A business accelerator program for Hawaiian companies, including dozens of specialty food makers, has launched a series of online product tastings and demonstrations to help drive awareness and sales.
The Meet the Makers series launched in July, and is scheduled to stage its fifth event this week.
“We're bringing Hawaii to the world,” said Meli James, co-founder of Mana Up, the Honolulu-based accelerator program. “We're helping people discover these amazing products that people traditionally have had to come here to find.”
The pandemic cut Hawaiian tourism to a trickle, which created challenges for many of the local makers who had historically relied upon Hawaii's 10 million visitors a year bringing their spending power to the state. Many of these small companies, James explained, had a limited online presence and were not necessarily in a good position to pivot to an ecommerce model.
The Meet the Makers series is seeking to drive some online sales by creating immersive online experiences where customers can interact with the companies and learn more about the entrepreneurs that run them.
“It's like when you go to Napa and buy a bottle of wine, and then you share it with friends and family—you can share that story about the wine and how you found it,” James said. “We wanted to do that in a way that is scalable, so that people can experience the products that Hawaii has to offer.”
The Mana Up accelerator program, now in its sixth year, has included 63 local consumer products companies, makers of more than 3,000 individual products. About half of the 63 accelerator participants have been food companies. The program takes in about 10-12 companies each year for the six-month program, where they can sharpen their business skills.
The program includes workshops, mentorship, access to resources, sales opportunities, and “a strong community of collaboration,” James said.
Mana Up operates its own brick-and-mortar retail store in Waikiki and an ecommerce site called House of Mana Up, where its accelerator participants' products are showcased individually and in gift packages.
All of the companies in the new online Meet the Maker series are either current or past accelerator participants.
Mana Up partners with Hawaiian Airlines and its World Elite Mastercard program, which has members all over the U.S. and in other countries, to help promote the Meet the Makers series. The events are livestreamed on Hawaiian Airlines' Facebook and YouTube accounts and archived there for follow-up viewing.
The events have generated views in the tens of thousands, James said, including more than 40,000 views for a recent Meet the Makers event with Sheldon Simeon, the chef at Tin Roof Maui in Kahului and a former Top Chef finalist, around his cookbook, Cook Real Hawai'i.
Other food companies that have been showcased in the Meet the Makers series have included Big Island Coffee Roasters and Manoa Chocolate. The program continues this Wednesday with an “Art of the Beekeeping Experience” honey tasting led by Wai Meli, a honey company located on Hawaii's Big Island.
Future events are slated to feature other Hawaiian specialty food companies, including Ko Hana Rum and Hawaiian Vanilla Co.
Mana Up stages an online showcase at the end of each six-month accelerator program in which graduating companies present a three-minute pitch to a worldwide audience, followed by a product sales event and party. In 2020, the showcase was livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook Live and was televised in Hawaii and on some West Coast TV stations. This year's event is scheduled for November 4.
“It's like Oprah meets Shark Tank meets a tour of the island,” said James, who noted that nearly 200,000 people watched the event in 2020.
In addition to being based in Hawaii, most of the companies in the Mana Up accelerator program also feature Hawaiian ingredients, she said.
“We want to help keep that local agriculture going,” said James. “And of course, we know that anything grown in Hawaii has magical powers.”
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