Supporting Hawaii’s Local Businesses with Meli James

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Interview Transcription

ATTILIO: 
Hey, typically we take a break right now but I think we’re just gonna go right into our guest who is the Co-Founder at Mana Up and President of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. She is from Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School. She is also a graduate of and an entrepreneur in residence at Cornell University.

ADRIENNE:
Prior to Mana Up, she worked in Silicon Valley in a tech startup world for over 10 years, wanting to move back home and create job opportunities for locals together with her co-founder, Brittany Hyde. They came up with the concept of Mana Up. Please welcome our guest Meli James.

ATTILIO: 
Hey, Meli.

MELI: 
Hi. Well, thanks for having me.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, thanks so much for being on the show. So you know, I want to give listeners the the the origin story I’m you’re on the show. So I was at the gym working out. And I saw you were being interviewed on I think it was like Hawaii news now. And I obviously there was no audio so I was just reading the closed captions. And you know, I had shopped at you guys location at Royal Hawaiian shopping center this retail store there many times spent, you know, good money supporting because I was like, Oh, wow, local stuff, I can support the local economy and get some cool stuff. And I never realized that you guys had like an entrepreneurial

ADRIENNE: 
like a school or like acceleration program like,

ATTILIO: 
like your like entrepreneur coach, you like dropping give me 20 and get on social media right now. But Exactly, yeah. So let’s talk about Mana Up. And and well, first of all, how did you how did you come to be involved with this organization?

MELI:
Yeah, so my, my co founder, Brittany Hyde, and I came from different backgrounds. I was born and raised on a wall. So we went away to college, you know, really started my career in Silicon Valley, was starting my first company back in 2007, and falling in love with entrepreneurship and startups, and what that can do for a community and economy where you really can take an idea into life and create jobs and opportunity. And so my co founder had been in DC, her her husband is a mountain boy. So he was born and raised there really wanted to come back to the island. So she and I linked up, really to create a program that was focusing on a regional strength or competitive advantage. That was part of Hawaii. And that being the brand we and we feel it’s in its strongest form and a consumer brand, or consumer packaged goods, like, you know, value as food products like jerky and chocolate, retail products, health and beauty and home. And so how can we create a program that was mentorship resources, access to capital that can fuel these companies, help them solve business challenges and be able to scale to create more jobs and opportunities in the islands?

ATTILIO: 
Nice. I couldn’t have said it better myself, but that’s why you’re having this. Okay. So Adrienne had a question.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah. So Meli, I know that you’ve you guys had started this. A few years back. And now you’re on your eight cohorts. Tell us a little bit about who are you looking for? Who’s eligible? How, how do they get connected? Are

ATTILIO: 
they become a cohort? You Yes, yeah. What is a cohort?

MELI: 
Yeah, so we’re, we’re recruiting for our eighth cohort. It’s a six month program. We’re looking for companies that are consumer brands. So in the retail value, add food, health and beauty and home. categories that are elevating the brand, a voice for the whole eat needs to be part of the narrative and their brand. They need to be headquartered here in the islands, and also wanting to scale globally. So grow past just servicing a local market to create more of that multiplier effect and new dollars coming into our state. But also, of course, headquartered here, and why Make the growth. So yeah, it’s a six month program, we’re taking applications now through February 17. We’ll be interviews and looking to bring on our next 10 to 12 companies that will be invited to participate in this program to help really exponentially grow their business.

ATTILIO: 
And like what you said exponentially grow their businesses, a lot of times, entrepreneurs, you know, I find that because we are entrepreneurs, ourselves, and we coach entrepreneurs all the time, is that they have that creative genius to get something off the ground, and then it gets some momentum, and then they kind of stall out. And so what do you what, what do you find is the number one, you know, we’ve learned to it’s not a knowledge gap, because you can Google anything in five minutes, go get a book, podcast webinar, and you’re gonna learn everything you need to know about whatever you might be lacking. But it’s a behavioral gap. It’s the actual execution. So what do you find is the is the the number one thing that these businesses are needing help with to scale?

