HPU'S WINNER OF THE STARTUP CHALLENGE WINS $10K AND ADVANCES TO COMPETE FOR $1M HULT PRIZE

On a thrilling Thursday afternoon of innovation and creativity at Aloha Tower Marketplace, HPU held its highly anticipated, inaugural Startup Challenge competition. A total of five teams participated in the event, where the winner received $10,000 and will now advance to the next stage of the Hult Prize, a global competition where students build, scale, and pitch innovative startup ideas for a chance to win $1 million in funding.

HPU is the first university in Hawaiʻi to participate in the Hult Prize, marking a significant milestone for student entrepreneurship in the state. The HPU Startup Challenge serves as the official campus qualifier for the international competition.

The HPU Startup Challenge is part of the John F. Scarpa Entrepreneurial Pathway, which includes a variety of events and resources designed to spark and promote entrepreneurial thinking across HPU. Funding for the $10,000 prize comes directly from the Pathway.

To be eligible to compete, students were required to be enrolled at HPU at the time of registration, form teams of two to four members, be at least 18 years old by late February 2026, and pitch a for-profit business that directly supports at least one United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. Finalists competed in person at the February 26 finale after advancing through an initial round earlier in the month.

Teams pitched their ventures to a panel of judges representing Hawaiʻi’s startup, venture capital, and business ecosystems.

• Johnny Chankhamany, Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships at Builders VC, leads regional ecosystem development and strategic partnerships. He previously worked in Investor Relations at HEI, Inc., and serves on several nonprofit boards focused on increasing economic equality and improving quality of life for Hawaiʻi residents.
• Ian Fernandez ‘02, President, Founder, and Director of IMF Visions, earned his degree in Computer Information Systems and Marketing from HPU and became the first Filipino President of the Student Government Association. He later launched IMF Visions, a Honolulu-based full-service media and events production company responsible for signature events including Miss Hawaiʻi and Pacific Business News’ 40 Under 40 Awards. IMF Visions serves as the exclusive audiovisual partner for Halekulani and The Kahala Hotel & Resort, and Fernandez has been recognized with a Young Entrepreneur Award from the Hawaiʻi Chamber of Commerce.
• David Holt, Program Director at Blue Startups and Blue Ventures, leads deal flow, evaluates startups, manages portfolio companies, and coordinates programming and events. He previously co-founded VarsityPrep, worked at the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship, and served as President of the Entrepreneurs Club at UH.
• Deena White Tearney, Founder and CEO of Pacific Point, leads the Honolulu-headquartered Salesforce consulting firm and brings extensive experience implementing complex customer relationship management projects. Under her leadership, Pacific Point ranked three consecutive years on Inc. magazine’s 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. She has been recognized by Pacific Business News as a 40 Under Forty and a Women Who Mean Business honoree, and serves on the board of TRUE, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating technology adoption and strengthening Hawaiʻi’s innovation economy.

 

Five student teams took the stage with ventures spanning artificial intelligence, consumer protection, youth wellness, athletics, and small-business entrepreneurship.

• AskFlow, an AI-powered funding intelligence and workflow platform to help non-profits secure grants, was represented by Jenna Bond and Shayden Peahi.
• Mindful Gallery of Hawaiʻi, which provides strengths-based mental health services and creative enrichment for children and families, was represented by Mailani Chang, Joseph Rohlehr, and Samuel Willis.
• PC Tech Tracker, which helps consumers secure the best pricing for technology purchases while avoiding scams (GPUsniper.com), was represented by Pierre Errard and Michael Lozada-Longog.
• Lumo, which matches collegiate athletes with families seeking sports coaching, was represented by Paul Norberg and Olle Ridelius. Evi Roobol is also a team member.
• Three Peaks Brewery, a veteran- and woman-owned 1bbl craft nano brewery (scheduled to reopen in Waikiki late spring), was represented by Patrick Long and Frank Starapoli.

 

At the conclusion of the competition, the judges selected PC Tech Tracker as the winning team. In addition to receiving the $10,000 prize, PC Tech Tracker will now advance to the Hult Prize Nationals, traveling to represent HPU in the next stage of the global competition, the USA West Coast Nationals, taking place in Tucson, Arizona from April 17-19, 2026 Mindful Gallery, as one of the runner ups, also submitted an application to be considered for the national competition.

