FoundHer

Purple Mai’a will help Native Hawaiian women-owned businesses build the capacity required to create new jobs by offering culturally relevant, gender specific business development programming through the FoundHer project. Currently, the tourism sector employs 36.4% of Native Hawaiians in Hawai’i, limiting earning potential and keeping people from working for their own communities. By providing support to women entrepreneurs to scale their early-stage businesses, with a focus on businesses owned by Native Hawaiian women, 49 new jobs will be created and filled. With this increase in women owned businesses, Purple Mai’a seeks to decrease the dependence on the tourism industry and empower Native Hawaiian women. The project will specifically target 28 early-stage businesses across the islands of Hawai’i. Ultimately, Purple Mai’a envisions Hawai’i as a thriving, diversified economy led by culturally grounded, community-serving technology makers and problem solvers upon successful completion of the project.