The Hawaii Project
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Book recommendation, Literary news |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder | Mark Watkins |
| Headquarters | Sudbury, Massachusetts and Kailua, Hawaii , United States |
Area served | Global |
| Products | Personalized book recommendations, Literary news |
| Website | thehawaiiproject |
The Hawaii Project is a customized book recommendation platform offering personalized book suggestions along with up-to-date literary news. It compiles selections from carefully chosen sources such as award lists, articles, and blogs to discover new titles that match individual user preferences. Established by Mark Watkins, the enterprise operates globally with offices based in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Kailua, Hawaii. Since its launch in June 2015, The Hawaii Project earned a nomination for the 2017 Bookseller Book Tech Company of the Year, highlighting its significance in the realm of book discovery.
Company history
Mark Watkins founded The Hawaii Project after previously co-founding and leading Goby, a mobile recommendation engine that was acquired by Telenav in 2011. Prior to that, Watkins was employed at Endeca, a search technology firm purchased by Oracle in 2011.
The inception of the company stemmed from Watkins' dissatisfaction with the process of finding new books by his preferred authors.