Dev Island: Bridging the Digital Divide for Businesses on the Garden Isle

In the ‘70s, Nate’s dad, covered in tattoos from neck to toe, was one of the early-adopters in the nascent skateboarding world. He was there for the invention of the sport, starting out on a two by four with roller-skating wheels underneath. It had an incendiary rise in popularity, birthing a subculture with enormous impact—even to this very day. His father was part of its evolution into an industry, promoting tournaments, tours and whatever it took to make skateboarding a bona fide, cultural and commercial phenomenon. His mom was the rock and glue that kept the craziness together.

Nate and his three brothers entered the world through this singularly unique portal. Aside from the obvious excitement, their dad was always about taking care of others. When someone was stranded on the side of the road, you could count on him to stop and help. As the boys got older, they became part of the crew that was always conscripted into his caring predisposition.

In the midst of their skateboarding, music inevitably found its way into the boys’ lives. As a result, Nate and his brothers started a band while they were still in middle school. At the age of seventeen, he and his brothers spent a summer touring the U.S. The highlight of their short-lived music career was opening for Bad Religion at the San Diego House of Blues.

Change was beginning to brew in Nate’s world. He took a couple of classes at a community college and worked some random jobs. After some encouragement from his dad, Nate began attending Brigham Young University in Idaho.

During his first year, he fell in love with Alyssa. She was in her last year studying mechanical engineering. Upon her graduation, they moved to Utah, where Nate ended up finishing school and getting a master’s degree in Public Administration.

While in college, Nate worked at a variety of warehouses and factories involved with shipping operations, among other things. The idea of making other people money didn’t really resonate with how he grew up. Eventually, he put all his skills to use, serving the world of commerce within the public sector.

While earning his degree in 2019, he did an internship at the City Manager’s Office in Orem, UT, when a job as an Economic Development Analyst opened up. He took it and ended up building relationships within their business community—very similar to what he has been doing here on Kauaʻi for the past year and a half.

Over time, the Utah winters wore him down. As a family man with two young boys, he began to feel the island’s pull. Like many of us transplants, the paradise of Kauaʻi can be hopelessly alluring. It captured Nate’s heart, but only his wallet could initiate the relocation. His skillset in business development needed a home, and Alyssa, who worked in the invisible world of technology, had the privilege of professional portability.

Nate found Nalani Brun, the director of Kauaʻi’s Office of Economic Development, on LinkedIn and stuck up a connection while keeping a watchful eye on employment possibilities. A Business Specialist position opened and he immediately began the application process. His experience with visiting businesses in Orem to determine their needs perfectly resonated with Mayor Kawakami’s strong desire to get someone out in the community doing the exact same thing. Kauaʻi is funny that way. Caring about her goes a long way in helping to orchestrate the circumstances that will bring you here.

In his first year, he spoke with over 400 businesses, which had never been done before on this magnitude. Interestingly, because he was new, they tended to be quite candid about how things were going for them. This allowed Nate to create an inventory of their challenges. He was struck by one of the businesses’ feedback regarding social media. The owners didn’t have the time or expertise to deal with it, which was a big problem for them and others.

In my very first conversation with Nate, Dev Island came up. The moment he mentioned its name, history and purpose, I wanted to know more. Before he started at OED, Dev Island had already received an Innovation Grant from them to create a “boot camp” to train young people in coding and web design.

After joining OED, Nate met Dev Island’s Richard Uhl. The two hit it off instantly and began getting together pretty regularly.

Richard, also known as “Rich,” came to Kauaʻi in October 2020. By his own definition, he is “a techno nerd, entrepreneur and business founder.” Wherever he has relocated to throughout his life, he has always had a strong desire to put down roots. As soon as he arrived on Kauaʻi, he wrote a narrative about his experience and the idea of starting a non-profit devoted to creating a technology-based work force on the island, for the island. This document was largely responsible for securing the initial grant from OED, birthing Dev Island in the process. Rich defines the pillars of this effort as Technology, Education and Business.

As a result of Nate’s many business conversations, he began developing a program to teach people the rudimentary skills required to address the absence of qualified social media marketing talent in the marketplace. At the same time, Rich’s experience with the creating and implementation of the coding boot camp provided strong client feedback about the absence of any support in digital marketing. Rich and Nate came from completely different paths to the exact same place and the exact same time. Then comes Alana Mann, who first met Rich while Nate was just beginning to work on his program.

Alana was born and raised on Kauaʻi. She went to college on the continent and has been active in the world of digital marketing ever since. During her first meeting with Rich, the two decided they needed to start a digital marketing agency to give back and create jobs for the community. This led to the genesis of JumpStart, a Dev Island subsidiary.

Nate had a list of businesses that had expressed a serious need for digital marketing support. JumpStart came to life specifically to adress this need, and a second Innovation Grant from OED formally launched this new marriage.

Dev Island started with two individuals, Rich and Alana, who were bring paid by the businesses they were initially assigned to help as part of the JumpStart program. Based on the extraordinary results they were seeing, many of them quickly realized how important digital marketing was for their business. What started as a service became a necessity. The pair has found great joy in empowering Kauaʻi residents with the skills and experience needed to become part of a vibrant marketplace with unlimited opportunities.

“We would not have done this without the support of the County,” said Rich. “We would not be having our conversation without their financial support and the connection to businesses initiated by Nate. It is a unique circumstance.”

On June 14, 2024, I was thrilled to attend a combined graduation and celebration for the two cohorts—10 students from the web design boot camp and two graduates of the Dev Island/JumpStart program. I got to witness the joy and excitement shared by all those who participated in the programs, including the graduates, volunteers and businesses impacted by their work.

“People, I hope will see they can make a difference,” said Alana.

Meeting Rich and Alana revealed to me their commitment to this project and how much helping these people mattered to them. When I say “helping,” I am referring to much more than teaching technical skills. Imparting life lessons was equally important and so beautifully expressed by the graduates. It was also wonderful to hear the gratitude expressed toward the County and how important their contributions were to the entire undertaking.

Sitting at the graduation, I witnessed the best way to close this story. Kauai Kookie CEO Ann Hashisaka was recounting her experience with the Dev Island/JumpStart program.

“We’re old school. There’s a whole new vocabulary for an old school company. Shoutout to the County. A whole new way of life, a new way that business is done. If you’re not in it, you are not engaging with customers,” she said. “The work with Dev Island is magic. Getting results we never had before, revolutionizing how we do business.”

If you or someone you know is interested in connecting with Dev Island, visit their website at dev-island.org. As OED’s business specialist, Nate Prescott is always available to share how the County may be of service to your business.