MELI: 
Yeah, so I think a big piece, a big theme we’re seeing is really around that mindset shift on being able to think you can go big and go bigger. And I think that’s the challenge. We have a lot of times in Hawaii, as we are this isolated island chain in the Pacific. You know, it’s it’s thinking about how can we be global brands from here, and we’ve got all the knowledge and you’ve got the skill set, we’ve got the people here to do that. And so that’s what we’ve seen as a as a general theme, but we bring in a lot of great speakers. And a lot of people that come in who have gone big who have run really big companies here in the islands who can share the perspective from a leadership standpoint, which has been a really, really beneficial part of the program. Also, they’re on skills based, skills based building. So whether that be ecommerce marketing, packaging, all those other really specific niche things are very specific to products. That’s another part of the program as well. Awesome.

ADRIENNE: 
So, so Meli, where would our listeners go? In order to apply to be in this, this next cohort?

MELI: 
Yeah, so they would go to manauphawaii.com. And they can learn all about the program all about our past participants, we’ve had 74 companies come through the program already. As well as we have a couple of info sessions coming up as well. One that will be virtual, and one that will be in person and Hawaiian Airlines is one of our partners. So we actually support flights from all the neighbor islands, to anyone in the state who wants to participate can participate in the program, and we fly them over.

ADRIENNE: 
Awesome. Wow. That’s quite generous as Hawaiian airline. Yeah, that’s

ATTILIO:
pretty amazing. Yeah,

MELI:
they’re big believers in economic development and helping to build Hawaii and great products that are helping to tell our story.

ATTILIO:Yeah, so speaking of the story, tell us about the name what’s what’s the history or the origin behind the name Mana Up?

MELI:
Yeah, yeah. So Mana, really, to us, it means level up, which is, you know, really kind of a newer kind of 21st century term Raj, just kind of leveling over the limit, leveling up your game and all that. So if you’re really positive, and it’s about powering up and leveling up,

ATTILIO: 
yeah. And I think there’s gotta be some synergy, too, with with connecting these entrepreneurs with each other, right?

MELI:
Yes, absolutely. So so much of entrepreneurship is so lonely, as many of us know, and you’re kind of added alone, people think you’re crazy. But you’re just so passionate about your business. And so part of what’s been the real strength of mana up is creating not only the synergy with the companies and them doing collaborations, being able to talk to each other, like, Hey, I’m going through this challenge. And sometimes it’s better that someone has just gone through it, as opposed to maybe a mentor that went through it 10 years ago. It’s very different from a feedback standpoint. So that’s really neat to not only have people and a trusted resource and trusted network, but being able to do these collaborations and know that you’re not in this alone. And I think also just the storytelling as we’re helping to get more of these stories out there. And especially through radio shows like this, that other kids and other people in the island as in Hey, this guy can do it. This gal can do it like so can I and if he’s real tangible examples of successes super, super empowering as well. Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
So So Meli, speaking of examples of success, maybe you could share a couple of your, your your favorite success stories with our listeners. Yeah.

MELI: 
Yeah, so one of my favorite success stories is a new product that came out of beguiling Coffee Roasters, which is one of our companies, you know, and leveraging the cachet of Hawaiian coffee, you know, he’s been known as as coffee. But, you know, why, how, why can’t we be more innovative with new product development in this space. And so they developed the first of its kind, edible coffee bar, which is like a bar looks like a chocolate bar, but there’s no chocolate in it. It’s just coffee, sugar and cocoa butter. So there’s three espresso shots in it. I always have one of my parents, like crack off a little piece, pop into my mouth instead of my afternoon coffee. And I’m like zigging away. But that’s just really neat from a growth standpoint, not only from a product development standpoint, but their growth and also winning some really major awards by Conde Nast best hotel coffee in the world that they won recently. So are these large companies are being seen on a global stage and competing on a global level and winning these awards? It was just amazing to see that from a quality standpoint, as well as a growth standpoint. That’s one of my favorite stories.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. You know, and for your local people, you know this that Hawaii has a, it’s a global brand and a presence, you know, wasn’t intentional that way. It’s just Hawaii. And it’s unique. And we’re in Paradise, and we’re still part of the US. But everywhere we go, and people like, Oh, where are you guys from? We say Hawaii. There’s like, all these questions come pouring out us. But if I said like, Oh, I’m from Idaho, nothing wrong with Idaho, but then they’re like, Okay, then they walk away. Yeah, Hawaii. Yeah. You’d be surprised. We like in the middle of Phuket, Thailand. You guys are from Hawaii. And they’re like, they’ve never left Thailand. They don’t. They’ve probably even never left their small village, but they know where they know what hope about Hawaii. And we’re, you know, they’ve heard of it. So it is,

