Hub Coworking Hawaii

Hawai‘i's Best Coworking Space

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The Past Four Years at Hub Coworking Hawaii

Back on August 23rd, The Hub celebrated its 4th year of operation out of our Queen Street location. We are so honored to have made it this far as a coworking space, creative outlet and a gathering place. Together, we have grown through renovations, a rebrand, community volunteer opportunities and countless events–pau hanas, networking opportunities, movie premieres, crop swaps– just to name a few! We only hope that this growth continues long-term, and that we can provide the location, resources and opportunities for you and your business to, as we say, “do well and do good.” 

Before 2020, the Hub was a community resource for businesses needing a venue for their meetings and events. The Hub was and still is a gathering place for many of its own community members allowing the businesses in our own network to spotlight their products/services. While events have taken more of a back seat nowadays, we can’t help but to reminisce on some of the past events that we have had the pleasure of hosting. We hope to bring events back when we’re able to gather in a safe manner again.

  • Art@Hub Shows
    • The Hub has had the pleasure of having it’s space beautified by murals painted by local artists. Artists would create murals or installations on the common theme of “Community.” In exchange, the Hub would provide membership or residency for artists to continue their work or provide classes to the community. Each artist would also be featured in their own Art@Hub Show where they’d display their gallery of work. Local artists that have created murals or installations for the Hub are Lauren Hana Chai, Boz Schurr, Aimee Dukes, Shenae Tam, Bai Xin Chen, Ryan Higa, Aria Villafranca, and Lauren Trangmar.
  • Indie Lens Film Nights
    • In partnership with PBS Hawaii, we would transform our Main Event Space into a theater and feature independent documentary films focused on a variety of social issues. PBS Hawaii would even bring pizza, a popcorn machine and arare/mochi crunch. Some popular features were “Out of State” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Indie Lens Film Screening of Bedlam
  • Climathon
      • In fall 2019, we hosted the first ever Honolulu Climathon. We hosted the Climathon Honolulu Hackathon with guest judges Chelsea Harder of Hawaiʻi Green Growth, June Matsumoto of Pacific Islands Institute, and Chris Barzman from Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii. We focused on sustainable tourism and guided our participants with the guiding question of: “How do we reduce the human impact of tourism in Honolulu?”
        Climathon 2019 Winners Team Get Zero Wasted
  • Wellness Wednesday
    • Awakened Mana has been hosting Wellness Wednesday events once a month at the Hub since our early Impact Hub Honolulu days. They are creators of conscious events and products. With a focus on movement, health, sustainability, growth and community, their events and products inspire reflection and an awakened consciousness. Popular events have consisted of Sound Healing Meditation, Kombucha Brewing Workshops and Light Alchemy. 
  • Weekly Member Luncheon
    • Formerly held every Wednesday in the community kitchen, our Member Luncheon was an opportunity for our members to connect with each other during the lunch hour. We’d provide pizza or food from local neighborhood restaurants (thank you, Thyda’s Tacos!) and break the ice for everyone.
  • Monthly Crop Swaps – Back on! 
    • This series of events was born from members sharing their abundance from their home gardens and crops. Our amazing members would bring in apple bananas, mangos, marrungay leaves (malunggay/moringa) and all kinds of herbs to share with others. We figured why not make this a monthly occurrence? This was also the perfect pairing with Long Spoon Farms to help with the monthly efforts as they were providing a similar community service in Kaimuki. 
Crop Swap meeting in our community kitchen

Another growth point of ours has been our membership. Our core group of members has changed over the years, as we steadily welcome freelancers, digital nomads, entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profit organizations seeking a flexible workspace. Our variety of month to month membership options and offices allowed our members to use our space at their convenience and scale up when ready. When COVID-19 made its way to the Hawaiian Islands, we were just as worried as everyone else. Our memberships took a hit and some long standing office members had to vacate. Since then, we’ve reached a new demographic of remote workers, businesses seeking office space that didn’t require a long lease and workers wanting an alternative space to their home office (or dining tables). 

We’d love to recognize several of our previous members, that have scaled their businesses over the years:

After working with some incredible entrepreneurs/companies, we were inspired to make a greater impact in our community. Since 2017, we have created and joined forces with a variety of programs that have allowed us to provide many mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities for our members and the greater community.

Programs:

The Social Impact Incubator Program helps fill the opportunity gap for very early stage entrepreneurs – especially educators – in Hawaiʻi. SIIP is a six month program where participants gain access to content specialists, top-notch mentorship, weekly learning modules and up to $8,000 in capital to take their venture to the next level. We are currently working together with Teach for America Hawaii on the second cohort of entrepreneurs.

The Hawaii Freelancer’s Network is open to any small business, entrepreneur, freelancer or business leader, current or aspiring! Via monthly workshops at the Hub, HFN helps to connect members to the greater community and share valuable knowledge and insights. 

  • Women’s Personal Finance Group

Women’s Personal Finance workgroup was a casual bi-monthly meetup at the Hub for any woman that wants to learn more about finances, better understand their own financial habits and needs, and get more comfortable asking questions and learning about this big subject. 

Women’s Personal Finance Group Meeting

 

Why Should I Pay for Coworking?

