Issue #01 | Sonia Romero, Co-founder at ThriveHI

Sonia Romero is a non-profit consultant currently based in New York City. She is also the co-founder of ThriveHI, an organization on a mission to make a sustainable, resilient tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Hawaiʻi.

Q: Talk to me a little bit about your transition from teaching to non-profit consulting. Why did you decide to make that switch, and how has that experience helped to shape what you've created at ThriveHI?

To be 100% honest, I never thought that teaching would be my career, and it’s a crazy blessing that I ended up being able to do so back home (in Hawaiʻi). I majored in International Business in college, and in my senior year, I was contacted by a Teach For America recruiter. The mission of the organization really resonated with me and after four years of college on the mainland and abroad, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to give back to my community in Hawaiʻi. Funnily enough, even as an often overwhelmed teacher, I constantly found myself drawn back to the startup and tech community here in Hawaiʻi. During my first summer, I worked with Elemental Excelerator, and during my second summer, I worked with Hub Coworking Hawaiʻi and the Social Impact Incubator Program (SIIP). Eventually, I realized that although teaching is an incredibly challenging, important, and respectable career, my strengths and passions were probably most suited to working at the intersection of business strategy and social impact.

Now, at Bridgespan, a non-profit consulting firm based in New York, I get to work on formulating the business strategy for incredibly impactful non-profits and philanthropists working nationally and globally. Although this journey has not been linear, in many ways, I think it’s positioned me to be the most impactful at ThriveHI. While my time in Hawaiʻi allowed me to deepen my understanding of and connections within the startup and tech landscape, my time at Bridgespan continues to develop my skills in business planning, strategy, and management to (hopefully!) build ThriveHI into an organization with significant and lasting impact in Hawaiʻi.

Q: You have an educated view of what it will take to create a more sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem here in Hawaiʻi as a result of a lot of the work you’ve done with local organizations over the years (Elemental Excelerator, Hub Coworking Hawaiʻi, and the Social Impact Incubator Program, just to name a few). What motivates you to keep working toward a more equitable and sustainable future for Hawaiʻi?

I remember hearing all sorts of statistics on the news when I was younger, things like 40% of Hawaiʻi households either live in poverty or are considered ALICE households (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), or the fact that Hawaiʻi has one of the highest homeless populations in the country, or that Hawai’i is one of the few states in the country that has population loss.

I grew up hearing those things, but in a lot of ways, I was sheltered from seeing what that actually looks like in real life. It wasn’t until I came back home to Hawaiʻi after college that I really saw for the first time what that actually looked like in real life. I had friends that tried moving back home with bachelor’s degrees or even master's degrees who looked for jobs for upwards of a year before landing something. I knew fellow teachers who spent their entire careers in Hawaiʻi — their family is here, and their community is here, but they had to uproot themselves and leave because they just couldn't afford to live here anymore.

I've also talked to a lot of Thrive members and community members who've told me about their stories as well — moving to the mainland for 10-15 years before coming back home to Hawaiʻi. But having to live with their parents again for two to three years until they could find a job that paid adequately to support their family. And so I think it's really those stories that continue to keep me motivated to work toward a more equitable and sustainable future for Hawaiʻi.

Q: What was the genesis of ThriveHI? Was there a particular event or moment that catapulted ThriveHI into existence?

I would say that the creation of ThriveHI was serendipitous in many ways. I had actually already left island, so I was living in California at my sister's place. It was in between my teaching job and before I started consulting in the non-profit world. So I had the summer completely free, and I had more time on my hands. And so I started creating a database of all of the startups in Hawaiʻi and sharing cool opportunities to work in Hawaiʻi with Hawaiʻi-based companies. I already had a job lined up, so it wasn’t really for me. But I knew that other individuals could take advantage of it. And so I started posting and sharing these job opportunities on LinkedIn.

Then I was fortunate to connect with Rich Matsui, who reached out to me after seeing some of my posts on LinkedIn. Then I also got introduced to Johnny Chankhamany and Trung Lam (a couple of my other ThriveHI co-founders), and we all sort of realized that we were passionate about the same things. A lot of us had similar experiences or saw those experiences first-hand with either family members or other folks in our community. We realized that we had a shared mission to work toward growing the tech and entrepreneurship community in Hawaiʻi.

Q: It seems like the ThriveHI team is just everywhere just stacking momentum right now—LinkedIn, Slack, and in-person hosting all sorts of community events on Oahu. I’m curious: Is that “be everywhere” strategy intentional, and what are you all learning thus far as you engage leaders, policymakers, organizations, and partners here in the state?

