I often get the feeling that this sort of self-serving entrepreneurship seems somewhat standard on the island. Some of it is just the "small town" and insular nature of the business scene here, but sometimes I wonder if there's something more malicious to it.
Prototype manufacturing plants need a source of material having to fly things in automatically makes them more expensive.
Software companies need engineers but engineers typically go to where the jobs are. So until there are jobs, there are few engineers.
Infrastructure companies need startup companies that are being created to keep the gear around so that they can help build infrastructure.
Entrepreneurs need a source of capital that understands both the opportunity and the risks. They need banks that also understand the opportunity and the risks.
What is the current connectivity solution for Maui? Is there 10gbit connectivity back to the mainland? At what cost per Mb? Any local data centers?
What are the minimum taxes on a business in Hawaii? What are the minimum compliance regulations?
Is there an advocacy group, something like the Chamber of Commerce which has a whitepaper (should have answers to some of these questions in it)
I came to the conclusion, in my own little thoughts about it, that Maui s best suited for remote dev/sysad/ops work if anything.
While I wa just thinking for myself - it could be expanded to a contract support/ops/development company that lures talent there via the fact that it is maui....
I don't know anything about the housing costs - but food was pretty expensive.
Maui and Hawaii certainly have some intrinsic difficulties inherent to having a lower population base located 3000 miles from just about anything, but all in all I'd say there's more movement towards helping create a better tech eco system here. Part of what makes this sort of dubious investment so unfortunate is this clearly was part of that drive to provide some startup fuel to companies here.
Maui is changing fast. There's quite a bit of construction going on, and wonderfully it isn't all dedicated to resorts and condos. Tourism will probably always be part of the local equation but some businesses are starting to use those tourist dollars to build more sustainable businesses (e.g. Maui Brewing Company, Ocean Vodka, Maui Built, etc.). What I hope to have happen is to have that growth channeled into making Maui more friendly to developers such as yourself. Things such as more banking geared to handle businesses, more/better funding of schools, some "affordable" housing that isn't surrounded by timeshares, co-working spaces, more knowledge sharing opportunities (conferences, informal networks, etc), and of course attracting talented people who can leverage all of this to build some great stuff.
Where X coud be boat/yacht/helicopter/whatever?
I am surviving well as a developer, living off the grid, with a satellite internet connection.
What we're still lacking is good jobs, and access to VC funding for companies we want to build. mbloom is not the fund that we need to grow our tech industry, if anything it's looking like it'll poison the waters.