BY JULIA DUDA, EMILY REYNA, CHRISTINA KOZLOW, L’KAI TAYLOR AND MADISON McGHEE

 

 

Dressed in cargo shorts, black Nikes and an Irish-green Notre Dame sweatshirt, Patrick O’Friel heads through the entrance of Blackbaud on Daniel Island. He navigates to his office by cutting through the software company’s main atrium, which features a dozen palm trees that outline an ornate water fountain in the center of the room.

     When O’Friel graduated from Clemson University in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, he didn’t make the migration to the West Coast like thousands of other computer science grads. Instead of Silicon Valley, O’Friel chose Silicon Harbor, otherwise known as Charleston, S.C.

     Twenty-three years old, and the youngest person on his team, O’Friel is a software engineer for Blackbaud, a publicly traded company that creates financial software for nonprofits. “The technology game has really stepped up in Charleston,” says O’Friel. “Most of the engineers I graduated with have stayed in the Southeast. It’s too expensive to move to places like Silicon Valley, because taxes in California are so high.”

     For years, Charleston has been celebrated as a travel destination and “friendliest city,” but its best-kept secret is its rapidly growing technology industry. Some of the high-tech players in the Charleston area have familiar names: Boeing, which built a plant here in 2009 and is now producing mid-section and aft sections for its Dreamliner passenger jets. Or Google, which built a sprawling center in Goose Creek, a few miles north of Charleston. But there are many others, such as Charleston hometown high-tech success story—Blackbaud. Then there are dozens of smaller startups, including Bibliolabs, Blue Acorn and Benefitfocus.

     When asked what Charleston’s emerging high-tech industry looks like, Stanfield Gray, the promoter behind Dig South, a five-day interactive festival, responded: “an ecosystem.” Three years ago, Gray decided to start a technology conference where high-tech businesses in the Charleston area could interact and spawn new businesses. Gray modeled Dig after such interactive festivals as South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and the TED Conference, and he envisions it as a catalyst for the Charleston high-tech industry.

     As a Mississippi native and Charleston resident, Gray felt “it was time to help people in the Southeast connect and bring the technology industry to Charleston.” Armed with a business plan, an impressive LinkedIn account and that famous Southern charm, Gray sought out potential supporters and investors to make his ecosystem a reality.

     Three years, later Dig South is thriving: More than 650 companies, 200 presenters and 6,500 guests attend the festival, which runs this year from April 28th through May 2nd. The event attracts thousands of attendees and features more than a dozen event locations around downtown Charleston.

The statistics show that high-tech is thriving in Charleston. In the next five years, the region will create more than 25,000 jobs, 19.9 percent of which will be in computer and software and 16.4 percent in science and engineering fields. As one software engineer recently put it, high-tech in Charleston is finally reaching a critical mass.

     In this special report for Pluff magazine, we will describe the exciting world of technology that is sweeping over Charleston. First we will visit with Blackbaud, the local tech company that has pioneered high tech success in the low country. Next we will visit with the biggest and most significant player to arrive in the Charleston area: Boeing. We’ll talk with two millennials who, through their work at Boeing are changing not only the history of aviation, but Charleston’s history as well.

     Next we will visit with the Charleston Digital Corridor, a city entity that provides office space, comradeship and even funding to local techie start-ups, and then wind up with Oneinamil, a vibrant Charleston recruiting firm that is matching talented workers here with the new flood of high-tech jobs. In the end, it will be clear, as stated by O’Friel, “Charleston is not only the perfect place to be for people right out of college like me, but for those looking to create a business in an emerging technological hub.”

 

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It was not long ago that Charleston was a factory town, with the Navy Yard and its base for nuclear subs the most technology-centered activities in the region. But by the 1980s, most of the factories were gone, and by 1996, the Navy had closed up its base and most of its nuclear operations, taking thousands of jobs with it. The Charleston economy had been essentially gutted. But then, when things looked their worst, a few sprouts began to rise from the barren fields, in the form of a new kind of business: high-tech firms.

     One of the first of these was a software company named Blackbaud, which Anthony Bakker brought to the Lowcountry in 1989 and established on Daniel Island. A native of England, Bakker moved to New York City in 1979 to put his computer programming skills to use. Three years later, he founded his own company, Blackbaud, Inc., to develop computerized billing systems for private schools. Due to high operational costs in New York and a yearning for warmer weather, he moved his company to South Carolina.

