Hub Coworking Hawaii

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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! 

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.

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!

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

Give Back to the Community During Volunteer Week

The second week in April is Volunteer Week. This is a national-level program led locally by member organization Kanu Hawaii.

Volunteer Week Hawaii 2019 aims to incorporate the UN SDGs, the framework for global sustainable development. These principles set forth by the United Nations are also the guiding foundation for Impact Hubs the world over, and we are so excited to be partnering with Kanu for one of 100+ statewide events.

On Friday, April 12, the Impact Hub team has partnered with Kanu Hawaiʻi, Blue Zones Project, Honolulu Civil Beat, and HPR Generation Listen to host a cleanup at Old Stadium Park, an historic community gathering space in Honolulu. This event is free to the public- if you’d like to join, please register your interest here. After the cleanup, join us at Pint & Jigger to mingle and enjoy special cocktails made for the occasion.

Volunteer Week events are diverse in time, location, and theme. Not sure what organization you’d like to support? You can see the full Oahu volunteer event calendar here to browse events during the week that include everything from beach cleanups across the island, charity walks, Biki-based Meals on Wheels, bike path cleanups, food drives, forest plantings, splashing around in lo’i, and/or helping the newest (and only) animal sanctuary on Oahu. Regardless of your location or conservation passion, there is an event for you!

The 2019 Volunteer Week is focused on organizations and actions that help encourage or city and state communities to move towards our sustainability goals, guided by the Aloha+ Challenge. Kanu Hawaii Executive Director, Keone Kealoha, explains on their website, “We hope to link each volunteer event throughout the Week to the appropriate UN SDGs and Aloha+ Challenge goals. Involvement in local volunteerism translates to positive impact, not only on your immediate community, but also our islandwide and global communities.”

If you are a local non-profit or community group, you can sign up to host an event here. If you’d like to volunteer your time (as an individual or a group), learn more here. Browse all the available events on your island (it’s a statewide event!) and recommend to friends on neighbor islands.

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