Hawai‘i's Best Coworking Space
As we wrote about a few weeks ago, we closed out our Wefunder campaign – thank you SO MUCH to those that participated and committed fund to help us grow. We are so excited to build out the newest location in Hawaii Kai, and will be sharing updates soon.
And we wanted to share some final numbers and stats with the community. Take a peek at our infographic for some highlights!
By George Yarbrough
We asked you to invest in us… and you did!
We asked you to share with your friends… and you did!
We asked you to come to our events… and you did!
And for all of your support, our whole team says THANK YOU.
Our Wefunder campaign is now officially closed, and we are SO happy with the amount of time, energy, and money you invested in us.
Over our three month Wefunder investment campaign, we raised$172,354, which will be utilized for the final buildout of our new Hawaii Kai location, slated to open in March 2019.
Our overall goal for both of our locations (and anything we build in the future) is to help you do what you do best, and to support our growing network of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. Thank you for being a part of it! You can still see the campaign details here if you want to learn more about why we chose Wefunder or about their innovative investment model.
Stay tuned to our Instagram and Facebook to see the buildout as it happens and share your thoughts as we complete the space.
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!
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:
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.
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!