By Nam Vu

Believe me, I know the value of a dollar. My wife and I have been working independently for 20 years. We know what building a business in your garage is like and we know what it is like to operate on a shoestring budget.

So why would we help start a coworking space, and why do we think it is a good idea for people to pay to cowork? Why would anyone pay to cowork? The bottom line? It is in your best interest.

If you think I’m full of it and just trying to sell you something, then feel free to stop reading. BUT, if you follow me on this short journey, I think you will be surprised in the end.

I don’t need coworking – I can work from home and coffee shops

Sure, I’ve been there, done that.  Working at home is great… for the most part. And for the occasional meetings, a coffee shop does just fine.  Or does it?  Maybe five years ago, it was still OK.  But lately, trying to get a table at a coffee shop is just plain frustrating.  And then there’s the Wi-Fi which often does not work, or hobbles along when it does work.  And the fighting for power outlets….UGH!  More often, I have to reschedule meetings because of issues at the coffee shop  – think of the loss in productivity and the opportunity costs.

Working from home is great and we’ve done well for a long time.  The biggest challenge with working from home, especially if you are an independent worker, is stagnation.  There’s no one to share ideas with, no surprise conversations to spark new ideas, and no one to challenge those really bad ideas that you thought would be your lottery ticket.  The lack of collaboration and idea flow can eventually put you into a rut that could cost you a lot in the long run from missed opportunities.

The best way to grow a business is not cutting costs, but increasing revenues.  Keep your eye on the opportunities!

The Real Reasons to Cowork: It’s all about the community and the opportunities

Sure, there are a host of amenities and benefits to coworking at Impact Hub Honolulu:

  • Free organic coffee and tea
  • Fastest publicly available Internet in the state of Hawaii
  • Different seating for different workers (bean bags, couch, cafe table, etc.)
  • Showers (yes, we have showers)
  • More events than you have time to attend
  • Member pau hanas with free beer
  • and so much more! See our full list of amenities here.

When you come and check it out, you will find that we’ve spent hours and hours working on creating a space that is cool, inspiring, and uplifting.

But here’s a secret:  that’s not what we are building.  What we are building is not what you can see when you walk around the space.  Not the cooling blue concrete floor, not the beautiful murals on the walls and ceilings, and not the things that we provide. Although a lot of time and effort and resources have been used on these things, in the end, these are just part of the facilities.

What we are building is a community… an ecosystem and a place where serendipitous collaboration creates opportunities.  And it is not only about business and money.  It’s about ideas, wellness, and balance.  It’s about collaboration to make this world a better place, and sometimes starting first with ourselves.

As someone recently said to me, “I want to do well, by doing good.”  That stuck in my mind and now I use it all the time, and it’s become a focus for our company: Doing well, by doing good.

But, anyways, why would anyone pay for coworking?

It depends on what you are looking for.

For people who are new to coworking its about the facilities: Wi-Fi, desks, chairs, printer, meeting rooms, tea, coffee, toilets, etc.

Once you have coworked for a while, its about the community and the atmosphere and what it can do for you: an inspiring environment, events, introductions, collaboration, sense of belonging, friends, partnerships

Once you become a part of the coworking community, its about the community itself and what you can contribute: platform for events, sharing your expertise, mentoring, collaboration, sense of fulfillment

There is so much that still needs to be done, but I am so excited to be a part of this community.

Drop by and say hi and check out the space: you can schedule a tour here. 

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.

 

Coworking Starts August 23

Impact Hub Honolulu will officially open our doors for coworking. It has been almost 3 years since we opened our prototype space ProtoHUB Honolulu on the other side of Kaka’ako in the Alu Like building. After operating there and having hundreds of events and providing space and resources to over 150 members we are excited to be in our permanent home at 1050 Queen Street Honolulu HI.

Our new space is a coworking, event, office, and community space designed to facilitate sustainable impact through collaboration and empowering communities. Impact Hub Honolulu enables businesses and individuals to create meaningful impact in Hawaii and abroad.

To celebrate our soft launch we are offering a 2 week free coworking membership period to everyone, from 8/23/17 to 9/6/17. If you were a member of the ProtoHUB Honolulu we will extend this offer for an additional 2 weeks ending on 9/22/17. Now, for anyone out there who supported our IndieGoGo Crowdfunding campaign to help build out the Commons area your perks will start after the trial time period ends.

We have just launched an Impact Hub Honolulu member app that allows members of our community to book meeting rooms and workspaces, check in to the venue, and contact venue host conveniently from anywhere. Check your Google Play and iTunes app store for our Impact Hub Honolulu’s member app!

Leading up to the start of coworking we have been busy getting the space ready. Almost everyday the space looks different but this hasn’t stopped people coming in and checking things out. Almost half of the offices have been reserved and we have had multiple events in the venue space, such as, a screening of Most Likely To Succeed and the Women’s March HOT SEAT town hall with Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa.

Upcoming events for the remainder of August include:
• Wetware Wednesday on the 23rd sponsored by HTDC from 6p-8p
• Screening of Racing Extinction on the 24th sponsored by VegFest Oahu from 6:30p-8:30p
• Screening of She Started It followed by a Fireside Chat on the 31st sponsored by Blue Startups and DevLeague 5:30p-8:30p

 

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