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Ideas at the Speed of Business
HANG TIGHT
Richard Takaba doesn’t consider himself a big guy. The 41-year-old petroleum remediation specialist for the Hawaii state Department of Health stands 6 feet tall and weighs approximately 180 pounds. But Takaba had a big problem with what his clothes hangers were doing to his large and extra-large polo, aloha and dress shirts: They were stretching out the fabric, leaving small bumps in the shoulders.
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“It was especially bad with my silk shirts,” says Takaba. “You send them out to the dry cleaner and they come back on those wire hangers.”
In late 2001, Takaba, who didn’t have any expertise in clothes or design, started doing a little research and development at home. He discovered that standard hangers measure approximately 16 inches across while his wide-bodied shirts were 22 inches to 23 inches wide. He experimented with Styrofoam extensions taped to the ends of wooden hangers before he came up with the design for the extra-wide MrBigXL hangers. He had a prototype within several months and was selling the hangers online (www.mrbigxl.com) by the summer of 2002.
Takaba’s sales have been steady over the past several years, averaging 60 to 80 orders a month, with between 20 and 25 items per order. The MrBigXL hangers, manufactured in China, cost $1.68 each.
This month, Takaba is unveiling a professionally redesigned MrBigXL Web site, which he promises will be a vast improvement over the “primitive-looking” site he put together five years ago. He’s also planning on a marketing campaign to boost local sales.
“The reason I haven’t changed things for so long is that my Google ranking is pretty phenomenal. Type in the words big, tall and extra-large hangers and I show up,” says Takaba. “I’ve thought about offering different colors and adding a cross bar, so you can hang pants. But I don’t I think I’ve even scratched the surface of what this product is capable of.”
– David K. Choo
THANK YOU, HAWAII
Google the word “mahalo.” What’s the first thing to appear on your screen? Mahalo.com, a new search portal with the tagline, “We’re here to help.” The five-month-old site is financially supported by Sequoia Capital, the same venture capital firm that funded YouTube and PayPal.
Mahalo.com, by the way, is not local.
It is the brainchild of Jason Calacanis, 36, a Mainland entrepreneur who co-founded and sold Weblogs Inc. in 2005 to Time Warner’s AOL for a reported $25 million. He also is the former chief executive of the old Silicon Alley Reporter in New York.
Calacanis developed a liking for the word “mahalo” after marrying and honeymooning on Kauai and Maui.
“People in Hawaii have a very nice, helpful spirit,” Calacanis says. “Some potential investors didn’t like the word ‘mahalo.’ It was hard to spell and hard to pronounce. I said, ‘You know what? It doesn’t really matter. At some point, people will learn about the word, because it has such a great heritage.’ We have the name, and I hope we’re doing it justice.”
What makes mahalo.com different from Google or Yahoo is that it is operated by real, live human beings. A group of 40 guides in Santa Monica, Calif., surfs the Net, picking the crème de la crème of sites to appear on mahalo.com. The guides then edit and group the sites for easy access. That way, users do not have to deal with annoying spam, pop-up ads or, worse, I.D. theft scams called phishing.
Mahalo.com also has a unique feature called the Mahalo Greenhouse, which allows anyone in the world to work as Part Time Guides (PTGs). If searches are accepted, mahalo.com pays part-timers up to $15 per search result. “The idea behind the Greenhouse is that there are a lot of people who work at home, stay-at-home parents, for example,” Calanis says.
Now type “kokua.com” into your computer. What’s the first thing to appear on your screen? A link to Calacanis’ personal blog. Looks like he owns that one, too.
-Cathy S. Cruz-George
 Hawaii Business defines often-spoken words, new and old, to help you make sense of what's being said. |
Chettle: Chettle is the term for the crumbs, dust, lint and unidentified dead insects collecting inside of your computer keyboard. What’s the best way to clean out the chettle? Gently pry off each suspect key with a flathead screwdriver and wipe with a dry cloth. Staffer: A bunch of letters on my keyboard won’t type. What’s wrong? IT Guy: Looks like you’ve been eating at your desk. You have enough chettle to fill a lunch box. -Matthew K. Ing |
ALL ABOARD
Don Medeiros, director for the Maui County Department of Transportation, is getting flooded with calls from Maui bus riders. And he couldn’t be happier, even if a good number of those calls are about a lack of proper bus shelters and route deficiencies.
The calls mean Maui people are riding the bus. The calls also mean fewer people are in their cars adding to Maui’s traffic woes.
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| photo courtesy: Maui county |
In its first year, the Maui Bus has seen monthly ridership go from a low of 3,000 to upwards of 90,000, according to a Maui County press release. With that increase in riders and the coming of more buses, Medeiros believes he has enough traction to better address rider issues.
In July, the County Council appropriated $100,000 to develop a six-year capital improvement plan with KFH Group, a transit consulting firm. The plan will address the plausibility of sheltered bus stops, increasing revenues by selling advertisements in buses and at bus stops, and creating a GPS mapping system to help riders plan routes online.
The county added three 41-passenger buses in July and also uses a fleet of smaller, 30-passenger buses for nine main Maui routes. Three more 41-passenger buses are expected to arrive this month. Medeiros says the fleet of large buses should increase to 13 by next year, dramatically increasing bus service even more on the Valley Isle.
Did we mention that while most fares are $1, rides in Central Maui are free? All aboard, indeed.
– Matthew K. Ing
TOO GOOD AND TRUE
One hundred percent free. No hidden fees. No small print. Oh, you’ve heard that one before? In the age of identity theft and phishing scams, it’s easy (and perhaps smart) to be wary of free offers. But MassMutual Financial Group really is offering free insurance policies nationwide to support the education of children of low income families.
The only hitch is that people don’t seem to believe it.
“It’s part of our community service and it’s aimed at leveling the educational playing field for parents with limited financial means,” explains MassMutual Financial Advisor Mathew Lee.
The program, called LifeBridge, works like this: If you are a family or single parent earning less than $40,000 per year, you are eligible for a 10-year, $50,000 insurance policy. If the insured parent dies before the term, the $50,000 death benefit is put into an educational trust that can pay for a child’s preschool, private school, books, tuition and even outstanding student loans.
And with so many families struggling financially in Hawaii, the Islands are a prime market for the program. But the stigma attached to freebies, combined with an advertising budget of zero dollars has hindered MassMutual’s local efforts to push the program. To date, they’ve given away 40 policies in Hawaii, but the goal is to have 100 signed by the end of the year.
“Once people realize there isn’t a catch – that the agents are doing this pro bono and we’re not going to try to upsell them afterwards, they’re usually excited about it,” says Lee.
- Jacy L. Youn
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(FREE) INSURANCE POLICY To be eligible for the LifeBridge program, applicants must be:
• Permanent, legal U.S. residents • The parents or legal guardians of one or more dependent children under age 18 • Employed – either full- or part-time – with a family income of between $10,000 and $40,000 on the most recent income tax return • In good health, as determined by MassMutual For more information about the LifeBridge program, contact Mathew Lee at mlee@finsvcs.com |
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