MELI: 
yeah, that just happened to me as well. Over the holidays, I was in Morocco. And everybody knew Hawaii. Bye bye. Know, dancers. And then I was even looking at this picnic table where they were in the restaurant, they had a drink called Hawaii. I had no idea like, where I was obviously not from Hawaii, but it’s called Hawaii. And it’s some yellow drink that’s on every table. It’s everywhere, which is incredible.

ATTILIO: 
So the you know, you have this program that people can be participating in. Tell us about the because you actually have some, some actual hands on execution. You’ve got these retail stores tell us where are they located? Where are they located? And where’s the other ones coming up?

MELI: 
Yeah, so we’ve got four stores, one of the Royal Hawaiian Center, which you both have been to in Waikiki one as Prince Waikiki Hotel, which is brand new, one of the Monica Beach Hotel and one of the Mauna Loa visitors center. So those are both on Hawaii Island. And really the store started as a test pilot to see if a store like this could exist on Kalakaua Avenue with neighbors like our meson Tiffany, and we’re happy to share it is working. And it’s a really great way for us to do storytelling and help those entrepreneurs be able to pilot new products, new flavors, and it’s just been really, really, really successful.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, and we got a holiday coming up. What holiday is that

ADRIENNE:
the Valentine’s Day. You see on your website, you have some some specials that are coming up.

MELI:
So we have our house of Manaup.com online store. And it’s been really neat to be our sets are really our tried and true products. So we work with different entrepreneurs do a wellness, that we’ve got a Valentine set of women, you know, just a treat yourself that our snack sets. And those are really great, where they have five to seven different entrepreneurs and tell the stories of who they are, what the product is. And those have been really successful. So yeah, if you’re looking to support local looking at support a program helping to create new local entrepreneurs, it’s definitely the place to go. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
so you guys, and girls just buy these things and say, Hey, honey, look what I put together for you, you’ll be a superstar all because of

ADRIENNE: 
so so Mellie, you mentioned, you know, supporting local buying local. Why is it so important for us to be pressed to be sort of supporting our local entrepreneurs and artists and products?

MELI:
Yeah, yeah, economic development, we think about our economy. That’s the number one way that our, our community grows, right. So we need jobs. And we need affordable housing right to to build our workforce. And so we need job creators and job creation. And so what these entrepreneurs are doing, they’re creating, they’re creating an idea and building around it, that is creating new jobs. But seeing these opportunities, creating revenue, our 74 companies last year represented 61 million in revenue to the state of Hawaii 450 jobs, they’re growing at an average rate of 33%, which is super exciting, because, you know, we think about diversification, and we think about keeping people being able to be home here or come back here, all those other great things that require a place for them to land or an opportunity when they have an idea to have that positive pathway to grow their business and help build a flourish. I mean, these are great stories of Hawaii. So we’re kind of taking that narrative of the way the world learn about us to actually local businesses that are contributing to our economy. And many of them of course, have giveback programs as well.

ATTILIO:
Yeah. And I want to circle back to that get back real quick. You helping eight people take their business to the next level, so don’t have to move to Vegas. Exactly. That’s good. So let’s talk about the people that the entrepreneurs that give back what are they doing and why.

MELI: 
Yeah, so every single one of our companies has a giveback program and for us as local people as being able to know how best to give back to our community as as you know, contributors here to the economy. And so we’ve got companies Alexia Alexis Acciona from Lex breezy Hawaii, started a scholarship fund at Honolulu Community College. As she went through that program herself and was so successful. Many companies are donating to different foundations. We actually just launched a collaboration with Duke Kahanamoku. So we’re doing a really cool product collaboration with them. We’ve got eight new products we just launched and all of those proceeds are going to Na Kama Kai and the Duke Kahanamoku Foundation. So those are some really great collaborations that do that. The companies are all doing it, they feel super strongly about it, not only as part of their story, but really is kind of part of their bigger why.

