Why I Love Los Angeles – Part II

I moved to Los Angeles from Mt. View several years ago.

The startup and technology scene is less visible than other industries here, notably entertainment and aerospace. I don't feel the buzz like I did back in the bay area.

That said, it was a very good move for me. I was happy to leave behind my bay area snob attitude upon finding that there were many smart people who do interesting things in Los Angeles. It's a bigger city than just the one we see in the celebrity/entertainment news.

Also, my dating life improved greatly compared to the bay area.

I moved from Berkeley to LA several years back. I worked for a startup and was involved with the startup community in east bay. I have not involved myself actively with the LA startup community but I have to say, it does not come close. Here's a sampler. The Tie.org in silicon valley has this week "The Art of Writing a Business Plan - Silicon Valley"

the LA chapter has: "Franchising: The New Solution" Featuring Rajiv Trivedi, VP of La Quinta Corp"

Tech startups in LA are few and far in between. I visited some outfits out of UCLA campus and the attitude in general was "Me and my professor are world renowned in this field, I don't need to answer anything about our business model"

As cofounder of an angel backed startup in L.A., I think it's a great scene. The going line is that startup people in L.A. are pretty focused on monetization.

Other good sources of events here are Dealmaker Media (http://dealmakermedia.com/la.html) and Docstoc co-founder Jason Nazar (he hosts frequent panel discussions on startup issues -- followed by parties back at the office) http://www.jasonnazar.com/

Thanks for posting this, Andrew.

Honestly this seems a bit weak, there's nothing here that really sells me on LA over any other location, Austin, Minneapolis, Portland all have a similar claim.

Sidenote: As an Australian, I love the state of California simply because the federal government will pass one law, and California will say, "that's stupid" and do it their own way. It's like Texas without the backwardness.