Hawaii may be growing into a “Startup Paradise” for new ideas and early-stage companies, but many entrepreneurs know that growing up often means moving to the West Coast.
For Scott Mercer, the founder and CEO of electric vehicle charging firm Volta, that meant moving to San Francisco when he had to raise venture capital in the beginning of 2014.
Many entrepreneurs from Hawaii have taken a similar path. As two experts on startups explained to Civil Geeks earlier this month, moving away from Hawaii is almost inevitable for these companies. The state is simply too small of a market to give all startups everything they need to grow. But it offers a lot to those just getting started.
The Volta team in San Francisco welcomes a visiting group of founders from the Honolulu-based Blue Startups accelerator program.
After that column ran, Luke Tucker, a venture associate at Sultan Ventures, shared his thoughts in a blog post about whether companies should move from smaller communities like Honolulu to a “bonafide tech hub” like San Francisco.
That was true for Volta, the electric vehicle charging company.
“Volta didn’t move so much as expand,” said Mercer.
He noted that Volta built its first two charging stations in a two-car garage using money he saved while working as a mechanic. Once the company proved charging stations could be lucrative advertising platforms, it started building a team in California in 2013.
But not all growing startups spent time growing their business in the Hawaii market first.
Greevy, like other founders, knew the money the company needed for rapid growth was concentrated on the West Coast.
In addition to investors, startups need customers, and there is a bigger supply of clients and buyers outside Hawaii.
Once settled in San Francisco, Hawaii startups are finding a receptive but sometimes skeptical audience.
Founders who move to California from Hawaii may not be so out of place, though.
And despite some tough questions from potential investors, many Hawaii startups are finding success, even as small fish in a very big pond.
AreaMetrics has raised about $2.5 million and is well on its way to meeting its growth milestones for the year, Bennett said. Meanwhile, the company is developing a new suite of products for big-box retailers to forge stronger connections with customers — products that are already being tested in some top-tier stores.
Volta charging stations can now be found in Hawaii, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Chicago. The company said it has powered more than 6.7 million electric free miles (and displaced over 250,000 gallons of gas). Volta recently announced plans to deploy 600 free public charging stations over the next 12 months.
Paubox was recently accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator, the first Native Hawaiian-founded company to enter the program. Greevy said his company already has over 350 customers spread across 44 states plus Guam, generating 24 percent month-over-month revenue growth in 2016 alone.
So should local entrepreneurs relocate?
But Hawaii is a great launching pad, he added.
This is part two of a two-part column on opportunities for Hawaii entrepreneurs and startups outside the islands. Read the first part here.