Q. What experiences during your upbringing in the Micronesian state of Yap prepared you for the business world?

A. My parents are well known. My father, Sam Falanruw, was the chief justice for the Supreme Court and my mother, Margie Falanruw, runs the Yap Institute of Natural Science, a nonprofit. Growing up in Yap, I had a couple of small businesses. At that time there was no high school on Yap so my parents opened up a small high school in a little room on one of our properties. It's so hot and they were always walking down this trail so I sold (frozen) sweetened milk or Kool-Aid in ice trays. Basically I built a little stand right where all the students were walking and they had to pass me by. When I got older, on one of our pieces of property I went and got all of my cousins to work for me doing a huge garden. There was this huge housing complex for people helping the government and I noticed they didn't have their own gardens. So every Saturday we would fill up these baskets of vegetables and fruit and go and sell it to the neighborhood. We made $300 and (hired) a plane to fly us around the island. For some of us, it was the first time we'd ever been in a plane. That was our big reward.

Q. You're now the head of a digital media company, but you had never seen a computer until you got to UH-Hilo?

A. When I got to Hilo that was the first time I ever put my hands on a computer, when I was 19.

Q. Did a light bulb go off immediately?

A. That's when the seed was planted. We were just learning real basics, Microsoft Word and Excel and browsing online, but that's when it started.

Q. Digital Mediums has been expanding ever since you started it six years ago and clients now include the City and County of Honolulu, state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hanauma Bay Education Center, Hawai'i Convention Center, Hawai'i Tourism Authority, various hotel resorts and the Yap Visitors Authority, among a long list of others.

A. One is the creative front, a lot of intelligent, interactive visuals like Hanauma Bay, where we built all of the touchscreen kiosks they have. On one of the screens, you can touch the screen and the fish will follow you. At the same time, there's an educational purpose to it. The second thing Digital Mediums does is matching form and function. That part is more developing applications, whether it's desktop software or a Web based system. The whole goal is to help our clients automate and streamline their business operations (like) a reservation, point of sale system for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays and integrating that to their desks as well as their Web site with online reservations and having it all be seamless.

Q. You've had a mixed experience hiring friends from college and friends you grew up with in Micronesia.

A. Some of them are still with me. Some of them are no longer with me. When I started the company in 2000, I was 24 and you're not necessarily thinking of creating a corporation. You're just thinking, 'Wouldn't it be cool to put together something and produce cool work?' We were all just kids out of college. As the business takes off, roles change and the demands of the business also change. At one point I had my hands on all aspects of the business. As things changed, I had to make the transition to rely on other people a lot more. When that happens, you have to adapt and become more of a manager and a leader. Sometimes that may happen with your friends and sometimes that may not happen. It can be painful because it doesn't always work out. A friend may not be capable of growing into that leadership position that you would love for them to be.

Q. So the Western, business side took precedence?

A. If anything, I've tried to move people around a lot. I've actually gone through a lot of exhausting efforts. But I've had to fire some of these people that I've known for a while. That's the most difficult thing. I'm not sure if I'm quite at that point where I'd say, 'No matter what, you never hire friends.' But ultimately, you have to have expectations really, really defined. If it just so happens, you have a friend who meets that, I'm not against that. But you have to have that position filled by a professional. I would communicate the expectations and if they're not met, we have to be ready to part.

Q. You mentioned that sales and marketing sometimes get short shrift. Is that also part of your upbringing?

A. Definitely. Selling yourself and going out there and bragging doesn't come first-hand for me, growing up on Yap. It definitely went against everything that's me. I had to address that whole issue right after I started the company. I quickly realized that marketing and sales are critical for this business to work so I literally went out and bought "Marketing for Dummies" and sales books and started applying them the next day. I definitely had to develop a very different skill set.

Q. And yet you were named Hawai'i's Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2003.

A. I've been fortunate to have people around me that do the boasting for me. The SBA was one where my banker submitted me for that one and I had no idea until he called me and said, 'Hey, you got the Young Entrepreneur of the Year.' That was awesome because I got to skip trying to promote myself. I've been fortunate. A lot of things have worked out that way.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.