After working in technology through the dot-com era, Derek Gabriel was ready to take a break from the industry when he moved to Hawaii in the early 2000s.
But soon, while working for a car dealership, he noticed ways that the company and other businesses could improve processes and increase efficiencies through technology.
“I wanted to help people do things better,” he said, “and I saw opportunities for helping businesses improve by taking advantage of technology.”
To that end, in 2005, he launched his first IT company, Gabriel Phoenix Communications, which focused on helping organizations set up internet networks. As technology evolved, Gabriel widened his scope to concentrate on cloud services and he launched Ignite Solutions Group in 2015 to reflect those changes. More recently, Ignite has continued to evolve, moving into assisting businesses in the transition to remote work when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and subsequently helping them combat online threats.
“With the change in the way folks operate and communicate, there suddenly became a whole new set of risks … [with] people spread out in different offices and using different devices,” he said. “There was this period where cyber threats became very prolific. In the last three years, we have really transitioned into … having a strong focus on cybersecurity. Our mission today is to eliminate cyber risks for businesses in Hawaii.”
Ignite has three full-time employees, along with several other contractors. The company works with small- and medium- sized businesses in different industries, and a number of nonprofits.
“It's so much fun working with nonprofits because anything we can do to either save them money or make them more efficient means that they have a bigger impact in the community,” Gabriel said. “It's definitely a win-win in those scenarios because it's so rewarding when the companies you work with are doing good things.”
Give me an overview of the services you offer. Cybersecurity is really key. We're leaning on that as our primary service now. Having staff for cybersecurity is very expensive, and so a lot of organizations work with outsourced partners on the continent or in other places in the world. What we're trying to do is to bring some of those services that aren't available directly in Hawaii to Hawaii. … Other than that, we do IT consulting and IT management. So, essentially, for some businesses, we act as a full outsourced IT department — help desk, and what we call centralized services, which is taking care of the [software] patches and updates. And then [we do] strategic conversations where we sit down with organizations and say, “what are your organization's goals three or five years out?” and “how can technology solve these problems for you?”
What has been your approach to growing the business and finding new clients? This year was the first year I officially brought on someone who had a sales role — we’ve got an inside sales rep and we’re doing some old-fashioned stuff [such as] cold calls. The truth about helping people understand cyber risk is that I've just got to talk to a lot of people, and I don't expect that everyone will automatically want to buy our services. But if I can help educate folks to understand what cyber risk is and how it could affect their business, at some point they're going to need a service from us or they might find out it’s too complicated [for their] team internally to handle it. This year specifically has been about getting out and talking to as many people as possible to help educate them on what cyber risks really are. … I've written a couple of small books … [that feature] technical information in an easy-to-understand story format that I can pass out. … [I do] networking in all forms, and I'm trying to do as many speaking engagements as I can. Recently, I started a LinkedIn newsletter.
What is one piece of advice you would give other small businesses? I believe that any business owner or any executive should join a peer advisory group. I’ve joined a group that is specific to IT and cybersecurity service providers — I have a pod with eight other business owners, and so what that has turned into is essentially my personal executive board. We’ll [ask] each other, … “I’m having a problem doing X or Y, what do you suggest?” And that’s been super powerful.
That, and focus on marketing and sales. The one thing I wish I would have done better from the outset is marketing and sales. The truth is that every business needs to do it constantly.
Overall, what is your goal with Ignite? I'm hoping that we can eliminate a lot of the cyber risk that we see for businesses in Hawaii. Ultimately, in the long run, that means that I've successfully educated as many business folks, executives and entrepreneurs as I can, and that they all better understand the risks and what they can do to mitigate those things. And then at the same time as we do that, [I hope to] create some great jobs in our state.
Ignite Solutions Group
Derek Gabriel, CEO
Phone: 808-450-2693
Email: hello@ignitetheday.com
Website: ignitetheday.com
