Who are you and what do you do?

Bert Jackson, CEO of Koa Media. We are an interactive communications agency that uses web design and web media to thoughtfully market your organization.

What services/products do you offer?

Briefly, web design and ancillary services. Not briefly: web design based on marketing principles and business goals. We also offer both in house and through our network of affiliates marketing services that include graphic design, advertising, public relations, copy writing, photography and illustration.

Who/where is your audience?

We work with a range of clients from Fortune 500 to intimate Cape Cod inns. While most of our clientele are in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area, we have clients in many other US states, including Hawaii; Belize; Anguilla; and Sweden. We have a number of trade show clients and have also done a good amount of newspaper web work in the past 18 months. That said, overall we have a diverse group from an island school for wayward boys to a petroleum distribution company to a company that makes epoxy coatings to a data migration software firm.

What is the website?

http://www.koamedia.com, of course

Well-Funded or Bootstrapped?

Bootstrapped, and old boots, too. Like those kind from LL Bean with the rubber bottoms and the leather uppers.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

Getting some new boots?
Seriously, I’d like to see the firm self-sufficient so my day to day involvement wasn’t necessary and I could manage it from anywhere. Preferable Kona.

Where were you born - where do you live now?

Born in NH, lived in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands my whole adult life until moving here to the Cape (Brewster) in 1991. The brochure said the Cape had very mild winters. Apparently others got the same brochure. Wait till I find out who wrote that brochure…

PC or Mac?

Mac since 1988. But I respect my PC-using cousins. Really.

Where did you go to school?

In Hawaii this means “where did you go to high school?” (this I have been asked there on many occasions). So the answer is South Berwick, Maine. I also went to UNH, Florida Technological University and the University of the Virgin Islands (really).

What Social Networks are you on?

Linked-In, Pownce. Started to set up a MySpace page, but then the band broke up.

Greatest invention ever?

Guitar or Mac? Guitar or Mac? Hmmmm, probably have to go with guitar. Barely.

Person you believe has contributed most to the world of technology?

Unfair question! So many possibilities, depending on context. Newton, Turing. But recently, you have to give Steve Jobs props making sophisticated technology extremely usable, and dead sexy, too (the technology, I think Steve may have passed whatever prime he had in that department).

Where have you traveled in your life?

Oye. Many states in the US, Hawaii over a dozen times. The Caribbean (lived there). Stockholm, Rodos, Greece, Belize, Mexico. And Canada, der.

Why set up shop on Cape Cod?

Fewer category 4/5 hurricanes than St. Thomas (though Bob hit us three months after moving here-many blamed me for bringing it on).

5 Websites you go to every day?

My iGoogle page (broken into News, Web and Mac tabs). Usually Reuters. Cape Cod Five (I live by online banking). Red Sox on Boston.com in season. And @Bar, of course 

What’s on your iPod right now?

You mean playing right now? I think it was Full House by Wes Montgomery. I have beacoup jazz, a lot of guitar jazz especially (and Wes very especially!). Miles, Coltrane. Avishai Cohen. Zeppelin. Bluesbreakers. John McLaughlin. Femi Kuti. Larry Coryell. Brubeck. And so on…

What is on your desktop/screensaver right now?

A photo of my sister-in-law on the Na Pali Trail in Kauai

You are on a deserted island - do you bring a laptop or book?

How long am I on the island? Is there wireless? Power? If the last two are yes, then laptop. Otherwise book.

Phone call or text message?

Text if it’s short. Phone if it’s a client (no matter how short) or someone I need to make up to… (especially if it’s both!)

Feel free to tell us anything else….?

Owned a vegetarian restaurant in the VI
Somewhat earthy crunchy
Another stubborn Capricorn…

Mahalo, Bert! Aloha!