Yesterday, Hawke Media teamed up with Councilmember Bob Blumenfield in the City Council Chambers to declare this week Los Angeles’ inaugural E-Commerce Week. They came together to honor West Valley businesses SoccerOne, Golden Hippo, and auticon. Hawke and Bob Blumenfield awarded these local and innovative companies for their work and for crossing the digital frontier, as well as solidified the week to be officially known as E-Commerce Week in the City of Los Angeles for years to come.
“We have such an incredible ecosystem to build e-commerce brands in Los Angeles,” says Hawke Media Founder and CEO Erik Huberman, who built up the award-winning marketing consultancy that has serviced almost 2,000 clients over the past five years. “This is an opportunity to show the world what we’re up to, and the more we can build the community we have out here and take advantage of it, the better we’ll all do. I really appreciate the support from the Councilman and the city, and I’m excited to put together E-Commerce Week next year and bring together the community.”
From distributing soccer products and equipment nationwide at SoccerOne, to building transformative and category-leading brands at Golden Hippo, to creating as many jobs as possible for autistic adults at auticon, Hawke Media recognized these three businesses for setting the bar high for other Los Angeles e-commerce companies. As Hawke Media helps build small e-commerce businesses from the ground up, they appreciate the time and care that goes into growing a brand. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield recognized this fact about Hawke and decided to make the company the spearheads of E-Commerce Week.
In terms of their own growth, Hawke Media grew 500 percent in the past three years. Since Huberman and Co-founder Tony Delmercado started the company five years ago, it’s grown from seven employees to over 170. With Hawke’s new Los Angeles headquarters, they’ve created one of the most innovative office spaces in the country.
They’re now a bicoastal operation, opening a New York office in lower Manhattan, with further plans to expand in the near future. In addition, this year they’ve started Hawke Ventures, a venture capital firm that helps early-stage internet companies flourish with capital, resources to grow, and early-stage decision making.
“We’ve noticed that a lot of our local businesses that used to be pure brick-and-mortar are surviving and thriving today because of e-commerce,” said Bob Blumenfield in the City Council announcement yesterday. “In Los Angeles, 99 percent of your business lies outside of the city, because you have the whole world at your fingertips. I want to celebrate many of the innovations here in e-commerce, and I want to recognize the CEO of Hawke Media Erik Huberman. Hawke Media helps to increase the profiles of many Los Angeles e-commerce businesses. They’re here to help recognize some of the great e-commerce businesses that represent and grow in our city.”
As E-Commerce Week continues to grow and expand next year, there will be more events and programming for the Los Angeles business community to attend. Stay tuned in the coming months for updates. More information on the E-Commerce Week announcement can be found at www.blumenfield.lacity.org.