Maui Vang, Entrepreneur from Finance to Fitness
By Meg Hale Brunton
Entrepreneur, financial advisor, and founder of Uphora Dance Fitness studio Maui Vang came to America as a toddler, when her Hmong parents fled the violence and persecution in Laos after the Vietnam War. By the time Maui was ten, she had six younger siblings, and her parents opened their own grocery store, followed by a restaurant, then a video production business. “That serial entrepreneurship lifestyle was imbued to me at a young age,” she says, adding that her parents also pushed their children to succeed academically. “That is a pretty foundational part of my story and eventual trajectory into becoming an entrepreneur.”
At eighteen, Maui married the son of a family friend her mother knew in Laos. The couple moved to North Carolina, where Maui attended NC State University and graduated in 2009 with a degree in Business and minor in Finance. Since she graduated during a financial crisis, Maui found that finance jobs were hard to come by. Eventually Maui got a job at a tech startup in Raleigh. “I didn’t know anything about tech. I didn’t fully grasp the startup world,” she admits.
In 2011, Maui and her husband (along with their new baby) decided to move to Asheville to help their church build a new location. After working remotely for a while, Maui stopped work to focus on being a mom. “Being a stay-at-home mom brought to light how hard it was to build a family off of one income,” she says. “It opened up my eyes to the world of personal finance, and in particular a financial planning career.”
Maui began taking online classes at Florida State University and earned her financial planning certification in 2015. She found the role of financial advisors to be fraught with conflicts of interest, and that they only took wealthy clients. “When I learned about this, it made me even more driven to enter this world and do it the right way,” Maui explains, saying that she wanted to work with hardworking families who had not accumulated wealth. “I want to work with people who need good advice to get on their feet.”
She got a job with a small financial planning firm in Asheville. Though she admired their client-centric business model, Maui found that the job was demanding yet the services offered were not accessible to many people. “I’ve got to find a way to create another solution for offering financial advice affordably to people who are trying to get somewhere,” she remembers thinking.
Through research, Maui discovered fintech (the use of technology to automate financial work). Thinking this option could make financial planning accessible to people of all wealth levels, she began putting together a fintech-based business model that would help consumers get rid of debt, refinance loans, and increase net worth. After working with startup support organizations like Hatch Innovation Hub, and attending programs at UNC-Charlotte and NC Idea Labs in Durham, Maui had startup fever. “It was like drinking from a fire hose!” she says of all she learned about technology and business models. “I was fully on the startup journey.” Unfortunately, Maui never found investors for her company or connected with a cofounder. In Fall 2019, she took a sober look at her business and decided to shelve it, with the hope of returning to the world of fintech one day.
She joined a financial planning firm based in Florida and after working remotely for a couple of years through the pandemic, Maui was introduced to a businessman who was looking for a CFP to co-found a new firm. Impressed with the company’s mission, Maui partnered with him to co-found Tilly, Inc., a financial advisory firm focused on providing affordable, accessible financial advice. Though the business shared many of Maui’s goals, it lacked the momentum she felt was needed to effect change in the industry.
Maui eventually felt stuck, so she began taking on other hobbies. She started working out regularly and taking dance fitness classes. “It was like therapy to me. Dance was healing, restoring wholeness,” Maui explains. Before long, she was attending ten classes a week in various styles of dance from Zumba to hip hop.
In August 2022, Maui learned that a local ballet studio had closed its doors unexpectedly. She took the initiative to pay the business a visit. “That’s what entrepreneurs do; they just hustle to find a way,” she says. Maui met with the landlord, shared about her business background, presented an innovative business model and ultimately, convinced him to rent the space to her. The idea of founding a dance studio was an unexpected but welcome change for Maui from the world of finance. So she decided to leave Tilly to pursue the studio business.
In October 2022, Uphora Dance Fitness studio opened its doors (originally called Revel Dance Fitness). With Uphora, Maui’s vision was to create an affordable, inclusive studio where people of all levels of dance can come together and share transformative experiences. “Dancing is filled with joy and self-actualization. I always wanted to help people achieve a sense of self-agency in life and feel like they can flourish and thrive,” she says.
Uphora offers adult dance classes in everything from latin dance to hip hop, and even belly dancing classes, with drop-in availability. Maui delights in witnessing the energizing effect that Uphora’s classes have on their clientele. “I just love seeing people dance and be joyful and progress over time. It creates confidence and that confidence leaks over into other realms of life. It’s the same thing with gaining control of one’s personal finances.” Although Maui’s business endeavors may change, she remains grounded in her values: creating a more equitable and thriving community for all.
To learn more about Uphora Dance Fitness, visit their website: https://uphoradance.com/