“A passion project becomes a business when other people see the value in it. The hardest part in a startup is showing your first person that value,” said Pierre Errard, who represented PC Tech Tracker. “This aligns with how I started the first stage of my business; it was just a small GPU price tracker that I made because all the other ones were too hard to use, updated too slowly, or didn’t make it easy to find the best value product. I made a small website to track these prices known as ‘GPU Sniper.’ Back in August last year, I didn’t think it would get as big as it is now, but it did because others saw value in how I optimized searches into quick look-and-grabs, and added onto it, turning what was originally supposed to just be a price tracker into much more.

“For the first few months, GPU Sniper generated basically no revenue, and I remained working at my AI training job. Eventually, I managed to get an audience large enough to get past the tipping point in revenue that kills most startups if they don’t reach it and was able to quit my AI job and start working on new features full-time. I plan to make this into much more than a price tracker. I joined the Hult Prize to accelerate this growth into what will hopefully become the go-to search & shop platform for computers.”

If the team(s) continue to advance, future rounds may include participation in the Global Accelerator at Ashridge House near London and the Global Finals in London, where teams compete for the $1 million grand prize.

In addition to the grand prize, the judges allocated points ranked Three Peaks Brewery for second place and Mindful Gallery of Hawaiʻi for third place and both coincidentally tied for the Audience Choice award. Each team receives $500 in recognition of the strong support their pitches generated among attendees.

“The HPU Startup Challenge is an essential opportunity for helping professionals to learn the business skills missing from our degree programs. Despite my initial doubts about not being a business student, Dean Amy’s welcoming, knowledgeable guidance, Mr. Harrison’s warm acceptance, and the encouragement from other business professors and resident mentors made me feel I belonged,” said Chang, who represented Mindful Gallery. “Through significant weekly workshops, they took my wild, unstructured plan, offered supportive but constructive criticism, and helped me tame it into an actual, visible, and presentable structure. I cannot thank them enough for their generous support. I can confidently say that my business foundation is very strong thanks to this HPU opportunity led by Dean Amy and her team. Mahalo nui loa.”

In the months leading up to the competition, HPU hosted the HPU Startup Challenge “Idea Sprints” and a six session workshop series designed to help students form teams and strengthen their ventures.

“Entrepreneurship is a journey, not a sprint, and you can learn a lot from others in the ecosystem. Thirteen teams registered over the course of the challenge, but not everyone ultimately competed,” said HPU Dean of the College of Business Amy Nguyen-Chyung, Ph.D., who leads the Scarpa Entrepreneurial Pathway and serves as a startup advisor and investor. “It’s quite fitting that PC Tech Tracker was the winning team; founder Pierre Erard took in learning from the very first idea sprint, and he came to campus to meet with me for more one-on-one coaching on the day of the finale. In fact, the founder runner up also sought more feedback just the night before the finale.”

Idea Sprints included founders and HPU alumni Christopher Gooch ’12 and Giovanna Scholbi ’26. Workshop sessions included guidance from Rumpa Giri, a healthcare CTO and one of HPU’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, who spoke about leveraging AI tools to develop startup demos, and HPU trustee and alumna Jill Castilla ‘96, CEO and founder of Roger, and intrapreneurial venture of Citizens Bank where she is the CEO and Chair.

Participating HPU faculty and community mentors included Brad Harrison, MBA, Scarpa Faculty Change Maker Fellows: Mark Tjarks, Ph.D., Bei Zeng, Ph.D., Charles Chen, Ph.D., and Adam Burke, Ph.D., HPU staff Logun Moe, and Entrepreneur in Residence Chris Hissom. The sessions were moderated or led by Dean Nguyen-Chyung.

Students looking for another innovative and creative challenge sponsored by the Scarpa Entrepreneurial Pathway can look into the Makerspace Competition, being organized by HPU Director of Instructional Tech and Client Services Mark Nita. 

For more information, go the Makerspace Competition website for more information and register by March 12, 2026. The competition runs from March 16 to April 2, 2026, at Aloha Tower Marketplace.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's Startup Challenge!