• Southern California
  • Silicon Valley
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Pacific Northwest
  • Texas

Socaltech.com

High Tech News and Information for Southern California

 

Log In | Sign up

 
  • Home
  • News
    • Headlines
    • Interviews
    • Insights and Opinions
  • Calendar
  • Jobs
  • Deals
  • About
    • Blog
    • Membership
    • Contact Us
Follow Us:
 

Benjamin Kuo's Blog

Thoughts on Southern California's high tech and venture capital industry

Docstoc’s Nazar Weighs in on Silicon Valley vs. LA

November 24, 2008

Jason Nazar, CEO of local Santa Monica startup Docstoc — and relentless promoter of his company–has weighed in on the “Silicon Valley versus Los Angeles” debate with a blog post last night, saying:

Bay area founders are amazing technologists. They build obsessively user focused products, do a fantastic job at virally driving a ton of traffic, but usually have their head up their ass when it comes to making money.

Los Angeles founders are hustlers and deal makers. They are more focused on the bottom line and care more about their P&L than their products, which tend to be messy.

In my opinion, a measure of the differences in the two areas is the tilt in how businesses are start in the areas. There’s a tendency for startups in the Bay Area to be created by engineers/computer scientists/other technologists — who naturally are much more focused on products than business plan. Whereas, there tends to be more business folks/MBAs/etc. starting companies in Los Angeles.  Sure, there’s plenty of good technologists here, but it does seem the balance leans toward the business folks here versus technologists.

Filed under:
Southern California by Benjamin Kuo

Thoughts and commentary from Benjamin F. Kuo, publisher of socalTECH.com.

Categories

  • Accelerators (1)
  • Advertising (8)
  • Advice (26)
  • Angel Investing (22)
  • Announcements (55)
  • Automotive (4)
  • Awards (10)
  • Billionares (1)
  • Biotech (4)
  • Blogs (43)
  • Bubble (9)
  • Clean Energy (24)
  • Communications (3)
  • Conferences (41)
  • Dot Com (6)
  • Economy (26)
  • Education (1)
  • Electronics (1)
  • Employment (14)
  • Entertainment (4)
  • Entrepreneurship (40)
  • Events (18)
  • Finance (3)
  • Google (6)
  • Hardware (1)
  • Hollywood (16)
  • India (2)
  • Internet (7)
  • IPO (13)
  • Jobs (19)
  • Lawsuits (2)
  • Links (3)
  • Media (17)
  • Mergers and Acquisitions (24)
  • Networking (4)
  • News (2)
  • Patents (2)
  • Podcasts (1)
  • Privacy (3)
  • Random (23)
  • Rumors (4)
  • Silicon Valley (26)
  • Social Networking (11)
  • Software (7)
  • Southern California (32)
  • Startups (106)
  • Technology (23)
  • Technology Transfer (4)
  • Twitter (10)
  • Uncategorized (148)
  • Venture Capital (120)
  • Video (3)
  • Video Games (4)
  • Virtual Reality (5)
  • Web2.0 (6)
  • Archives

  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • Blogroll

    • Aaron Fyke
    • Aaron Ross – PebbleStorm
    • Andrew Warner – Mixergy
    • Ask The Angels
    • Baron Miller
    • Boingboing
    • Digital Media Wire
    • Doing Business with UC in SoCAL
    • Douglas Welch – Career Opportunities
    • Eric David Greenspan – Make It Work
    • Everything Startup
    • Gary Augusta – OCTANe
    • I’m There For You Baby
    • Jared Reitzin
    • Jeff Cohn
    • Jim Butz – Angel Investor
    • John Greathouse – RevUpNet
    • Jonathan Handel – Digital Media Law
    • Joyce Schwartz – Hollywood 2020
    • Ken Hayes – Pasadena Angels
    • KenRadio
    • Kurt Daradics
    • Lalawag
    • Mark Averitt – Okapi VC
    • Mark Suster – GRP Partners
    • Matt Ridenour – Momentum Venture Partners
    • Matthew DeBord – KPCC
    • Michael Jones – Userplane
    • MOTM
    • Nicole Jordan
    • Orange County High Tech Report
    • Paidcontent.org
    • Peter Lee – Baroda Ventures
    • PowerUp Podcasts – Interviews with Technology Leaders
    • Ryan Born – AudioMicro
    • Ryan Huff – Dailyslop
    • Scott Fox
    • Scott Thompson
    • Sid Mohasseb – Venture Farm
    • socalTECH.com
    • StartupArmy
    • Technology Council Blog
    • The Frank Peter’s Show
    • Tony Karrer – SOCAL CTO
    • Willan Johnson – Clearstone EIR
    • William Quigley – Clearstone Ventures
  • Technology Organizations

    • Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum
    • Central Coast MIT Forum
    • Gold Coast Business Forum
    • LA Community Development Commission
    • LABTC
    • Los Angeles Venture Association
    • Maverick Angels
    • MIT Enterprise Forum of San Diego
    • MOTM
    • NITRO LA
    • OC Venture Group
    • OCTANe
    • Pasadena Angels
    • San Diego Software Industry Council
    • San Diego Venture Group
    • Tech Coast Angeles
    • Tech Coast Venture Network
    • TechBizConnection
    • Technology Council of Southern California
    • USC Stevens Institute
  • Meta

  • Log in
  •  
     
     

    socaltech.com

    Home | News | Calendar | Jobs | Deals | About

    | Mobile

    ©2010 SOCALTECH LLC. All Rights Reserved.