Fellows mentioned in this story: Richard Matsui
From Pacific Business News:
Richard Matsui and Brent Akamine traveled parallel journeys after graduating from Punahou School and leaving Hawai‘i — each founded a technology company, grew the business on the Mainland, then sold to major national and global investors within two weeks of each other. Their paths follow a familiar arc in the local tech economy, where Hawaii-born kids leave the Islands for college, launch startups, grow them on the Mainland, then boomerang back with companies built for a global market. Now remote work and artificial intelligence have upended Hawaii’s tech ecosystem, freeing startups to be founded, grown and scaled without leaving home.
After Punahou, Matsui and Akamine left for Mainland colleges — Matsui to Georgetown University and Akamine to the University of Southern California.
Akamine, who previously led design for TikTok, co-founded Vinovest, an investment platform for fine wine and whiskey, with CEO Anthony Zhang in 2019 in Los Angeles. They grew the company to 200,000 users and more than $140 million in managed assets.
Matsui co-founded kWh Analytics, a renewable energy insurance provider, in 2012 in Hawaii, along with college friend Nick Malaya but moved the company to San Francisco that same year to be closer to the companies with the data.
Akamine and Matsui both returned to Hawai‘i during the COVID-19 pandemic and sold their companies within two weeks of each other.
Continue reading at bizjournals.com.
HumanizeHer — In this episode of HumanizeHer, we sit down with Meli James. As Co-Founder and General Partner of Mana Up, she has helped over 100 Hawai’i-based brands. She has scaled to global markets, generating over 113 million dollars in revenue and creating hundreds of jobs right on the islands. Her mission: keep the talent, the opportunity, and the economic power in Hawai’i - where it belongs.