. I really want people to put on their dancing shoes and enjoy a festive evening celebrating Indian culture.

AB: What lights you up and brings your joy?

PK: The perfect idea of living life for me is to travel, explore, and network with people. I also have a strong pull towards theatre: I have five years of experience in the theatre, which has always brought me so much joy.  And my time in Hawaii has introduced me to my love for healthy cooking and teaching Bollywood dance to kids.

Register for the coming Bollywood event on May 18 here. Active Impact Hub HNL members get a discount using code MEMBER.

Thanks, Prerna, for taking the time to chat with us!

Building the Spa Business with our Neighbors, The Skin Institute Internationalé

One of Kakaako’s hidden gems is just upstairs from Impact Hub HNL. The Skin Institute Internationalé (TSII), a locally-based teaching spa and esthetician school, is on the third floor of our building. Their training programs are for new and experienced estheticians (think eyebrow tinting, facials, waxing) and help people of all ages start a business in the spa industry.

And the spa and wellness industry is nothing to dismiss: FastCompany explains that, “the wellness market, which encompasses everything from boutique fitness gyms to day spas, is now valued at a whopping $4.2 trillion, having grown 12.8% in the last two years. The industry now represents 5.3% of global economic output.”

If you or anyone you know wants to get into this industry, there is an easy opportunity just a few floors away from us!

TSII trains hundreds of students each year, and they offer their services at discounted rates to the community. Better yet, Hub members get an additional 20% discount on spa services, perfect as relaxation after a long day at work or if you need to treat someone special to some body care.

I chatted with Mary Ronnow, expert esthetician and Founder of TSII, to learn more about her thriving business and how she helps grow wellness businesses in the islands.

Andrea Bertoli (AB): Tell us a little more about your background and why you started an esthetics school?

Mary Ronnow (MR): I’ve been in the beauty and spa industry for over 40 years, and I’ve worked in every avenue of the industry. It’s an exciting multi-billion dollar industry that is always changing. I have had the great fortune to work with my three daughters who are, like myself, master estheticians. All of us are serial entrepreneurs – addicted to starting new businesses. We see opportunity everywhere- likely many Hub members can relate. My daughter Lierem and I saw a huge need for a thorough, sophisticated training in our industry on island, and we have been greeted with open arms – the business community of Hawaii has encouraged and support us over our first three years, helping us become the thriving company we are today.

AB: We love seeing that it’s a woman-owned business. Do you see any particular challenges to running your team? Has this changed over the years? Do you think it’s different than when you started your business years ago?

MR: How great are women-owned businesses? Not only do studies show that women-owned (or companies with women on their board) do better and create better outcomes, I get to work each day with my daughters – all compassionate, powerful women. Our team is all women, all dedicated to supporting the students in their learning environment.

There is a stereotype that it’s challenging to work with a team of all women, but there are not any particular challenges that I’ve found. Regardless of their gender, employees and team members want the same thing: recognition for their contributions, interesting creative work, and appreciation for a job well done. What I do think has changed is that most of the young women students don’t even know what the term ‘glass ceiling’ means–  which has been a long time coming!

AB: The school seems really active: about how many students do you train each month/year and what types of jobs will they get after they graduate your programs?

MR: We do have a lot of students coming and going! We train all ages, as the spa industry is a great career for the student who has tried college and found the traditional route didn’t fit them, or for mothers who have just put their youngest in school or their oldest is off to college – for all of them, now it’s time to do something for themselves.

Our students so highly trained when they graduate, they can essentially choose their own path and salary among the many options in this growing field. Each student is required to take Hawaii State board exams to become professionally licensed, and after that they can work for day spas, resort spas, medi-spas, or focus on back-of-house spa operations (accounting, education, and more). At least 30% of our graduates start their own businesses.

AB: What services do you think are the best options for our hardworking coworkers, and how can Impact Hub members enjoy these services?

MR: Impact Hub members are welcome to 20% off our elegant spa services at already extraordinary prices at our beautiful and calming spa – it’s a great way to treat yourself, a friend, or a coworker. Our pricing is an incredible value and we just love spoiling people. For the member discount, they just need to mention Impact Hub to receive the 20% off.

Learn more about TSII on Facebook or Instagram.