     Blackbaud tapped into the nonprofit market’s needs, distinguishing itself from other software companies by developing fundraising and accounting software for microcomputers (laptops) instead of mainframes. In 1994, Blackbaud continued to stay ahead of the technological curve. It embraced the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, which was user-friendly and eliminated the need for users to type in commands, like DOS did, which was the current operating system at the time. Blackbaud’s sales increased and the company catapulted in front of its competitors, which didn’t embrace the technological change as quickly.

     Blackbaud continues to grow every year, and is recognized as the leading provider of software for nonprofits. The publicly traded company, as of 2004, generated $447 million in revenue in 2012. Blackbaud’s success has provided a shining example to other software startups that have also settled in Charleston. Little did Bakker know that in settling in South Carolina he was taking the first steps toward making Charleston into Silicon Harbor.

 

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When Boeing arrived in North Charleston in 2009, the Lowcountry responded with excitement and hope. At the time, unemployment in South Carolina was at an all-time high. Boeing wanted to open a new plant to assemble its groundbreaking Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and South Carolina, with its low unionization and taxation rates, looked appealing. State lawmakers attracted the multinational aeronautical corporation with a welcome basket of financial incentives valued at $450 million. In return, Boeing promised to create at least 3,800 jobs.

     Samantha Eberhardt, a recent graduate from West Virginia University, is just one of Boeing’s thousands of employees. After accepting a job, she packed her bags and headed even further south. She describes the transition from college life to work life as difficult. “You go from having homework, time to play and back to school. You get into that rhythm,” she explains, “Then you get into the working environment, and right off the bat it’s a whole different scenario.”

     For Eberhardt, the job at Boeing begins at 6 in the morning, a bit earlier than the 10 a.m. classes she was used to in college. But getting there early is important, since the plant must keep up with international contacts in different time zones. What she particularly likes about the job is the opportunity to work with veteran employees who have worked for Boeing, in many cases, for decades. They teach her some things—and she gets to teach them some things as well.

     “I’ll work with people my dad’s age, and all of a sudden they’ll say, ‘Hey, Sam, do you know how this works on Facebook?’” Eberhardt emphasizes the importance of not only her social media skills but the computer skills that helped her obtain her job.

     Although Boeing is based in the Pacific Northwest, it has worked hard to integrate its employees into the fabric of Charleston. She says that when she arrived in South Carolina, Boeing “taught us all about Charleston. They took us on a tour of it.”

     Eberhardt notes that the Northwest can be dark and gloomy, and that when people realize that Charleston is warmer and sunnier, they see a transfer as an ideal career move. “I know a lot of people who came to Boeing because they came to Charleston to visit,” Eberhardt explains. “They loved this town and had to be here.” She says that one her co-workers lived in North Carolina, and even then applied at Boeing when he heard that it was opening a plant near Charleston. “It’s amazing how the reputation of this city precedes itself,” she says, noting that she believes the high-tech transformation of Charleston has only begun.

     Another of Boeing’s newer employees is Alex Petkus. It’s his third year at Boeing, where he works as a research engineer.The first word to come to mind after “engineer” might not be “creative,” but Petkus would disagree. He sees engineering, particularly at Boeing’s Charleston plant, centering on innovation and creativity.

     “There is a side of engineering now where you can move beyond the basic math and science,” explains Petkus. “ We move into the creative and innovative exploration of engineering. That’s where the growth in engineering is going.”

     Petkus explains that he gets most excited about a problem when he doesn’t know the answer; when it’s not immediately obvious. He gets to dig in and be creative. Teamwork is important as well. “I think people have this vision of an engineer in this 1960s-style everyone wears a lab coat and comes in and stands in front of a drafting table and they work independently,” he says. “But the new engineering is really working as a community and as a team.” He says the open offices of Google, and at Boeing, are evidence of the level of collaboration that goes on.

     Petkus is not the only one who sees this trend. Dr. Chris Starr, a computer professor at the College of Charleston, teaches a class that blends math and science with the arts, demonstrating the interdisciplinary skills needed by entrepreneurs. As Starr explains it, the idea is to go from “STEM” learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) to “TEAM” learning (Technology, Entrepreneur, Arts, Media). “When STEM learning came about in the 1990s, education has been very focused on science and math,” says Starr. “But now there is too much of this; there needs to be creative thinkers.” He adds, “You can’t succeed at science, math or technology if you don’t have people who can be innovative.”

