Today we’d like to introduce you to David Perry.
David, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In 2014, my brother and I started with two simple camera’s and a vision: to tell the stories of Hawaii’s local businesses through content creation. But as we worked across the islands, we noticed a recurring, frustrating pattern.
Amazing small biz entrepreneurs to bigger companies were creating incredible products and services, but they were invisible online. They had the talent, but they didn’t have the “reach.”
I realized that great content was only half the battle—the other half was making sure people actually saw it. I dove head-first into the world of SEO and digital marketing to grow our my new marketing venture, and the results were life-changing. That’s when the mission shifted. I didn’t just want to grow my business; I wanted to use these same tools to lift up our entire community.
Fast forward to today, Digital Reach has grown into a full-scale content and digital marketing agency. We aren’t like other firms; we’re a tight-knit crew of friends and family who travel the islands together, capturing projects and solving the “digital puzzle” for our neighbors. We’re here to turn “I don’t know what to post” into a strategy that scales, and “I can’t find my website” into page-one results.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No — it started slow and stayed bumpy for a while.
For my first three months I had exactly one client, paying about $150/month. It took six months just to land client #2. My wife carried our household in that stretch, and I made her a deal: if I wasn’t earning what she earned within a year, I’d go get a job.
Just as things finally started compounding (year two improved, year three improved again), I hit the kind of setbacks you can’t “hustle” your way around: an economic downturn wiped out investor-backed clients, COVID cut about 50% of my business, and the Lahaina fires took another ~30%. In Hawaiʻi, where so many businesses depend on tourism, those shocks meant a lot of companies simply couldn’t afford marketing or content—or didn’t survive.
The upside is on the other side of that: it’s steady now, with long-term clients (5–8 years), and the best part is building with a team of friends and family—creating content together and adding clients slowly, year by year.
As you know, we’re big fans of Digital Reach. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Digital Reach is a Maui-based marketing agency serving all the main Hawaiian islands. We help local brands get found and chosen through content creation + video marketing, social media marketing, SEO/search engine marketing, website design, and PPC/ad management (which has been growing fast lately as more island brands look for reliable partners).
What sets us apart is how we work: we don’t operate like a “firm” with siloed departments. We run projects like a collaborative team, working closely with clients to build custom strategies that actually move the needle.
A big reason clients come to us is trust. We’ve seen too many businesses burned by sketchy agencies—overcharged, misled, or having ad spend siphoned—so we often start with audits that show what’s really been happening. Our reputation is built on being the team that’s transparent, reachable, and accountable.
What I’m most proud of: helping brands “get out of the woods.” We’ve worked with businesses that had zero visibility on search or social, and now they’re thriving because we built the right content, the right campaigns, and a strategy they can rely on.
Core offerings: SEO, social media marketing, content generation, PPC management, and web design—delivered by a team you can actually reach without waiting two weeks for a response.
How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happiest is simple: water, people, and the outdoors.
If I’m with my family and friends—at the beach, surfing, spearfishing, or just getting into the ocean—I feel reset. I also love music and traveling to other countries, but it always comes back to the same thing: being in nature with the people I care about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://digitalreach.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digitalreachco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digitalreachco
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-reach-hawaii/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@digitalreach
- Other: https://unsplash.com/@digitalreachmarketing