One of the main lessons that we've learned so far is that the community of support is a lot larger than we expected. But it's also really fragmented. It's a lot of people from disparate areas with pretty different interests who all ultimately have this passion for creating a better working environment in Hawaiʻi and cultivating an entrepreneurial ecosystem that creates more jobs with livable wages here in Hawaiʻi. So now we’re really asking ourselves a few questions: How can we bring all of these communities together? How can we make those connections so that it's not a bunch of individual players trying to make moves, but a collective that’s working together to create more widespread change at an accelerated pace?

Q: You and I have both lived in other places that weren’t exactly known for their startup scenes. We certainly hear some of that criticism here in Hawaiʻi. You’ve got a front-row seat to all the best that the state has to offer aspiring founders and top tech talent. What misconceptions do you hear most often, and what would you like others to know about the startup scene in Hawaiʻi?

I think the misconceptions come from two directions; they come from the mainland, and I also think there are also some misconceptions that we harbor as a community here in Hawaiʻi.

On the mainland side, I think there’s just a general lack of awareness when it comes to the Hawai’i tech and startup scene. I think the attitude toward Hawai’i when it comes to tech is like, “What? Hawaiʻi has a tech scene? What do you mean?” It’s unfortunate because there have been incredible organizations that have either been founded by people who are from Hawai’i or founded by people while they were in Hawaiʻi — eBay with Pierre Omidyar, AOL with Steve Case, and Paubox with Hoala Greevy. And then you have companies like Fare Harbor and Volta Charging that were founded by individuals while they were in Hawaiʻi, and they both went through Hawaiʻi-based accelerators as well. So the idea that Hawaiʻi, in and of itself, just doesn't have the talent or the entrepreneurial spirit is a huge misconception. I believe the entrepreneurial spirit is a core component of Hawaiʻi culture, and I wish that that was something we pushed more.

I do agree with the notion that we have a “brain drain” problem (or the departure of talented young adults for better opportunities elsewhere) here in the state, but I believe the misconception is that the only way to solve brain drain is to keep people from ever leaving. As a result, I think we’ve seen a system that over the last decade or so favors University of Hawaiʻi graduates for local job opportunities over those who may be returning home to Hawaiʻi after time spent away. And it sort of creates this divide between people who stay here in Hawaiʻi and those who leave.

The reason why I think that's problematic is that I think leaving the state for any length of time can be a really good thing — to get an education somewhere else, to experience another culture (whether that’s on the mainland or abroad), to grow a network outside of Hawaiʻi, that's all really valuable experience. And those who do choose to come back in their late 20s, early 30s or 40s, bring with them incredible knowledge and network. And right now it can sometimes feel like they’re on the outside looking in when they return to the state, which isn’t ideal. So I would say the second misconception would be the idea that the only way to fix brain drain is to keep people from ever leaving. I think we should have more of a “yes and” mentality with brain drain — yes, people leave, and how can we encourage them to return home.

Q: What do you want to see happen next to further bolster the state’s startup scene?

Pro-remote work policies and tax incentives are two big ones, but first, we need to continue to attract and invest in tech talent. One of the ways to do that in the short term is to make remote work more accessible in Hawaiʻi. Secondly, we need to see more public and private partnerships here in the state, and I believe the government needs to be heavily involved and willing to subsidize. Third, greater policies and incentives for more venture capital spending in Hawaiʻi. What I’ve seen is that Hawaiʻi has a decent amount of support for pre-seed to Series A and after that, there’s a huge drop-off. That’s why you see a lot of Hawaiʻi-based companies building and building, then right around that Series A point, they’re forced to look to the mainland for funding. Lastly, I’d like to see better data collection and research on what's going on here on the ground, in general. There are just a number of things we don’t know — we don’t know how many remote workers are here in Hawaiʻi, or where the gaps are in regard to talent, funding, and even early-stage companies. The ability to collect that data, to have the research, and to really have a collective vision for Hawaiʻi that’s backed in data and research could be really powerful.

Q: What’s the best way for people to support ThriveHI right now?

The best way to support ThriveHI right now is by subscribing to our newsletter. Just being informed and being in the loop is one of the best ways to support us. And then I would also say coming out to one of our pau hana events on Oahu and getting to know us as a team. Truly, at the end of the day, it’s everyone's individual stories that keep us going and continue to shape our direction as an organization. We recognize the importance of the connection to our local community; it helps shape our mission, our programming, and everything.

Q: And what’s the best way for people to connect with you?

Follow and/or connect with Sonia on LinkedIn or learn more at soniamromero.com.

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