 

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You may have seen some of the employees of Charleston’s BoomTown last year. They were dressed as bulls and matadors and were running through the streets downtown as part of the iFive:K race. Embracing the “Viva la BoomTown!” mindset, they won the event’s spirit award.

     The race was organized by the Charleston Digital Corridor (CDC), an organization founded in 2001 to give tech entrepreneurs inexpensive offices downtown and more importantly, to bring together a community that would create new firms.

     Named by INC. Magazine as one of the nation’s fastest-growing small tech companies, BoomTown creates marketing software for the real estate industry. Ernest Andrade, founder and director of the CDC, has built the organization through four pillars—community, talent, space, and capital. It now has more than 100 member companies.

     The CDC’s first incubator-type office space was founded downtown in 2009 with a 5,200-square-foot space and 14 offices. The second, in 2011, had 13,700 square feet and 16 offices. The third space, slated for 2016, will have 50,000 square feet and more than 30 offices. “Companies need a place downtown that they can call home,” says CDC program manager Carolyn Finch.

     Despite being a temporary nesting place for companies, the CDC offices are cool. The small one or two person offices are sectioned off with glass and open into a full kitchen with bright yellow accents and high ceilings. The offices are furnished and have Wi-fi, stylish conference rooms and 24/7 access.

     The CDC’s activities also include hosting conferences on topics such as women in technology, matching job-seekers with high-tech jobs and helping startups find angel investors that are willing to take a chance with a new idea. They’ll even try to fill the streets downtown with inflatable bulls again this year.

 

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Cell phone in hand, tote on arm, wearing a black dress and trendy royal blue coat from Paisley, Lee-Anne Scalley is a woman in motion. She’s also is CEO and talent recruiter of Oneinamil, a recruiting company for Silicon Harbor businesses. While Scalley dresses to the nines, she advises clients to keep it simple for their high-tech applicants. “Offer simple things, comfy chairs, jeans, flip-flops, soda,” the headhunter explains.

     Starting out as vice president of Sparc, a local software start-up, Scalley saw a need and started OneinaMil Talent Recruiting Company. She not only wants to match workers with jobs, but make sure that Charleston companies have created an atmosphere and workplace that will attract high-tech types.         “Your people is your product,” Scalley reminds business owners. “Without them there would be no company.”

      Among the projects Scalley currently working on is the Silicon Harbor Reality show, a web-based show that serves to bring attention to Charleston’s tech scene while showing the perks of being involved such a growing economy. As one of the six recruiters on the show, Scalley wants to highlight Charleston as a culture of shared success. She sees Charleston’s growing economy as a way to get a head start.

     Aside from hands-on projects, Scalley is interested in getting schools and colleges in the area to partner with tech companies in training students. There aren’t enough skills, talent and qualifications in Charleston to properly build the tech industry locally, she says. To address this deficiency, she hopes that the local tech companies will collaborate with the area colleges.

     Scalley focuses on recruiting outside the area by attending such conferences and networking events as DevNexus in Atlanta and Posscon in Columbia. Aside from conferences, Scalley targets a list of people and goes after them, focusing on passive candidates that aren’t in search of a job but could benefit from being in a more healthy work environment. “So you become a professional stalker,” says Scalley. She compares her work to a scene from the film “Boiler Room,” where everyone is constantly on the phone and the room is in complete chaos. That, she says, is what talent recruiting is about.

     Scalley is full of enthusiasm and brimming with ideas. “Go out and find what you want,” she exclaims. “Don’t sit around and wait for it.”

 

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It’s the end of the workday at Blackbaud, and Patrick O’Friel steps out of the atrium into the late afternoon sun. The humidity clings to his skin as he drives off the island, passing its marshes and the golden grass lining the harbor. Each person represented in the tech industry in Charleston represents different skill sets, passions and visions for innovative businesses. Charleston is finally a competitor in the world of technology, with the evidence in big companies like Boeing and Blackbaud, but also in smaller companies like Boomtown and Benefitfocus. People like O’Friel, Petkus and Scalley are the reason Charleston is on the national radar. Local hospitality translates well. This is not only a place to call home, but increasingly a place to find meaningful work.