Blog

One Week Left to Invest in Impact Hub HNL!

July 30, 2019

By Nam Vu

Over the past two months we’ve been surprised and delighted with the amount of support that our friends, Members, and partners have shown for our Wefunder investment campaign.

Not only did you invest $150,000 into our growth, you supported us via social media, by telling your friends, by coming to our Hawaii Kai location sneak peek event, and so much more. All of your support tells us we’re on the right path towards building a more interconnected Hawaii with our new locations. These new locations will help us expand our network of resources for entrepreneurs, startups, freelancers, and the broader business community, fostering #StartupParadise here in the islands. Thank you for being a part of it.

We have just about a week left on our Wefunder campaign – so this is the crunch time. If you have not yet been able to invest, now is the time to do so. We are grateful for any level of investment you can offer (the minimum is $100). The funds will be used to build out our new Hawaii Kai location and beyond.

If you cannot invest at this time (or if you want to give us some additional help), please help us out by posting on social media to let other people know about the offering. Tap the following message onto your favorite social media platform, be sure to tag us (@ImpactHubHNL), and help us get the word out about our big plans.

Invest in Hawaii’s largest coworking space! @ImpactHubHNL is raising funds on Wefunder, and the goals are💥BIG💥 (11 locations across the islands 🌴 with 1 membership! ✅) Anyone can invest in a more interconnected network of Impact Hubs– learn more:http://bit.ly/impacthubhnl 💰

Thanks so much for your ongoing support of our team and our community!

Interview with Meli James of Mana Up

July 23, 2019

By George Yarbrough

We are so excited to be a part of the #startupparadise that is Hawaii. We share a vision with many accelerators, businesses, organizations, and individuals to expand business opportunities here in the islands, and beyond.

One such visionary, whom we are proud to call a friend and a partner, is Meli James. She’s the President of the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association and the Founder of Mana Up, an accelerator for packaged goods and brands in Hawaii. She’s a leader in the business community here in Honolulu, and she had some awesome thoughts to share during a recent conversation at her offices in Honolulu.

Meli understands that connecting Hawaii’s business leaders at locations like Impact Hub HNL is vital to the growth of our startup ecosystem, and is helpful to connect entrepreneurs with each other. Along with alternative workspaces, she’s excited to see the type of investment campaign we’re running. She says these different types of investment – beyond the traditional bank loan or angel investors– can create a lot more opportunity in the islands.

Take a peek at the video below to learn more about her thoughts!

Hawaii Kai Sneak Peek: Check out our New Location!

July 17, 2019

On July 11, Members, friends, and the Impact Hub Honolulu’s team came together at Liko’s Tap & Tavern at the Hawaii Kai Shopping Center, and over beers and vegan tacos we got to see the first glimpses of the newest Impact Hub location in Hawaii Kai.

The Impact Hub Hawaii Kai location, projected to open in March 2020, is approximately 7,200 square feet, with collaborative marina-view coworking, meeting rooms of various sizes, communal kitchen, and several private office spaces on the second floor, overlooking the water.

As the new location is very much under construction at this time, visitors were reminded by our Co-Founder George Yarbrough to wear our ‘imagination goggles’ to see the bright future of our newest location. Of the new location, Co-Founder Anne Weber says, “Our vision is an interconnected Hawaii where one membership gives each member access to 11 locations across the islands and 100 existing Impact Hubs worldwide.”

We are raising the funds to build out this location with our current Wefunder investment campaign; we’ve currently raised about $150,000 to be used for this new location. If you are interested in investing, click here to get started!

Thanks to those who came out to share in this momentous occasion. Check out all the pictures from our event here in our gallery:

Event Spotlight: Hawaii Educators W-rite

July 15, 2019

Today we’re sharing an Event spotlight featuring Kristi Oda of Hawaii Educators W-rite, a group that meets here at Impact Hub HNL.

Andrea Bertoli (AB): Tell me more about Hawaii Educators W-rite.

Kristi Oda (KO): The W-rite group is an inspired community of educators who support each other: we do this by carving out time each month to gather in a creative space to reflect and write. This atmosphere and intention cultivate a rich atmosphere for sharing and growing among our peers and friends. These events do not have an agenda and are totally self-directed, which gives everyone the opportunity to informally connect and bring a vibrant energy to our role as educators in the community.

AB: What pulled you towards this type of activism/work?

KO: We want to help nourish the writers from Hawaii and give educators a platform from which they can share their unique voices.

The media has continually reported a narrative of broke teachers in broken schools. The public deserves to hear a wide variety of stories from educators doing the work across our state. There are many things Hawaii educators have found to work that simply need to be shared, spread, and adapted. This tells a richer story of education here in the state.

AB: What are some of the founding values behind your group (and the work)?

