Impact Magazine Issue One 2017

Allan and Malcolm Loughead in their bi-plane, Santa Barbara, California 1918
Santa Barbara’s waterfront was a very different place
100 years ago. The elegant 390-room Potter Hotel, with
its pristine gardens, sprawled along West Beach. While
steamships weaved their way in and out of Stearns
Wharf, two brothers were busy building a seaplane in
the heart of, what is now, Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.
In 1916, Allan and Malcolm Loughead established the
Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in a garage
on the northwest corner of State and Mason Streets. With
the help of a young draftsman named Jack Northrop, the
company designed and constructed a ten-passenger
biplane flying boat called the Model F-1, which made a
record-setting flight from Santa Barbara to San Diego two
years later.
“The Technology Management Program at UCSB has
created a very rich environment for brilliant young
students to test their innovative ideas and have invited
many of Santa Barbara’s finest business innovators
to teach, mentor and even occasionally, finance these
students’ start-ups. There is no shortage of successful
business people in Santa Barbara who thrive on their
collaboration with innovative people with great ideas.
That combination creates an environment for success.”
Motel 6
Success for the Loughead brothers came from a simple
desire to build a plane that they could use for their
sightseeing business. However, it was a shared passion for
travel that led William Becker and Paul Greene to shake
up the budget travel industry when they started Motel 6
in 1962.
While working as a house painter in Santa Barbara during
the early 1960’s, Becker set off on a road trip. Dismayed
by the poor quality and inflated prices of the motels he
encountered along the way, Becker later reached out to
Greene, a local contractor friend, about building a lowcost
chain of hotels. After two years of formulating a
business plan for their budget-oriented concept, Becker
and Greene opened their first Motel 6 two blocks from
Santa Barbara’s East Beach.
Original Motel 6, Santa Barbara, California 1962
“There’s a highly creative
and highly innovative
environment here,”
Garufis said. “i’m sure
the weather and the
location and beauty has
something to do with
IT. Santa Barbara is a
very Inspirational place
to live, but you’re also
surrounded by people
who really want to
change the world.”
SANTA BARBARA:
AN ENTREPRENEUR’S
PARADISE
How some of Santa Barbara’s most
iconic brands got their start
The Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company later
became Lockheed Corporation and produced iconic crafts
such as the Super Constellation passenger airliner, F-117
Nighthawk stealth fighter and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Meanwhile, Jack Northrop went on to found the Northrop
Corporation.
However, it is not just in aviation where Santa Barbara
businesses have made their mark. Locally based
entrepreneurs have succeeded in everything from the
travel industry, to entertainment, fashion, and electronics.
“There are a number of extraordinary businesses that have
started here in Santa Barbara,” Janet Garufis, President
and CEO of Montecito Bank & Trust, explained to Impact
Magazine. “Successful entrepreneurs have chosen Santa
Barbara as their home over many other options. Many of
these creative and innovative business people are ‘serial
entrepreneurs,’ and have discovered Santa Barbara as a
great incubator for their ideas.”
The brand adopted a no-frills approach to lodging,
offering every room at every location for $6. By 1968,
the two partners had established a chain of 180 motels
that they sold later that year for $14 million. The chain’s
original Santa Barbara property is still hosting travelers –
for around $209 per night during summer’s peak period.
Kinko’s
Not long after Becker and Greene sold their interest in
Motel 6, Paul Orfalea had an idea. Orfalea, whose curly
hair had earned him the nickname of “Kinko,” rented a
small space in Isla Vista from which he started offering
UCSB students a small selection of stationery supplies
along with four cent photocopies. That was in 1970. Ten
years later, Kinko’s boasted a network of more than 80
nationwide stores.
When expanding, Orfalea ignored the burgeoning
franchising trend of the time and instead formed co- Exterior shot of first Kinko’s in Isla Vista, California, 1970
Janet Garufis, CEO Montecito Bank & Trust
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