Zak Barry in Honolulu

Honolulu, Hawai‘i

Zak Barry

Founder Operator Systems Thinker

Aloha, I’m Zak.

I’m a Hawai‘i-based founder, operator, and systems thinker who’s spent the last decade building businesses that blend purpose, community, and freedom.

I co-founded Banán — the local food brand that somehow made bananas “cool” to eat — and later acquired Closet Systems Supply, a specialty union contracting company outfitting custom closets for some of Hawai‘i’s biggest developments.

Those two rides, from startup scrappiness to structured operations, taught me how to grow from doing everything myself to building scalable systems that let people thrive in their zones of genius.

These days, through Alaia Advisory, I spend my time building, advising, and investing in service-based businesses. The mission’s simple: help Hawai‘i entrepreneurs design operations that run smoother, profit stronger, and give them more time to live their lives.

Zak Barry at Dorothy's in Honolulu

Life Projects

Building businesses that create freedom through systems

Alaia Advisory — Freedom Through Systems

Freedom Through Systems

Alaia Advisory

AI adoption, workflow automation, and systems design for Hawai‘i businesses. We help organizations remove barriers to AI, amplify what their people already do well, and build structured workflows that scale.

How We Work

  • Advisory & Strategy

    For leaders ready to shape the shift — roadmap, education, and hands-on partnership.

  • Managed Back-Office

    For operators who want it handled — integration, automation, and ongoing management.

  • AI Growth Engine

    New

    Generative Engine Optimization — get recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Connect with me

Posting rarely since 2007 — but feel free to get digitally intertwined.