Whether to move your home-grown startup from the Aloha State to the mainland is not an easy decision to make. Your mind says “go” while your heart says “stay.”
This was the situation with McKinley High grad Ho‘ala Greevy, a serial entrepreneur well known in local tech circles. To gain traction for Paubox, the company he founded, Greevy decided that moving to San Francisco was a necessity.
Paubox is an encrypted email technology designed specifically for health and medical organizations such as hospitals and medical practices that need to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards. It allows them to easily send and receive encrypted emails without installing software, pushing buttons or exchanging keys. It’s user-friendly, inexpensive, and you can use it on the desktop as well as on mobile devices.
The company’s origins couldn’t be more local.
Greevy, who is CEO, fine-tuned the product by listening to local customers and bootstrapped the business. However, he needed to find investors to keep up the pace, talent for his sales staff and more customers to grow the business.
After he moved to San Francisco in February 2015, we did a column on him. A few weeks ago we ran into him on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Francisco back to Honolulu where he preparing to pitch a local angel investment group.
We were curious how the company had fared since then, so we decided it was time for a Q&A:
Question: What have you gained (that would be difficult to get in Hawaii) as far as investment by moving your company to the Bay Area?
Answer: The opportunity to build and develop relationships with venture capitalists (VCs) is in abundance here in Silicon Valley. VCs want to get to know you before writing a check.
Q: Isn’t there plenty of money in Hawaii?
A: There is a significant gap in financing options for companies looking to raise Series A capital and beyond. It’s a common problem in many cities throughout the U.S.
Q: Does the San Francisco Bay Area make sense for local companies that have decided to make the move to the mainland?
A: If you are a B2B SaaS (software as a service) startup like we are, then yes, without a doubt.
Q: Can you provide some metrics as far as growth and sales that have occurred after your move?
A: Our staff grew from three to 12, and we’ve gone from six to 700 customers since moving to S.F.
Q: What’s going on with Paubox right now in terms of new products or other news?
A: We recently released a new product called Paubox DLP Suite. DLP stands for Data Loss Prevention, and we used customer feedback as a road map of how to build it. We are also in the planning stages for our first Paubox User Conference.
Q: Any tips for other Hawaii entrepreneurs on when it’s right to make the move to the mainland?
A: Hawaii is remarkable for getting access to customers and for being able to develop code in relative secrecy. I would argue, however, that once you have a viable product developed, you should move the business to a larger market. And there isn’t a larger market for tech than Silicon Valley.
Q: Can you think of any other advice to offer local entrepreneurs who might be thinking about making the move?
A: Your competition is here (in the Bay Area). What are they learning that you aren’t?
Q: I’m assuming you’ve really evolved as a business person since moving here. Tell me about it.
A: I’m blogging my life, quickly learning even more about the SaaS business model and keeping my ties to Hawaii.
Mike Meyer, formerly Internet general manager at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, is now chief information officer at Honolulu Community College. Reach him at mmeyer@hawaii.edu.
