{"id":81212,"date":"2018-06-19T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T01:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=81212"},"modified":"2019-03-27T16:49:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T02:49:09","slug":"summer-startup-launchpad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/06\/19\/summer-startup-launchpad\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> program gives student entrepreneurs hands-on training, $4,000 to kick-start business"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/koV9KymavAo?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/pace.shidler.hawaii.edu\/launchpad\">Summer Startup Launchpad<\/a>, a program of the <a href=\"http:\/\/pace.shidler.hawaii.edu\/\">Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship<\/a> (<abbr>PACE<\/abbr>) in the <a href=\"http:\/\/shidler.hawaii.edu\/\">Shidler College of Business<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>, offered students hands-on training and an opportunity to earn $4,000 to help kick-start their businesses. The free, six-week intensive program is open to all students from the 10 <abbr>UH<\/abbr> campuses and provided education and mentorship to help founding teams evaluate an idea and launch a business.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This program fills the space between when you\u2019re a student trying to be an entrepreneur and when you\u2019re out in the real world trying to be an entrepreneur,&rdquo; said <a href=\"http:\/\/shidler.hawaii.edu\/directory\/peter-rowan\"><strong>Peter Rowan<\/strong><\/a>, executive director of <abbr>PACE<\/abbr>. &ldquo;What we focus on is market valuation. One way to think about it: we don\u2019t want to waste a whole lot of time talking about business unless it\u2019s worth it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The 2018 program runs from May 21&#8211;June 29, and enrolled 12 teams who pitched their final business plans to a panel of mentors comprised of successful entrepreneurs. Each team that successfully completes the program can receive $4,000.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rose Wong<\/strong> and <strong>Jena Funakoshi<\/strong> of Rose Gold Gems, an online-based affordable jewelry line, hope to earn a $4,000 award and put it toward product development. &ldquo;We\u2019re ordering more inventory and finding our international partners. Right now, we have one manufacturer in India and one in Italy,&rdquo; said Wong.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Evan Strouse<\/strong> and <strong>Guillermo Villa<\/strong> of The Combat Ball, an exercise product that improves hand-eye coordination, plan to focus on manufacturing if they earn the $4,000. &ldquo;You can see these are prototypes, so we can use that money to get a high-quality ball made,&rdquo; said Strouse.<\/p>\n<p>Students agree the program has been beneficial for those serious about starting a business. Strouse adds, &ldquo;Having that mentorship and also getting the feedback each week when we do our presentations is really helpful. It&#8217;s been a great opportunity.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pace.shidler.hawaii.edu\/launchpad\">Summer Startup Launchpad<\/a> is sponsored by Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, Inc. and the University of Hawaii Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/manoa-shidler-launchpad-1.jpg\" alt=\"student presenting in front of a class\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-81195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/manoa-shidler-launchpad-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/manoa-shidler-launchpad-1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Summer Startup Launchpad, a program of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship, is a free, six-week intensive program that provides education and mentorship to help Â鶹´«Ã½student founding teams evaluate an idea and launch a business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[498,734,425,146,9,56],"class_list":["post-81212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-pacific-asian-center-for-entrepreneurship","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81212"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93566,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81212\/revisions\/93566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}