This House Offers Hope
The Rev. Samuel Cox doesn’t talk like a preacher when he speaks about the odds of a woman starting a new life after prison. He calls it like a gambler: “The dice are loaded,” and not in the woman’s favor.…
Business & Industry
Talk Story: Omar and Tarik Sultan
The Sultan brothers are a major new force in Hawaii’s venture capital and startup communities. Their two platforms are Sultan Ventures, a Hawaii-based venture capital firm, and XLR8UH. Last year, the two of you and UH launched XLR8UH, a public-private…
Is Your Job In Danger?
A reliable cell phone signal is still hard to find in the sleepy town of Kaunakakai, but the robots have arrived. Kim Svetin’s family owns Molokai Drugs, the island’s only drugstore. Behind the counter, it’s Svetin’s Uncle Jon, her…
Pau Hana Volunteers With Shelley Pang
During her orientation at the Hawaiian Humane Society, Shelley Pang listened carefully to all the roles she could play as a volunteer. “Everyone wanted to walk the dogs; I was like, ‘Let me see what no one else wants to…
Hawaiian Telecom Bringing More Bandwith To The Islands
“When we log onto our computers to check email, buy something from Amazon or watch a movie on Netflix, it seems almost magical. We don’t see the inner workings that make this happen. What enables all of these things we…
KABOOMERS!
“ABOUT $1.1 BILLION A YEAR IS PAID OUT IN PENSION BENEFITS NOW (TO STATE AND COUNTY WORKERS). IN THE NEXT 10 TO 20 YEARS, THAT’S PROJECTED TO GROW TO ABOUT $2 BILLION A YEAR.” –WESLEY MACHIDA Director, State Department of…
These Canoes Virtually Connect UH Campuses
At UH, you can walk into a classroom on the West Oahu campus to take a course on video game development with students who are 20 miles away in Manoa. Forget what you thought you knew about distance learning. These…
Turning Unused Buses into Shelters and Showers
A group of architects and their supporters have a plan to transform unused buses into shelters and hygiene facilities for homeless people, and are now looking for funding and a nonprofit partner. This illustration shows how…
Do Your Om-Work
There was a time when the term “mindfulness” evoked visions of a man in a loincloth, sitting serenely atop a mountain. But the corporate world is changing and, today, mindfulness can mean a Reyn Spooner-clad manager serenely sitting atop ……
Top 100 Realtors 2015
Hawaii Business magazine is pleased to announce the Top 100 Realtors for 2015 – the gold standard in identifying the state’s top performers. This list is the only objective ranking of real estate agents in Hawaii for the ninth consecutive…
2015 BOSS SURVEY
WHAT IS THE BOSS? BOSS stands for the Business Outlook and Sentiment Survey and it’s conducted twice a year for Hawaii Business by QMark Research. It provides a revealing picture of Hawaii’s economy by asking about 400 business leaders twice…
Natural Energy Lab Fosters its Own Startup Paradise
I believe the Hawaiian people have been given a tremendous gift from Pele and that gift is this access to deep ocean water,” says Rich Bailey, owner of Dewpoint Systems. The gift of deep ocean water may be Pele’s, but…
More Efficient Power
In the hospitality world, it’s not just hotel guests who win points and rewards. The Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas on Kauai’s North Shore earned a bonus when it installed a system that delivers electricity more efficiently and comes with…
Eye-Candy Interiors
Name: Charene Davis Job: Senior designer and owner of Aloha Staged Interiors Experience: 15 years START: Davis earned degrees in interior design and journalism, but wound up getting her real estate license in…
Kahala Renaissance
If your realtor suggest you buy on a street now vibrating with jack hammers, buzz saws, chain saws and tree grinders – including the requisite oversize, loud-mouth backhoes and flatbeds, blackdust barricades and…
You're Wearing That to Work?
When I was a little girl, in the 1950s, my father sometimes took me downtown for a piece of the Alexander Young Hotel’s fabulous lemon crunch cake. It was a special time to have my busy businessman father all to…
Talk Story: Richard Wacker
Richard Wacker didn’t start as a banker. An engineer by training, he spent 20 years in executive positions at General Electric. His first banking job came in 2004, when he left GE to run the troubled Korea Exchange Bank for…
Nighthawks
Honolulu at night is a different animal from its daylight self. Yes, it’s darker, but also emptier, the spaces less defined and much less colorful. What light there is feels dramatic; simple sights can feel staged. The person who works…
Don’t Let Social Media Control Your Company
Jason Cohen, marketing manager for the Kona-based Hawaii Forest & Trail tour company, checks user-review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor whenever he is notified of a new review. He also monitors the company’s Facebook page daily for comments. If…
Moving Ads
Honolulu drivers spend an average of 60 hours a year sitting in traffic, according to the annual INRIX Traffic Scorecard. That’s a challenge for your patience but a great opportunity for vehicle ads, says Kia Kamauu, VP for ROI Printing.…
Bounce, Jump, Soar
If you want to put bounce in your workouts, check out iTrampoline in Kapolei. With over 14,000 square feet in its trampoline space, iTrampoline gives kids of all ages the chance to jump, flip, do corkscrews and literally bounce off…
Getting a Tow, Uber-style
Founder: Tow Choice founder Dave Kozuki is surprised to be a towing entrepreneur, as his background is in tech sales and marketing in Silicon Valley. But he was sold after seeing the demo product use a smartphone to arrange a…
Managing the Flood
In a world in which too much information can be as dangerous as not enough, Contix offers a solution. The app sifts through millions of social-media posts about events – such as when a celebrity promotes a company or brand…
For Starters
Pow! Wow! Hawaii 60 walls 100 artists (50 local, 50 national and international) 4,500 spray paint cans Corruption Ratings One of our favorite websites, fivethirtyeight.com, recently ranked the pervasiveness of corruption in each state, with first being worst and 50th…