An Epic Match
Noel Nedli is the founder and CEO of Room Service in Paradise, which delivers 50,000 meals annually from 75 Oahu restaurants, employs 45 people and grosses more than $2 million a year. But, back in 1991, Nedli was studying at Windward…
Trends
What’s Next for Solar
If you ever use a waste-burning toilet, don’t be surprised if you find out a solar-power company installed it. That’s one of the technologies being investigated by RevoluSun, a Honolulu-based solar company that has expanded its “Smart Home” division, offering…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Start-Up Paradise
Reif Tauati got the idea for his startup after visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the first time since the second grade. “I remember walking through the lava tube and hearing about how ancient Hawaiians stored poi and water there.…
For Starters
Bipolar Workforce or Just Poor Polling? Hawaii’s numbers have seesawed in the workplace satisfaction rankings conducted annually for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Hawaii’s overall ranking was tops in the nation for four straight years, before falling to eighth last year.…
Where Has All The Flour Gone?
Ever wonder where the flour to make your morning toast or lunchtime sandwich came from? Until a few weeks ago, it most likely came from Oahu’s only wheat-flour mill, the Hawaiian Flour Mill on North Nimitz Highway. But, due to…
Research into Hazards Leads to Device that May Save Lives
Problem: Doctors didn’t have a reliable, noninvasive method to measure changes to the water in a patient’s lungs – an important factor in the early detection of heart failure. Heart failure affects an estimated 5.1 million people in the U.S.…
Doing Business Island Style, 2014 Remix
The world has changed. Is Hawaii still stuck in the past? Or were we ahead of the times all along? Remember 2004? That year, a BlackBerry was the height of executive cool, while the first iPhone was still three years…
New Rules Make Paycards More Costly for Companies
Payroll cards are an alternative to paying employees by cash, check or direct deposit, but a new state law will make them more costly for companies. Paycards have gained traction nationally and about 14,000 workers in Hawaii are already paid…
Dustin Shindo: The story behind what happened at Hoku and his new venture in healthcare IT
Thirteen years after he and his partner, Kaleo Taft, founded their fuel cell startup in a Waikiki apartment. Nine years after he put the company on NASDAQ in a $21 million IPO. Seven years after he and his colleagues gave…
New Attitudes About Social Media
Companies love social media because they can be inexpensive ways to reach lots of customers. But, companies worry about social media because they have little control over what others say about them. In fact, one of the biggest concerns companies…
Happy Employees Seem to Increase Profits
Delaney launched HiHR in 2009 and the company has made the Hawaii Best Places to Work list in every year for which it was eligible – four straight now. In the same time, HiHR went from revenues of $6.1 million in 2009 to $123…
Wild Days of Tree Trimming are Dying
PHOTOS BY ELYSE AND MATT MALLAMS Back in the mid-1970s, when Abner Undan started working for a tree-trimming company, the standard method was to lop off branches randomly and use spikes to climb palm trees. “Those were the old…
Hawaii is Business Heaven, Not Hell
For many people around the world, Hawaii is paradise. They have a vision of pristine beaches, glorious sunsets and friendly people. In other words, heaven on earth. But when it comes to commerce, the vision of Hawaii from the outside…
Lessons Learned: Business Philanthropy
Danny Boren, founder of Maui-based Skyline Eco Adventures, understands that philanthropy is serious business. To date, Boren says, Skyline has donated more than $600,000 to Hawaii nonprofits and was the first zipline company in the world to join the “1%…
Hawaii Business BOSS - June 2013
18 Insights from the BOSS survey of 401 local business leaders Plus 10 nuances we thought you should know about 1. Performance Plateau The Performance Index is at 113, virtually unchanged from October 2012. This index is the BOSS survey’s…
Hawaii's Latinos Defy Stereotypes
Many people were surprised when the 2010 Census revealed that 120,000 people in Hawaii identified themselves as having Hispanic heritage, about 9 percent of the state’s residents. In fact, the Hispanic population in the Islands had grown by 38 percent…
New Big 5 May Be Emerging in Hawaii
Some suggest an influential coalition based on Hawaiian values, not simply economic value, could help steer the Islands’ future The remnants of the Big Five, once the dominant companies in Hawaii, continued to shrink last year. The sale of…
Celebrities Get Down to Business on Maui
Open any celebrity magazine and you’ll likely find photos of stars living it up in Hawaii: lounging behind oversize sunglasses, playing in the surf or sipping on an umbrella-adorned drink. But not every famous person who visits the Islands is…
Finding Franchise Heaven and Avoiding Franchise Hell
Owning a franchise is always hard work, but here’s how to avoid the hellish pain and reap the heavenly rewards David and Carla Lehn were first-time franchisees who hoped that by purchasing the only Quiznos fast-food restaurant on Kauai, they…
Hawaii's Best Company Vehicles
Best "Green" Vehicle Sunetric retrofitted this Honda Element with three 230-watt Sunpower modules and 12 killowatt hours of battery storage. The mobile solar power station, named Watt Wheels, provides free electricity at community, charitable and educational events. Best Classic Delivery…