ATTILIO: 
And another reason why we do give back, you know, as businesses and entrepreneurs, and I know, Adrienne is been part of our theme, we’re like, we’re not doing this to get another Jetski. We don’t even own a jetski. But we’ll rent it, give them back, so we can give back to the community. But it just feels good, and it’s better, and it creates a better retention, better culture within your company. And for your entrepreneurs who might be just maybe content types in your bottom line driven. They’ve done studies where, from, from the, from the clients perspective, from the potential people that want to buy your product or service, if they, if they can’t tell, you know, too much of a difference between two, like companies 95% of the time, they’ll go with a company that’s giving back in their community.

ADRIENNE: 
And I also to add on to that it’s not just the consumers, but the culture of, of your of your, of your staff, your employees, your team members, I know that we have had several people that have come to join our team, because of the amount of the amount of give back that we do. So

ATTILIO: 
was there was there anything else about the program itself that that you wanted to share with our listeners?

MELI: 
Yeah, I would just say that, you know, as you guys were saying, it was really about supporting local, and how do we, as local people, make those differences, because we could easily spend with mainland companies. But you know, as we’re helping to build these local businesses, we do have that choice. So it is wonderful to be supporting local and supporting a program helping to build more of these entrepreneurs. But really, also, there’s a lot of corporate gifting or, you know, when someone buys a new home, there’s this a lot of those opportunities that are as a perfect opportunity to be supporting all these local companies. So yeah, it’s really exciting. We’re really proud of our next 10 companies making 85 cents.

ATTILIO:
Nice, you know, we do a shout out to all the realtors because we know you guys listen to our show. You want to see what we’re doing? Well, here’s our recommendation, give us your you know, your closing gifts from a monarch, you’re going to do two things, you’re going to be giving something that’s unique to your client and story that has a story and you’re supporting our local economy. So that will be something good to do for you realtors out there, because we love giving closing gifts. You know, instead of that Walmart gift card, do something that goes back into our community.

ADRIENNE: 
It’s also like for housewarming gifts, people have housewarming gifts. Yes, this is excellent. You can go to their website or go right into either one of their stores here on Oahu.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And then we got Valentine’s Day with the gift sets. And then I know you mentioned it before, when we were talking earlier, mom, Mother’s Day.

ADRIENNE: 
That’s always a big one. A big one.

ATTILIO: 
Okay. Was there anything that we haven’t had a chance to ask you about? Or talk about that you want to that you want to add before we wrap it up?

MELI: 
Yeah, I think the other piece is the diversification of our leadership. 60% of our companies are female founders and female owned their female CEOs and 50% are native clients. So we think about diversity and creating these kind of next generation of CEOs and leadership. It’s been amazing just to see the types of people that are succeeding in this industry, and we’re really, really thrilled about those numbers.

ATTILIO: 
No, and you know, it’s not something that we think about all the time, but you know, that’s our agent and ourself with Team Lally we really feel good about it because we are a veteran owned we are female owned and we are Native Hawaiian own so I know it check all those boxes. That’s it You guys just do business with us. Even if we terrible business with us. No it’s a diverse group. It’s who we are but it’s not what we do and how we do it and but it’s just who we are. And so thank you for helping these entrepreneurs tell their story and and and level up Hawaiian style Mana Up

ADRIENNE: 
thank you Meli, thank you so much for being here. Yes.

ATTILIO: 
Thank you all righty.

ADRIENNE: 
Okay, so for any of our listeners, go head over to her website manaup Hawaii

ATTILIO: 
Lana is man at no it’s Mana Up. Hawaii say low like say low mana.

ADRIENNE: 
Manauphawaii.com. Okay, on that note, I think we’re gonna take a quick break

ATTILIO: 
your kids and like clean their room. Hey, mana up, I’ll clean that room.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes. So stay with us when we come back. We’re gonna be sharing a review

ATTILIO: 
and some information that will change your life forever.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes, it will.

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