KO: So often we get caught up in daily life, so this is about the importance of taking time for self-care, specifically to reflect and design a new path in our work with the overall goal of fostering leadership, collaboration, wellness, and growing a healthy local network of supportive relationships. As educators, in addition to school responsibilities, we work on achieving certifications, degrees, creating curriculum, communicating with families, sharing our work in presentations, and receiving grants for future projects. Some educators need essential time and space in order to be empowered to find and share their stories & voices.

Networking educators from various school levels, communities, and roles, such as parent liaisons, administrators, classroom and non-classroom educators is important to work to break down barriers and dissolve tensions that threaten collaboration.

AB: How can people get involved if they are interested?

KO: If you are an educator in Hawaii, find us online or check out motivated HI educators on Twitter #808educate. If you aren’t an educator and like our work and want to partner, reach out anyway to connect and see how you can participate or support. And if you have friends that work as educators, please invite them to collaborate with us.

AB: Any upcoming events we can share with our audience?

KO: We have three more events happening in July: two online, one at Kāne’ohe Elementary, and an additional monthly meetup at Impact Hub on July 31.

July 17 #808educate Twitter chat on Social Media for Educators
July 20 808Unconference where educators create topics on the spot and participate in sessions about shared interests (bit.ly/808uncon)
July 31 W-rite session at Impact Hub HNL + guest author -retired principal Jan Iwase (6:30pm-8:00pm)

Thanks, Kristi, for taking the time to share your event with us!

Event Spotlight: Startup Grind with Jules Sukhabut

July 8, 2019

Today we’re sharing a Member spotlight featuring Jules Sukhabut of TeraVault. He’s going to be speaking at the Startup Grind event on Thursday, July 18. This is a great opportunity to learn from a serial entrepreneur, and to network with other startups and founders.

You can register for the event here: Members get a $5 discount with code: impacthubmember

Andrea Bertoli (AB): What is your background and history – tell us the founding story of TeraVault.

Jules Sukhabut (JS): TeraVault is a boutique software development firm. In September 2018, we partnered with Hi Tech Hui, a cyber security company in Honolulu to help some of their clients with software projects, and we’ve been growing ever since. Currently we have team members in both Honolulu and LA, and we are growing our offshore team in Philippines who service clients on the mainland and Canada.

Before starting this company, I started and sold three others: WebWorks, Bagna Networks, and OrderDynamics. I have had successful exits from all of these companies.

AB: What advice can you share for entrepreneurs as they grow and scale their company?

JS: Sell through channel partners- In my experience, I found it easier to sell through channel partners. In the early days of a startup I sold through other companies that I knew and that had similar target clients. This strategy has allowed our company to quickly grow our SaaS or IaaS sales and client base, and allowed us to test and develop our sales processes, onboarding, and ongoing support.

This is not an original idea, it’s basically why some software companies sell through retailers, independent software vendors (ISV), value added resellers (VAR), and/or systems integrators (SI).

Another piece of advice is to attend trade shows and conferences: I’m always looking for trade shows and conferences in the market location that I’m targeting for sales. These are usually in the same industry as our company’s product / services is in (e.g. e-commerce), or in an industry that my target client is in (e.g. clothing retailers and brands). Once I identify these events, I start creating a workback schedule to exhibit and demo our product/services there.

AB: What are some of the key lessons that you’ve learned along the way?

JS: Don’t take on investors early in your company- In all the companies that I’ve co-founded, we didn’t take any outside investment from investors. We did take on debt/loans to help our business grow, but this didn’t dilute our shares and ownership. This helped us maintain control and direction of our company while allowing the founders realize the capital gains of our shares in the company when we sold. I do, however, agree with taking on investors (private or corporate) at later stages in the business, but only if the investment capital is used to significantly grow company sales or solidify a strategic partnership or product development.

AB: What can people expect from the coming Startup Grind event?

JS: At the coming Startup Grind event, I will share my personal experiences of starting a technology company, growing it nationally and internationally, and exiting the business through an acquisition and management earn out.

Thanks, Jules, for sharing your thoughts!

You can register for the event here You can register for the event here; click to learn more about Startup Grind Honolulu Chapter.

Members on the Move: Impact Hubs Around the World

July 1, 2019

Did you know that as an Impact Hub HNL member you can work at other Impact Hub locations around the WORLD?

This is an awesome opportunity for all our members to travel and still keep up the hustle. Using the Impact Hub Global Passport program, you can turn your travel into work… or your work into travel!

Each Impact Hub has different rules, yet most offer three days of free coworking to existing members, and many include awesome amenities like coffee, tea, and the opportunity for meetings. Likewise, if you move and become a member at another Impact Hub, you’re welcome to come back to Honolulu to hang out with us.

Anytime you’d like to work at another Hub, it’s good practice to contact the Hosts at the location you’d like to visit before coming to ensure there is space and check in on any information about their space (like hours and other specifics). Some locations offer walk-ins, while others are locked to non-members without appointments.

We LOVE seeing pictures of our members at Impact Hub locations around the world – here are a few that our members and team have shared with us over the past year!

Paul, of Herran Law, visited Japan and dropped into Impact Hub Kyoto!