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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!

A Message from our Cofounder, Nam Vu, about our Wefunder Campaign

Those who know me closely know that I have a deep seated desire to help people that came out of my search for the meaning in life during my contemplative days in high school. I’ve always looked for ways to leave this world better than I found it and have been involved in various service activities. After a while, adulthood set in and service took a back seat to creating a comfortable life with the goal of one day having enough comfort to be able to dedicate service as a full time endeavor.

Then came Impact Hub Honolulu. Being a part of Impact Hub Honolulu has provided me with the opportunity to be of service and at the same time build a sustainable and thriving business. It is that dream that I think many of us have but didn’t think could be possible. At Impact Hub we can do well while doing good. It is possible.

We want to spread this message far and wide and help everyone do well while doing good. We recognize that it is much more difficult to think about and act on your intentions to do good in the world when you are struggling with rent and bills. Our approach is to help everyone to do well so that we can all do good and change the world.

By providing a place where our members can focus on their work and leaving the facilities needs to us, by providing mentorship and learning opportunities to grow their practice, by providing opportunities to join us in doing good, we hope to enable our members to make their own social impact; to democratize the work of social impact and put in in the hands of everyone to do their small share.

To help us spread this message, our plan is to build a network of 11 Impact Hubs across Hawaii to create a network of social entrepreneurs in Hawaii who join the over 15,000 social entrepreneurs that are already in the Impact Hub network, the largest network of social entrepreneurs in the world.

Today we publicly launch our Wefunder campaign to raise funds for our expansion plans. This is an investment NOT a donation. You will receive your money back through a revenue share plus a return. There is an early bird special for the first $125,000 invested.

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.

Please take a look and share widely. Together we can make change.

 

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.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month: Let’s Talk More about Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we want to be part of the movement to destigmatize mental health issues, and help be a part of the conversation to shed more light on this important topic.

Historically, mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders (along with many others) were ignored, shamed, and not talked about. This needs to change for the health of our communities.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) estimates that about 18% of the American population suffers with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, and only a small percentage of those are receiving treatment. The number of children dealing with anxiety is even higher, at 25%.

Last month we hosted ImpactART featuring the works of Boz Schurr. The work in this show was a departure from her previous work, which is characterized by bright colors and whimsical patterns. In our interview with Boz, she explained her new direction came from recent experiences with her own mental health challenges.

“In the summer of 2017 I was at an artist residency in Iceland and I experienced a severe depression and had frequent and severe anxiety attacks which I had not experienced since college. […] It was a completely surreal, almost out-of-body experience to be aware of what you’re going through and still be completely unable to change your feelings in the moment.” Boz explained that, “[The] current work is addressing that experience – the ebb and flow of our mental stability and how it really affects everyone.”

During the opening of the show there were posters placed around the exhibit that posed important questions focused on mental health. These give us some great ideas and insight for how to be more aware of mental health issues in our community, and how to be a better ally and friend to those that might be (invisibly) suffering.

Each Friday we host an open house to showcase Boz’s work. Anyone is welcome to drop by on Fridays between 9am and 5pm. Check in with our host and enjoy the art – hopefully it will spur further conversation with your friends, family, and coworkers about this important subject.

What are the Sustainable Development Goals (and why are they Important)?

Impact Hub HNL is committed to building a more sustainable working environment – not only is this the best thing to do for our community and our planet, it also is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are a framework for building a better world, and Impact Hub global is committed to working towards these goals.

Building a better and more equitable future for all is the goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the SDGs are the guiding framework for this plan. The SDGs map out the various ways that we can achieve a more sustainable world, including gender equity, improved health and education, elimination of poverty, better cities, and so much more.

Read more about the history and future of the SDGs here, or watch the video below.

Impact Hub global uses the global SDGs, “as a lens through which to view our impact in the world.” So how do Impact Hubs around the world work toward the SDGs:

  • 51 Impact Hubs take part in waste recycling
  • 46 use recycled or sustainable office stationery
  • 45 use energy efficient or energy saving practices
  • 35 use reclaimed or reused office furniture
  • 34 use reusable or compostable catering supplies
  • 20 use green or renewable energy sources

Here at Impact Hub HNL, we have our own sustainability policies in place:

  • We choose only organic coffee and tea for our member beverages, meaning better working conditions and less pesticides in the environment (and in your body)
  • We support local companies to make our beer, ‘booch and nitro, meaning less transport costs and fuels
  • We now have paper recycling in addition to our Hi-5 item recycling. Unfortunately, recycling in Hawaii (and everywhere) is going through a major shift because of China’s recent decision to no longer accept recyclables from the US; we’ll continue to do as much as we can to reduce.
  • For our events programming, we don’t allow single-use plastic (bottles, cutlery, or containers) for our events programming, and generally we are working towards being a zero-waste facility.
  • Our facility uses super energy-efficient LED lighting
  • Much of our furniture is upcycled, recycled or secondhand. DYK the long tables in the front are former bowling lanes handmade by our very own George? Or that our wooden phone booths were custom-made from recycled materials by ARCH Hawaii.

We also work with local organizations and partners for events focused on the SDGs. Most recently, we hosted the ABCs of the SDGs event to highlight local groups that are implementing the SDGs locally. Groups like Zero Waste Oahu, Surfrider Foundation, Aloha+ Challenge, Hawaii FoodBank, WorkNow, and many more were present to share their work, and how the community can get involved.

Finally, we are committed to helping companies doing well to do good, and helping those companies doing good, to do well. We see Impact Hub HNL as a unique space when we facilitate these connections with our members, partners, and the broader community.

sustainable development goals