7th Anniversary Business Showcase

On April 29, 2026, HanaHaus celebrated seven years of business in Newport Beach, California. 

HanaHaus is the brainchild of Dr. Hasso Plattner, co-founder of the global enterprise software company, SAP. He wanted to create a space where people can connect, explore new ideas, and bring them to life. Hasso’s main ideas where: 

• Establish a flexible coworking experience and be the best coffee shop in town

• Offer science and technology events for the ecosystem.

• Design the space for the community, where people would naturally want to hang out.

For seven years, HanaHaus Newport Beach has embodied Hasso’s vision. HanaHaus is open to everyone in the community; from startups, to students, to freelancers, and everyone in between.

In celebration of seven years of business, we wanted to highlight the incredible minds, talents and businesses that have used HanaHaus to launch, grow and build their business. Our Anniversary Showcase brought together 13 local businesses for an evening of meaningful connections. The businesses brought additional life to HanaHaus with a tiramisu tower, charcuterie station, tie dye swag bags, career coaches, and a branding pop up. 

HanaHaus is nothing short of vibrant, and that is because of the incredible businesses and beloved regulars who make this community worth celebrating. Thank you for being heart of everything we do. 

Cheers to seven years – and here’s to seven more! 

Featured Business Recap:  

HanaHaus

HanaHaus is more than just a coworking space. It's a community of creative minds and passionate individuals who come together to collaborate, innovate, and bring their ideas to life. Located in the heart of Newport Beach, HanaHaus offers a dynamic atmosphere that cultivates connections and fosters creativity. Whether you're a freelancer, entrepreneur, or remote worker, HanaHaus provides a flexible workspace and a supportive community to help you thrive.

OC Fun Events

OC Fun Events is an event management and production company specializing in fun-focused activities and entertainment. Serving Orange County and part of LA and Inland Empire.

Lido Village Books

Lido Village Books has over 40 years of history and community presence in the Newport Beach area. We are a local favorite & committed to serving our communities needs, by providing one great book at a time. Our Mission is to be more than a bookstore; to be a second home to gather with friends, family & community. To create remarkable community based experiences utilizing all the treasures of literature.

Tap Truck OC

Orange County’s premier mobile bar service offering vintage bar and beverage services for various occasions.

Orange County Artificial Intelligence

A social impact division of KNOWSUCHAGENCY. Empowering our community to succeed in an AI-drive future through innovation and knowledge transfer. Our mIssion is to be a community that goes beyond the hype to help businesses and individuals thrive in tomorrow's world.

Love at First Bite Catering

Love at First Bite Catering is a family-owned Huntington Beach catering company serving Southern California since 1982. Our experienced team loves creating beautiful, affordable events with delicious fresh food, creative displays, and genuinely friendly service. From corporate lunches to weddings and hospitality logistics for large multi-day events, we believe catering isn't just food - it's a work of heart. We bring fresh ideas and person small-business touch to every event. We're also proud to have been voted "Best Small Business in Huntington Beach" and "Best Food & Beverage Business" - a true honor from the community we serve.

Big Hype Marketing

We are a creative marketing agency based in Orange County, California. We're all about building hype around your business or brand. We work with growing businesses and entrepreneurs locally and nationwide to deliver creative, innovative, and effective marketing solutions.

Tartini Advisors

Experience based leadership, management, deal & strategy coaching for increased performance and retention from your CRO and Sales Team.

Open Aerial

With yoga and Pilates studios popping up on every corner, the industry needed something different. Open Aerial Yoga is Orange County's 1st and only Yoga brand that uses the Aerial Yoga hammock as a prop in every class. I disigned our 1st logo and build our first website here at HanaHaus in 2019, and we've since served over 3600 customers and been on the Real Housewives of Orange County!

24 Carrot Catering & Events

As a full-service experiential caterer and hospitality group, 24 Carrots goes beyond traditional food and beverage services. We seek every opportunity to integrate meaningful guest experiences, providing culinary excellence in an immersive and memorable atmosphere.

Newport Chamber of Commerce

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce has been bringing local businesses together since 1907—building connections, strengthening community, and helping businesses thrive for nearly 120 years. Today, we are the largest city Chamber in Orange County, representing nearly 1,000 members across every industry—from entrepreneurs and home-based startups to established companies with thousands of employees. What unites our members is a shared commitment to growing their business and being part of something bigger. If you’re looking to expand your network, increase your visibility, and plug into a vibrant business community—we’d love to connect with you.

