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Parents want to provide their children with enough experiences that they discover their passions, their gifts and their talents. Schools want to deliver safe, quality after-school programming that enriches children’s lives and kids…well, they just want to have fun.
HOKALI is the answer. A three-for-one — it provides schools, parents, and students with easy, quality after-school programming in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The HOKALI platform, founded by CTO Tomas Bisi and CEO Ignacio Viau, is an all-in-one platform that simplifies programming for schools, provides organizational tools to simplify parents’ lives, and provides children with many more options for exploring their passions, developing their skills, and enjoying life.
Platform features
Recognizing schools’ difficulties in organizing diverse extracurricular activities, HOKALI’s creators developed the platform as a centralized hub, connecting schools with qualified instructors and reputable academies. “After-school directors have a real need,” Ignacio explains. “There is a real pain point. They may need an instructor for a few weeks or months during a specific time frame. And we help them by offering the best coaches, artists, teachers, and whatever they need for that program. We have made it very easy. They can have a program up and running with just a few clicks.”
The platform offers a curated selection of vetted professionals who undergo thorough onboarding to ensure high-quality instruction and programming. Tomas notes, “We require a background check. We request CPR, a first aid training certificate, concussion training and a child abuse training certificate. We have a one-on-one meeting with each potential instructor and vet them. We also provide classroom management instruction and tips. We use our own software to help simplify the onboarding process for academies, coaches, and us, too.”
Ignacio adds, “It’s amazing that our platform connects schools in need of good instructors, coaches, and academies who are also looking for avenues to work with children and ways to generate revenue. HOKALI allows instructors to make a living doing what they love.” Tomas shares, “Maybe it’s a basketball player who is at a university. They may need to support themselves, so with HOKALI, they can make revenue teaching through us, and children can benefit from their expertise. We also are connected with academies that struggle to get into schools because of some of the red tape. We are a new revenue stream for them.”
HOKALI’s offerings are vast, from robotics, drama, yoga, martial arts, dance, coding, STEAM, music, to sports programs and everything in between. Therefore, schools, students and parents have far more options with HOKALI than ever before. And HOKALI’s integrated scheduling and coordination features streamline program management and collaboration among schools, instructors, and academies. Simply put, schools have no reason not to offer the best and most diverse after-school programming by utilizing the HOKALI platform.
The platform not only benefits children and schools, but it also provides ease and convenience for parents. It saves them time, reduces administrative burdens and keeps them organized. Tomas explains, “We are redefining convenience in the after-school program industry. On a platform level, we are fully integrated with schools and parents. Parents will receive the school’s offers through our web app. They can sign up their children through the offer. Parents will also receive notifications and reminders so their children never miss a lesson. They can also communicate with us and the school quickly. We’re handling everything with technology to make it more efficient and faster for everyone involved.”
The future
The journey doesn’t end with success, it evolves with it. HOKALI’s founders envision a continuous cycle of improvement fueled by feedback from school directors and instructors. The platform’s long-term vision involves staying at the forefront of technology, optimizing processes, and delivering an even higher quality of service.
“We will always welcome and utilize feedback. I mean, we are evolving every day. Every day, every month, we get quality and useful feedback from the school directors, from instructors, and from parents. From that, we create new features, and we improve the process.” Ignacio explains.
As a tech company, HOKALI is committed to keeping its platform dynamic, responsive, and aligned with the needs of its users. Tomas notes, “Whatever we can build with tech to have better services, we are going to do it. We want stakeholder feedback to help us develop our product further.
The platform is not just a tool, it’s a transformative force in the after-school program industry. By utilizing the power of technology, HOKALI is making after-school programming more accessible, diverse, efficient and enriching for students, instructors, and parents alike. But that isn’t the only goal. “Our dream is to have a professional musician. Imagine if the John Mayer of tomorrow told everyone that he got his first guitar lesson at school. That is the story that we want to tell. We want kids to connect to their passions very early in their lives. When they are five or seven, that’s the best moment to start something new. They have a lot of time, and they like to have fun. The kids love to learn many things. We would love to see an NBA player in the future say, ‘My first basketball lesson was in an after-school program with HOKALI. That’s the mission. We want to connect every child with their passions in the early stages of their life.”
