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Built in Hawaii: Creative Entrepreneurs Share their Business Stories

Built is Hawaii is back! We hosted another successful Built in Hawaii event October 18 featuring two unique entrepreneurial voices from Oahu.

Our Built in Hawaii events are unique storytelling events based on the podcast,”How I Built This” and coordinated in partnership with Hawaii Public Radio’s Generation Listen. This interactive event features local success stories. Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship or not, these stories inspire, motivate, amplify and celebrate community strength.

This event was built from conversations around the idea that Hawaii is uniquely positioned geographically and culturally to incubate ideas in a way that could only happen here. What are those stories? What can we learn from them? What can we replicate to motivate new leaders?

At this event, José A. Fajardo, President and General Manager ofHawaii Public Radio spoke with two creative entrepreneurs, Robert Stehlik from Blue Planet Surf and Katherine Tuider from Honolulu Biennial. Robert shared the story of building a small clothing brand, which year after year grew from a few t-shirts into a thriving small business, moving into retail stores, then board sales, and then Stand-up paddle board design. You can learn more about Blue Planet Surf here.

After years of working in international business, art, and development, Katherine Tuider came back to Hawaii to co-found the Honolulu Biennial, an arts organization that seeks to share the work of Hawaii’s artists with the world and boost our local art scene. She discussed the challenges of getting a creative organization funded on Oahu, and the joy of seeing how enthusiastic the Honolulu community can be about art in public and private spaces. Honolulu Biennial 2019 is happening March 8 – May 5, 2019.

Watch this awesome video recap from Reel World Films!

HNL SOUP Hosts a ‘Solutions Showcase’ for Local Businesses

HNL SOUP is a micro-granting dinner that supports local ideas, projects, organizations, and businesses via crowdfunding of community dollars. In mid-September, HNL SOUP and Impact Hub HNL hosted the HNL SOUP ‘Solutions Showcase’ to feature the progress of three previous HNL SOUP winners.

HNL Soup Solutions Showcase participants and Impact Hub HNL team.

What is HNL Soup?

HNL SOUP is a program brought to Honolulu by Samantha Ruiz, who was inspired after learning about the SOUP model in Detroit, Michigan. HNL SOUP is a part of a global network of community crowdfunding events. She says, “We hope that HNL SOUP changes the way people engage with the democratic process and increases our community’s creativity and collaboration.”

Samantha Ruiz, the founder of HNL Soup

 

The premise is simple: each attendee donates $15 for a bowl of soup and bread from local chefs. The group then listens to the three project pitch about their organization and the work they do in the community. After listening to all three pitches, the audience votes on the winner: the project that receives the majority of votes wins the community chest.

HNL Soup Solutions Showcase

At the ‘Solutions Showcase’, community members learned how three former projects – HNL Tool Library, WerkArts, and WorkNet – utilized their community micro-grants to get their business off the ground, and how they could benefit from ongoing community support.

During the ‘Solutions Showcase’, HNL heard how community funds were instrumental for getting HNL Tool Library off the ground, and how the support from the community (both moral support and physical donations) inspired founder Elia Bruno.

WerkArts shared a similar story: learning that the community loved their bamboo bike idea helped them feel like they were on the right path with their company. Founders Krystle Marcellus and Barret Werk hope to get some of the parts fabricated outside of the U.S. to double their output over the next year. HNL also heard from Ruby Menon and Chas Williams of WorkNet, a non-profit that helps former inmates reintegrate into society with jobs, skills building, and housing.

The winner of the ‘Solutions Showcase’ was HNL Tool Library, which seeks to expand membership, build their inventory of available tools, continue to offer workshops, and expand into a self-sustaining non-profit.

We’ll be hosting another HNL SOUP in the future, so stay tuned for updates about when the next micro-granting dinner will be!