Rainbow Career Coaching

Rainbow Career Coaching (Raygoza Consulting, LLC) provides evidence-based, trauma-informed career and leadership coaching for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and neurodivergent professionals, as well as consulting and workshops for mission-driven organizations focused on burnout prevention, psychological safety, and inclusive leadership. My work helps people and teams build sustainable performance without sacrificing their wellbeing.

Ruth B. Photography

Ruth (also known as Ruta) is a story-driven family and branding photographer based in Orange County. Since 2015, she’s been capturing moments with care—ranging from soulful landscapes to portraits full of heart and personality. In 2024, she launched Ruth B Photography full time, driven by a passion to preserve fleeting moments and make quality photography accessible, especially for small businesses and families. Whether you're refreshing your brand or celebrating a milestone, Ruth creates a space where you feel seen, valued, and truly yourself.

Lido Design House

Lido Design House was founded by Newport Beach Designer, Dana Place. It offers interior design services for residential and commercial spaces, a showroom for fabric, furniture and home decor lines offered to the design trade, and a retail showroom open to the public. It sponsored the founding of the Lido Design League, a non-profit organization founded by Place in 2026, comprised of artists, designers, architects, film and broadcasting, and creators of all types. These members collaborate in product design, e-commerce marketing and an AI experience business league focused on accelerating AI business integration and removing barriers to entry into the design industry. They prioritize outreach by issuing open invitations for collaborations with new design graduates, interns and entry-level designers across creative industries. Founder, Dana Place is a member of The Ticket 500, a business accelerator in Cannery Village in Newport Beach.

The Newport Discourse | Experts Edition

What is Newport Discourse?

Newport Discourse is a joint initiative by HanaHaus and Lido Village Books designed to spark meaningful conversation across generations. Each event centers on a compelling topic, typically featuring a professor delivering a condensed lecture. This time, Newport Discourse brought together a panel of experts in the field of AI to discuss Karen Hao's Empire of AI. The goal is simple: challenge ideas, encourage mindful dialogue, and be inspired.

In order from left to right, Michelle Pierce, Stephan Fitzpatrick, Michelle Robbins, Michael Ashley

Moderator

Michelle Pierce | Owner, Lido Village Books

Panelists

Stephan Fitzpatrick | Founder & CTO, Orange County AI

Michelle Robbins | Director, Investment Strategy & Business Transformation, Microsoft Advertising

Michael Ashley | AI Forbes Columnist, Ghostwriter for Aspiring Thought Leaders, Public Speaker, Tech Podcaster

Summary of Empire of AI by Karen Hao

Empire of AI by Karen Hao is an eye-opening account of arguably the most consequential tech arms race in history, one that is reshaping the planet in real time from inside the company driving the frenzy. The book traces OpenAI from its origins as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, an organization meant, as Sam Altman has said, to serve as a check against purely mercantile and potentially dangerous forces. Through deep investigative research and reporting, Hao surfaces a core truth about this massively disruptive sector: that its notion of success demands an almost unprecedented consumption of resources, from the computing power of high-end chips and massive language models, to the staggering volumes of data amassed at scale, to the human workers cleaning up that data for sweatshop wages across the Global South, to an alarming spike in global energy and water usage underlying it all. What emerges is a portrait of a new and ominous age of empire, one in which only a small handful of globally scaled companies can even enter the field of play. Drawing on the perspectives of Silicon Valley engineers, Kenyan data laborers, and Chilean water activists, Hao presents the fullest picture of AI and its reach that we have seen to date.

Here’s What the Experts Had to Say

On Tuesday, June 2nd, HanaHaus and Lido Village Books joined forces to host a generational conversation on one of the most pressing topics of our time — the rise of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. Moderated by Michelle Pierce [Owner, Lido Village Books], the panel brought together Stephan Fitzpatrick [Founder & CTO, Orange County AI], Michelle Robbins [Director, Investment Strategy & Business Transformation, Microsoft Advertising], and Michael Ashley [AI Forbes Columnist, Ghostwriter for Aspiring Thought Leaders, Public Speaker, Tech Podcaster] for a wide-ranging discussion anchored by Karen Hao's Empire of AI.

Panelists largely agreed that Hao did a solid job covering the major players and systemic issues — the environmental costs of data centers, the murky intentions of AI's founders, and the concentration of power in a handful of companies — while noting the book could have gone deeper in places. The conversation quickly expanded beyond the book itself, drawing comparisons to the East India Company, debating whether figures like Sam Altman are driven by profit, power, or a genuine god complex, and wrestling with whether Anthropic represents a meaningfully different and more ethical model than OpenAI. Some panelists pushed back on the book's balance, arguing Hao was more critical than fair, while others felt she wasn't critical enough given the stakes involved.

