Meet Cohort 11
11 brands. All rooted in Hawaiʻi.
Every year, Mana Up brings together a new cohort of Hawaiʻi-founded consumer product companies for six months of mentorship and intensive growth — culminating in our annual televised and streamed Showcase in October and in-person marketplace on Nov. 5 at Bloomingdale's Ala Moana Center). Visit all this week to see who made the cut.
Applicants (+28% YoY vs. Cohort 10)
Hawaiʻi Based Companies
Islands Represented
BUJO BAE
Jenna Ikeda started an Instagram account just to share her journals. Five years later, Bujo Bae has a growing community of women who organize their lives — and find themselves — through her products.
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MAEBO NOODLE FACTORY
Three family members inherited a 75-year-old snack dynasty in Hilo. Now they’re remaking it for the next 75 — without a business school degree between them.
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WAIMEA HERB COMPANY
Waimea Herb Company didn’t begin as a business — it began as an afterschool program, a pot of māmaki, and a grandmother’s gout.
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VAUI SOCIAL LIQUIDS
Kyle Fleming spent years building Hawaiʻi’s only hard kombucha brand from the ground up. Now, through Vaui Social Liquids, he’s turning his attention to kava.
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ISLAND ESSENCE
Island Essence has been crafting bath, spa, and body botanicals on Maui since 1990 — making it one of Hawaiʻi’s oldest operating beauty brands.
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GOOD MANA
Good Mana’s Denny Kwock is betting that the islands’ agricultural richness can make Hawaii a globally recognized name in premium nutrition.
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AHUALOA FAMILY FARMS
Chad Cleveland swore he'd grow anything but macadamia nuts. Then he bought Hawaiʻi’s oldest mac nut factory — and built a business that sustains 75 farmers and the spirit of a community.
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YICK LUNG - HAWAII'S CHOICE
YICK LUNG has been part of Hawaiʻi’s snack culture for over 100 years. Now Derek Ching — a fourth-generation entrepreneur and former warehouse kid from Dillingham Avenue — is rebuilding it for the next generation.
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WAILUA GRANOLA COMPANY
Taleea Carvalho launched Wailua Granola Co. with no culinary background, no retail experience, and a bowl of açaí that was just a little too sweet. That was enough.
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OCEANS END
Danielle Gosiaco launched Oceans End Hawaiʻi eight months pregnant, designing her first bag on her living room floor of her Waimanalo home. A decade later, she’s built a luxury handbag brand that travels the world and carries the multicultural soul of the islands in every stitch.
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OYSTERS HAWAII
Oysters Hawaiʻi started with a wild idea, a pandemic, and a loss that could have ended everything. Instead, Julie Fieman and her sister kept shucking — and built the islands’ only luxury mobile oyster and caviar company into a brand that landed the Super Bowl.
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ABOUT THE COHORT 11 APPLICANTS
Eleven Hawaiʻi-made brands — from granola to kava, mac nuts to oysters — join the islands’ leading consumer product accelerator.
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