The University of Hawaii Office of Innovation and Commercialization in partnership with MEDB STEMworks has been working feverishly over the past two months to bring our community together in response to the economic hardships COVID-19 has elicited, for the purpose of helping existing businesses recover and new ones to start. To do this, we have partnered with leading entrepreneurs at Stanford University to bring Steve Blank’s Hacking 4 Recovery, a lean business model course, to Hawaii.

The response to H4R has been overwhelming with 161 applicants, across all economic sectors and demographics including high school students, college students, existing businesses, entrepreneurs, and community members that want to help. Hacking 4 Recovery is an intense 5-day bootcamp, and it kicked off on Monday (8/10)! 22 teams of four have been selected to participate along with 22 subject matter expert community volunteers to help guide each team. This is a unique opportunity for participants to learn the widely-endorsed lean startup methodology from Steve Blank, the father of the lean startup movement, as well as local experts. During the five days, teams will be working intensely to conduct at least 50 customer discovery interviews to update their business model so that they can walk away with new and tested business models for an economy that is getting back to work.

We would like to invite you to our public showcase on Friday, 8/14 from 4:00-5:30p to see for yourself the impact that H4R has had and the progress our teams have made over the course of the hugely successful event.

If you would like to follow along, the H4R will be posting daily highlights and events on their website.