The discussion grew particularly heated around the social and economic consequences of AI's rapid expansion. Panelists explored the erosion of public trust in media, institutions, and each other, driven partly by the atomization that algorithms create and the near impossibility of distinguishing real content from AI generated material. The looming threat of job displacement was debated at length, with some arguing that fear of a "job apocalypse" is itself a tool Silicon Valley uses to inflate valuations, while others pointed to real and present disruption already hitting tech workers and, soon, entire communities built around industries like call centers. There was broad frustration that policymakers and tech leaders keep proposing band-aid solutions to AI-driven job loss, rather than leaning on strategies that have worked throughout history, like taxing corporations, investing in public infrastructure, and proactively retraining displaced workers for new roles.

Despite the anxieties, the panel closed on a note of cautious optimism, particularly around the opportunity AI presents for small teams and entrepreneurial individuals to build businesses and solve real problems at a scale previously unimaginable. Several panelists emphasized that the technology itself is neutral and that what matters most is the story society chooses to tell about it and the values that guide its adoption. Deeper concerns were raised about the human cost of removing friction from daily life, especially for younger generations losing the ability to connect, tolerate discomfort, and develop resilience. The group agreed that intentional parenting, strong communities, analog experiences, and a deliberate push to keep humans in the driver's seat will be essential as AI quietly weaves itself into every corner of modern life.

Additional books mentioned in the conversation

·       If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares

·       The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It’s Too Late by Cory Doctorow

·       Nexus by Noah Harari

All titles, including Empire of AI by Karen Hao, can be purchased at Lido Village Books.

Humans of HanaHaus | Michelle Pierce

Books: The Old Man and the Sea, Earnest Hemingway. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett. New York Sketches, E.B. White.The Boy from the Sea, Garrett Carr 

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Name: Michelle Pierce
Occupation: Owner, Lido Village Books
Home: Alaska

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Michelle Pierce first came across HanaHaus the way many locals do—on a casual stroll to Blue Bottle Coffee. “I was walking to get a coffee and just stumbled in,” she recalls. “I immediately loved the energy. It’s like you’re with people, but not with people. Everyone’s working on something, but no one needs anything from you. That’s kind of lovely.” 

Michelle owns Lido Village Books, a Newport Beach bookstore that has been part of the community for 50 years. She purchased it in March 2020, just days before the world shut down. 

Since then, she’s navigated moves, expansions, and the launch of a second store, Malibu Village Books, which officially opened in March 2023. Between both shops, she manages inventory curation, events, partnerships, and a team of booksellers. “What don’t I do?” she laughs. “I own and run the stores, curate the books, manage events, mentor staff… but I wouldn’t trade it.” 

“Every village deserves a bookstore.”

When Michelle needs to focus, she comes to HanaHaus.

“If I stay at the store, I won’t get anything done—people want to chat. Which is amazing and lovely, but sometimes I need to get things done. HanaHaus gives me space to breathe and think. I do team check-ins here, interviews, even just deep-dive chats with staff over a coffee.”

Michelle’s long-term vision is expansive. She’s currently building It Takes a Village Literary Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on education, advocacy, and community media. The long-term goal? A creative trifecta: a bookstore, café, and publishing house under one roof. “The idea is to build a space that fuels every part of the literary experience,” she explains. “The café supports the bookstore, the publishing house creates the content, and events bring the community together.” 

Even with the pressures of the modern book industry, Michelle is all in.

“Independent bookstores are third spaces. We’re not just selling books—we’re creating experiences, sparking conversations, and holding space for curiosity and connection. And no two bookstores are the same. That’s the magic.” 

HanaHaus and Lido Village Books are teaming up to bring even more literary energy to the community. Together, they’ve launched a rotating collection of books curated in collaboration with Michelle and the HanaHaus team, centered around themes and ideas that matter to the community—innovation, creativity, wellness, equity, and more. “We wanted to bring books into this space in a way that felt intentional and organic.” 

Guests can browse the featured shelf inside HanaHaus and purchase any of the selected titles directly from Lido Village Books, just a short walk away.  More community-focused literary events are in the works. 

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What is your favorite space in HanaHaus? 💛

London and Paris - “I always feel like I’m in my own little space.”

