CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Businessman
ate up educationKyle Matsuyama, creator
of anytimegrinds.com, credits
his UH experienceI have often heard that college doesn't teach you anything or prepare you for the real world. I disagree.
My business, anytimegrinds.com, would not exist if it weren't for the University of Hawaii. As a student, not only did I learn the essential skills to build this Web site, but it was the work experience on campus that inspired it.
Whether it was working at the UH parking office for five years, or working at the Information Technology Services help desk for a year and a half, the situation was always the same.
You come into work, and one of the first questions you asked yourself was not "What do I have to work on?" or "Are we going to have any irate customers today? (Though that was a valid question in the parking office)" but "Where do I want to eat for lunch?"
Not to put down Marriott food in any way, but campus food gets tiresome after awhile. A typical scenario: Every day, someone would browse through a huge folder of restaurant menus, trying to find the right food to satisfy their hunger.
If we did not have the menu in our folder or wanted to know the daily specials, we would have to call the restaurant and wait for them to fax the menu and daily specials. Everyone would take a look at the menu, place their orders, give their money and someone would volunteer to call the order in and pick it up. The fact that this process didn't change from working at the parking office and the help desk made me realize every office must go through the same ordeal.
That is the reason for anytimegrinds.com, an interactive online restaurant guide. The Web site has restaurant menus and daily specials, simplifying the need for a huge folder you can't even sort through. It also posts coupons, promotional events, live entertainment schedules and more. And the site is interactive. Orders can be placed online, and an office list is printed out with orders and how much each co-worker owes. Users can have their own personal folder of restaurants, giving easy access to menus and daily specials of their favorite eateries.
The top four restaurants in my folder are KC Drive Inn, Tiki's Grill and Bar, Nick's Fishmarket, and Sumo Bento & Catering. We list about 2,000 restaurants. Some are in targeted areas. The site is geared toward office workers, so a lot of the restaurants are downtown.
My partner Donald Kyles mostly does sales and marketing and I'm Web development, but we both do a little of everything.
My education gave me the tools to design, build and market the Web site, while my work experience gave me the reason to build it. Without UH, anytimegrinds would have never come about.
Hawaii At Work features tells what people do for a living in their own words. Send submissions to: business@starbulletin.com
