Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 12, 1 December 2022 — Culturally Rooted Accelerator Program for Native Hawaiian Businesses [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Culturally Rooted Accelerator Program for Native Hawaiian Businesses

PURPLE MAI'A

Purple Mai' a Foundation has announced the launeh of Mālama Design Studio (MDS) with support from a $498,660 Community Grant Award for Eeonomie Stability from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The program will select and support 20 Native Hawaiian business owners over two years by implementing Purple Mai'a's in-house MDS team to ho'olana (propel) their companies to the next level. The MDS creative team will spend nine months guiding the companies through design-thinking processes rooted in Hawaiian culture to evaluate revenue models and implement technolo-

gy solutions aimed at scaling eaeh business. The accelerator will provide branding, marketing, website development, UI/UX, SEO, and business strategy services to develop a network of Kānaka Maoli businesses working together across the pae 'āina to cultivate waiwai (eommunity wealth) for our islands. "Mālama Design Studio is incredibly excited to partner with loeal, talented Kānaka Maoli entrepreneurs to pursue Hawaiian eeonomie acceleration and to create a more fertile ecosystem," said MDS Managing Director Keoni DeFranco. "Our intention is to build a coalition of Kānaka-owned businesses working together to create loeal, high-wage jobs and steer Hawai'i towards self-suffrciency. This is merely the beginning of a deep eeonomie and systemic shift on our shores. This is a kāhea for aloha 'āina and regenerative revenue models focused on sustainability." MDS seeks companies that are majority Native Hawaiian-owned, early stage, reve-nue-generating, and based in Hawai'i. Businesses should also participate in the core markets of Hawai'i's economy: tech, heakh and wellness, food systems, elean energy, fashion, and education. "Most importantly, MDS seeks entrepreneurs focused on social impact, aiming to strengthen and empower our lāhui. We must always be thinking forward to the next seven generations and leave behind a better future for our kēiki," said DeFranco. Mālama Design Studio is now accepting applications at: https://purplemaia.org/innovation/ventures/mds/. Selected companies will be notified by March 1, 2023.