What is your go-to Blue Bottle Coffee order? ☕️

Original hot latte with cow’s milk

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Discover more about Lido Village Books:

TikTok & Instagram: @lvbabookstore

Website: https://www.lidovillagebooks.com/

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/LVBaBookstore 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VillageBookstores

Address: 3424 Via Lido #103, Newport Beach, CA 92663

Humans of HanaHaus | Daniel Mickelson

Left to right: Sofia Shultz (Senior Marketing Manager), Daniel Mickelson (Managing Partner), Ava Cream (Marketing Coordinator), Kyle Lemburg (Creative Director)

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Name: Daniel Mickelson
Company: Alchemy Performance Marketing Agency
Origin: Lake Forest, California

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At HanaHaus, every corner buzzes with the energy of innovators, creators, and visionaries. This month, we are excited to spotlight Daniel Mickelson, managing partner of the creative marketing agency Alchemy Paid Media, whose journey blends digital innovation, teamwork, and the magic of in-person collaboration.

Daniel’s days are a dynamic mix of client check-ins, campaign launches, and creative brainstorming. As the driving force behind Alchemy, he and his team manage everything from running ads on Google, Microsoft, and Meta to building custom websites and producing standout video content. What sets Alchemy apart is their unique model: an in-house film team led by Kyle Lemburg, Creative Director, allowing them to seamlessly blend marketing strategy with cinematic storytelling. 

“For our agency, it’s cool because we have an in-house film team run by Kyle. That makes everything a little easier. When the creative is good, companies pay less per converted lead. A strong creative just makes business sense, so that’s why we integrate it into our model,” Daniel explains.

This approach means clients don’t have to choose between great marketing and compelling visuals—Alchemy delivers both, ensuring every campaign is not just seen, but remembered.

Alchemy’s client list is as varied as their skill set. From national non-profit news organizations and luxury interior designers, to restaurants, legal and medical offices, plumbers, yachts, and event venues, Daniel’s team brings a remembered, creative marketing solutions to every industry by staying focused on revenue generation frompaid media and qualified lead generation.

Daniel’s introduction to HanaHaus came through a longtime friend, successful serial entrepreneur, and regular, Joey Karam. After the pandemic shifted their workflow, Daniel and his team embraced remote work but still found value in gathering. While the team is spread across Orange County, HanaHaus serves as their hub for syncing up, solving challenges, and sharing ideas. Daily check-ins with clients happen online, but when the team needs to tackle big questions or brainstorm innovative solutions, they gather at HanaHaus to collaborate face-to-face.

“It’s nice to come someplace that works really hard to foster that environment. We do so much stuff virtually, having that touchpoint at HanaHaus is really awesome!” – Daniel

The shift to remote work came out of necessity during the pandemic, but it’s now a core part of Alchemy’s philosophy. Daniel notes that while remote work offers flexibility, in-person meetings at HanaHaus make training and problem-solving more efficient.

“When we come together in person, it’s easier to address questions in real time and find faster solutions. Sometimes being at home feels super congested, like you want to get out of the house,” says Sofia, Senior Marketing Manager at Alchemy.  

Daniel and his team keep coming back for the community, the creative energy, and the chance to break out of the virtual routine. As Ava, Marketing Coordinator, puts it, “It helps the team feel more connected. It’s nice to come together as a team in person, away from the screen, and just touch base with everyone.”

Why do you like working at HanaHaus? 🏠

“It helps the team feel more connected. It’s nice to come together as a team in person, away from the screen, and just touch base with everyone.” Ava, Marketing Coordinator

What is your go-to Blue Bottle Coffee order? ☕️

Sofia loves a classic Iced Americano—though Daniel refers to it as just “watered down espresso,” much to everyone’s amusement.

Ava is the resident “Matcha Queen” and orders the Iced Matcha Latte.

Kyle keeps it simple with a classic Iced Oatmilk Latte.

As Sofia lightheartedly put it, Daniel “only drinks caramel and milk,” keeping his coffee on the sweeter side—a comment that Daniel says was “hurtful but true” 😄

What is your favorite space in HanaHaus? 💛

When it comes to workspace favorites, Daniel gravitates toward open seating—especially what he calls “the hot seats, by the cold fire,” referencing the cozy fireplace in the open area.

Ava loves the “Chicken Nugget” chairs next to the stairs for their cozy, hug-like feeling.

Discover more about Daniel and Alchemy:

Website: alchemypaidmedia.com

Instagram: @alchemypaidmedia

LinkedIn: Alchemy Performance Marketing Agency

Meta: @alchemypaidmedia

HanaHaus guests are eligible to start for free with a free month of marketing agency services with Alchemy in July with a signed 3 month contract starting in August - Learn More