Eight businesses on Hawaii Island are finalists in a competition called HIplan, which will award $25,000 to the best plan for growing their enterprise.
Eight businesses on Hawaii Island are finalists in a competition called HIplan, which will award $25,000 to the best plan for growing their enterprise.
Two of the competitors are Hilo physicians, Stefan Harmeling and Michelle Mitchell, seeking to expand their respective local family practices.
Three others are farmers: Kristen Kunzer-Adair of Dam Fine Farms in Hilo, which grows organic vegetables for restaurants; Sara Phillips of Big Island Wasabi LLC in North Kona, which cultivates the popular Japanese horseradish; and Dana Shapiro, organizer of the Hawaii Ulu Producers’ Cooperative in South Kona, who seeks to encourage ulu (breadfruit) cultivation and develop new food products from it.
The remaining finalists are: Easybotics in Hilo, led by Chester Lowrey and his sister, Emma, manufacturers of robotics kits for school-age children; Puna-based husband and wife Christopher and Wendy Klepps of Ono Queens LLC, who raise queen bees for export to mainland beekeepers; and Tracey Ackerman, who seeks to expand her The Spoon Shop LLC in Kailua-Kona from retail kitchen equipment to a certified teaching kitchen.
The eight finalists were chosen from 15 semifinalists based on presentations they all made Saturday at the University of Hawaii at Hilo to local businesspeople serving as judges. All 15 presentations were streamed live via the UH-Hilo Hawaii Interactive Technology System website and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAwHOtpFufw&feature=youtu.be.
The HIplan competition, which started in September with 49 contestants, is hosted by UH-Hilo and sponsored by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce. The originators and organizers of the HIplan project are aquaculture entrepreneur Jim Wyban and Realtor Kelly Moran, president of Hilo Brokers.
“Our goal is to stimulate an entrepreneurial ecosystem here on Hawaii Island,” Moran said.
The public is invited to the final round of the HIplan competition starting at 9 a.m. Nov. 5 in Room UBC 100 at UH-Hilo. The finalists will have to demonstrate three skills entrepreneurs deem critical to obtaining venture capital nowadays.
“They will submit a detailed business plan, fine-tuned from feedback they’ll have received in the two previous rounds,” Wyban said. “They will make 15-minute oral and PowerPoint presentations. And they will deliver a two-minute ‘elevator pitch,’ so-called because being able to explain what you want to do and how — very briefly, as if during an elevator ride — is often vital to obtaining financing in the real world.”
The event also will be live-streamed online on the HITS website. For more information, visit www.HIplan.biz; or contact Wyban at 938-2840 or jim@HIplan.biz.