Hawaiian Bath & Body...get clean, go green

I first met Jerry and Debora Driscoll while conducting research for my sabbatical in 2006. This couple grew a hobby-level, bedroom-headquartered soap interest into a full-fledged bath and beauty products company that provides all-natural products within the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, and mainland US.

Jerry just oozes the entrepreneurial mindset. I quickly learned this by interviewing him during the first episode in my Edge of Entrepreneurship video series. Since 2007, I've been sharing this video series with my students. The response from the students has been very positive and, thus, many of them have encouraged me to share these videos with a larger audience. In the coming months, be watching for a preview of clips from my interviews with interesting entrepreneurs.

To get a feel for the Hawaiian Bath & Body product line and the North Shore Soap Factory destination, watch this short video from YouTube:

[aside: the coconut soap is something you won't easily forget]

Pineapple Soda? Coconut Soap?

The North Shore of Oahu is not just famous for mammoth waves and turtle-laden beaches. It's also becoming increasingly well-known for a handful of emerging entrepreneurs. I spent some time with 2 of them--Jerry Driscoll of Hawaiian Bath & Body; and Jason Campbell of Waialua Soda Works.

In my interviews with each of these guys, the focus of the questions were on product idea generation and business startup and rollout.

Each of these entrepreneurs are not in their ventures alone; their wives are co-owners and co-developers of each fledgling enterprise. The dynamics of being spouses and business partners were discussed in a small part of each interview.

It will be exciting to see how these two enterprises expand over the coming months and years.