Aloha from Blue Startups!

Cohort 18 hosted its annual Open House at the Sandbox. The founders pitched their companies and got to meet the Blue ʻohana. Here is what Week 4 looked like.

Week 4: The Doors Open at the Sandbox

Tuesday evening Cohort 18 held its Open House at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox. All 12 companies pitched to the Blue community of mentors, investors, alumni founders, and friends of the program, offering a quick glimpse of what they are building. Their work ranges from travel and gaming to ocean tech and aerospace. Afterward, founders stayed to talk story and connect.

Michelle Denogean of Mindtrip kicked off the week on Monday with how a startup punches above its weight against the big players in its industry. She had each company narrow to the key customer problem and develop a strong stance or point of view that can be echoed louder and farther than larger competitors messaging. Over lunch the cohort continued bar pitch practice.

Jaydene Sniffen came in Wednesday and worked on the founder rather than the pitch. She helped the cohort see how the state they walk in with shapes the way a room hears them, and how to get grounded before presenting. That evening the founders joined Hawaii Tech Pau Hana at 1938 Indochine.

Zack Hernandez of Talent Hui closed out the sessions Thursday with hiring. He showed the cohort how to treat recruiting as a continuous function rather than something that starts when a round closes, and how to bring people on fractionally before a full-time hire is affordable. Pitch practice ran again that afternoon.

Friday brought the Founders Lunch, where founders talk openly among themselves, and the Customer Discovery Share Out, where each company reported on who they talked to and how it shapes their company’s next steps.

Cohort 18 Spotlight Series

Travel Nanny

Travel Nanny Is Building the Future of Family Travel

Beverly Yip built Travel Nanny out of a trip she could not solve. Taking her 18-month-old to Thailand, she could not find a local nanny service she trusted. Travel Nanny now books vetted nannies in Japan, Taiwan, and Hawaiʻi before a family lands, and has served about 400 families and booked nearly 5,000 nanny hours since 2024.

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NatureMe

NatureMe Is Certifying the Future of Nature Guiding

Evan Rapoport and Lama Masri built NatureMe around a problem Evan found on safari in Kenya: an outdoor experience is only as good as whichever guide happens to show up. Evan spent about a decade as a product manager at Google. NatureMe is creating for nature guides the certification PADI built for scuba instructors, with an e-learning platform and curated experiences behind it. The team is lining up pilots with Hawaiʻi ecotourism operators.

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Cohort 18 Honolulu Demo Day

Alumni News

Abra Hospitality Wins People’s Choice at HITEC 2026

Abra Hospitality (Cohort 17) won the People’s Choice Award at Entrepreneur 20X, the startup pitch competition at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio. More than 6,100 hospitality technology professionals attended, and they cast the votes that decided it. Dana Ellis, Josh Ellis, and Paul Dumais built Abra on Maui to pull scattered guest data into one place. They have since signed their first multi-property group.

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Community Events

Hawaii Tech Week continues Tuesday, September 1 with Worldbuilding in Hawaiʻi at OurSpace in Kaka’ako, 5:00 to 9:30 PM. Fashion designer Rocket Ahuna, DJ CALDEE, and Future of Cool founder Risa Hoshino headline. Presented by The Goods Social Club and OurSpace. 21 and over.

Blue Startups Partners