A Startup Destination
April 30th, 2008 by Benjamin KuoI spent last night at a private technology/venture capital networking event in West LA last night, and in speaking with more than a few entrepreneurs have been pleasantly surprised to find that Southern California (and in particular, West Los Angeles) has become — as I think of it — a startup destination. What I mean by a “startup destination” is there are an increasing number of companies who are choosing to locate in Southern California for their startup — not because they live here, or because of personal reasons, or because of being a spinoff from a company or university research — but because it’s seen as a beneficial place to make your company succeed.
For a long time, the only startup destination was Silicon Valley — usually, Palo Alto or surrounding cities– but often San Francisco and other cities in the Bay Area. But, now, it appears, Southern California (and in particular, West Los Angeles) is seen as being an area where there are lots of quality startups, where early stage companies can be with both other startups and possible partners, and where there is a supportive environment for growing and funding a company. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m seeing this more and more.
I talked to a number of entrepreneurs (who, as an aside, had to do their pitch to VCs while being sniffed by bulldogs owned by Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis) all either recently located to the area, looking at locating to here, or very keen on moving into the area. For some, it was the proximity to consumer Internet firms like Fox Interactive Media/MySpace; for others, because of the studio/Hollywood influence, and for others, just because of the “technology scene.”
Provided these are startups who can either can gain funding, or bootstrap, into a profitable and sustainable business, this is good because it increases the interesting opportunities–for employees, venture firms, service providers, and the economy–and spawns more startup success and activity.
(below: Jason Calacanis and his bulldogs — who have more twitter followers than most startups — and who were busy distracting entrepreneurs from their pitches).
