Student innovators at the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) showcased their business evolution during a PACE Entrepreneurs event in July. Program organizers emphasized that the core objective was helping participants transition their projects forward.
“If the students came in here with an idea, the goal was to launch a minimum viable product (the most basic version of a new product),” said PACE Entrepreneur-in-Residence Jeff Hui. “If you had a product, the goal was to get customers. Everyone was supposed to get to the next phase, and everyone accomplished that.”
PACE is a unit of the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi at 惭ā苍辞补 that coordinates and offers educational opportunities for entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization to students at all 10 campuses throughout the 糖心视频 system.
Recent 糖心视频 惭ā苍辞补 marketing graduate Keʻalohilani Bloom, founder of Brightness of Heaven Co., said, “With this program, I was able to go from just an LLC (limited liability corporation) with no products or designs to the end where I could launch my products.”
Featured student ventures
Bloom’s venture bridges the gap between mature, premium, versatile style and Christian apparel. Reflecting on her time in the program, Bloom noted her progression from having a non-functional website to debuting 11 products.
Sarah Benimana, a PhD student in tropical plant and soil science who is also pursuing a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, introduced this agricultural recycling concept. She was struck by how much imported food ends up in local landfills, while local livestock and aquaculture industries struggle with mainland feed costs. Her venture has already secured small-scale production equipment and a manufacturing space at the Wāhiawa Value-Added Product Development Center.
Business students Macy Ferguson and Sophia Franco developed Kumulink to streamline the fragmented systems used to monitor Individualized Education Plans for special education students within the Hawaiʻi Department of Education. The team highlighted that special education teachers currently navigate four to five systems to document data, communicate with families and track progress. Kumulink has established an active data-sharing agreement draft with the Maui complex area and aims to initiate a school pilot program this academic year.
Dounya Bilal introduced her bespoke floral studio, Orchid Mantis, which focuses on artistic custom installations, and community workshops. Moving away from a background in architecture, Bilal generated $4,000 in seasonal sales and secured an upcoming installation layout for a local fashion show.
Studi Bunni is a live task-management and productivity web application featuring interactive dress-up elements, micro-breaks and journaling features tailored to alleviate academic stress. The developer, Tawanza Farmer, shared that before entering the cohort, the project had stalled at the wireframe (early layout) stage. Gaining structural motivation from PACE peers, Farmer successfully finalized studibunni.info.
Gray Stetcher presented Tesray Technologies, an AI workflow automation company executing specialized digital receptionist and onboarding tools for professional practices. Stetcher explained that while Tesray’s software logic applies to multiple spaces, market research led to targeting legal practices, since law firms demonstrated immediate operational interest and a strong willingness to pay for administrative time-saving solutions.
Organizers praised the summer cohort’s high productivity and outcomes. A larger collective showcase featuring these teams, alongside alumni and new groups, is tentatively scheduled for December.
