Palm Coast, Florida, January 26, 2018 This month marks the 5th anniversary for Coastal Cloud, one of the largest business and technology consulting companies in the southeastern United States. In 5 years, Coastal Cloud has grown from a new start-up to over 130 team members serving 315 clients in four countries. Coastal Cloud has helped those clients compete & win in the new digital economy through successful completion of nearly 1000 projects.
Coastal Cloud began operations in early 2013 when Sara and Tim Hale, the company’s co-founders and managing partners, set out to help clients build next generation operating models for the digital world. Coastal Cloud combines market-leading cloud-based IT platforms and a unique company culture that attracts and retains the best consulting talent in the industry.
“Coastal Cloud’s priorities started out and will continue to be in our client relationships and employee satisfaction. We relentlessly pursue total client satisfaction and ensure our clients feel like part of our family,” said Tim Hale. “We are very proud that 70% of Coastal Cloud’s new projects are with repeat clients – our clients enjoy working with us and chose us again & again as their next generation technology partner.”
With a 40% year-over-year growth rate, there is no doubt that Coastal Cloud’s future is extremely promising. “It’s humbling to look back at our beginnings and see the massive growth we’ve experienced in the last five years and the career opportunities created for so many people.” said Sara Hale. “ We have big plans for the next five years as we help more and more clients realize the potential of our technology solutions.”
Palm Coast Mayor, Milissa Holland touted Coastal Cloud’s success by saying, “We (the city of Palm Coast) are so proud to have Coastal Cloud call our community home. They provide high quality jobs to our residents and deliver next generation technology solutions to public and private sector organizations nationwide. They have really educated our community on how new technology can improve our daily lives. The Hales continue to invest in our local education system, engage our youth and offer them opportunities to build their professional futures. We wish them continued success and thank them for their contributions.”
“Coastal Cloud encapsulates the very essence of our economic development efforts in Flagler County; high performers in a targeted industry, great community partners, job creators and passionate local owners. Congratulations on five years of success and looking forward to many more to come,” said Commissioner Donald O’Briens, Flagler County Department of Economic Development.
Senator Travis Hutson commented, “I want to congratulate Cloud Coastal for the fantastic growth and success since we were cutting ribbons 5 years ago. Thank you to all Cloud Coastal employees for showing that not only is our area a great place to live but with dedication and teamwork we are also the perfect place to start and grow a business.”
“Congratulations to Coastal Cloud for five years of success in our community. We are fortunate to have such an innovative and fast-growing business in Flagler County, one that is competing with and beating bigger technology consulting firms across our country,” Representative Paul Renner said.
A few awards & recognition that Coastal Cloud has won in the past five years include:
- Named a “Florida Companies to Watch” by GrowFL in 2014
- Gold Level Salesforce.com Consulting Partner in 2015
- Florida Governor’s Job Creator’s award in 2015
- JAXUSA Partnership Industry Leader award in 2015
- Best Places to Work award by Jacksonville Business Journal in 2016
- Open Louisville, Kentucky solution center in 2017
- Open Steamboat Springs, Colorado solutions center in 2017
- Platinum Level Salesforce.com Consulting Partner in 2017
- Sara Hale named a Northeast Florida “Woman of Influence” in 2017
- #3 Best Places to Work by Florida Trend magazine in 2017
- #20 Fastest Growing Company amongst the “Florida Fast 100” in 2017
- CEO Nexus Cup award by GrowFL in 2017
- Florida Fast 100 award by ACBJ Florida Market Research Directors in 2017
Coastal Cloud launches a collaborative internship for local youth
A collaborative effort between Career Source Flagler Volusia, Flagler County Education Foundation, local high schools and Coastal Cloud is bringing work-based experiences to junior and seniors at local high schools. This initiative began when Career Source Flagler Volusia approached Coastal Cloud to build a system to connect local students with businesses for work-based experiences. The work-based experiences vary from job shadowing, internships, company tours, jobs, mentorships, class presentations and large audience lectures.
Once the system was developed, Coastal Cloud became a key business participant in the program. “We initially were going to hire 4 interns in the spring program. But all of the students were so good in their interviews, we decided to keep all 12 of them,” explained Sara Hale.
Coastal Cloud’s 12 selected interns – two from Matanzas High School and 10 from Flagler Palm Coast High School – are getting a true hands-on experience of what technology consultants do on a day-to-day basis. “We are currently training our interns on Salesforce.com and showing them how the technology works both on the front end and the back end. The interns will help drive awareness and adoption of the work-based experience program throughout our local communities,” said Sara Hale.
“This is the stuff that really gets me excited,” said Tim Hale. “Being able to provide hands-on experience for students and show them STEM career paths they did not know exist is very rewarding. These students are being exposed to exceptional career alternatives.”
