The SoCal Network: The companies behind LA's tech boom | Hacker News Reader

The SoCal Network: The companies behind LA's tech boom

story.californiasunday.com

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I live in Houston, and am moving to LA soon over NYC (finance + commodities background) or SF (fits current career path). I know NYC and SF can be really cool places, but you really have to stop pretending they are unless you really are pulling in 7 or more figures. The people and lifestyle in LA are way more conducive, intellectually and otherwise, to the life I want and the way I see things going. I see places like Houston, Austin, and LA outperforming NYC and SF for the time being.

7 figures is a huge exaggeration. You can live comfortably on 80-100k in NYC. Not everyone needs to live in Manhattan. Rent in the outer boroughs can be very affordable if you look in the right places. You can still indulge from time to time(a broadway show once a month, the random cheap concert every two weeks or so, brunch with friends from out of town) and still save a lot. I was making high 5 figures out of college and still managed to save 25% of my after tax income each year. Granted, I'd have been able to save more if I were living in say Philly or Chicago. But still it's very doable.

Why are you leaving Houston for LA? I have a similar option.

I would rather work in LA than SF. Obviously this part of the equation is _preference_

But the problem is I am dying to find something in LA but it's just really hard to find a tech company you'd want to work for where because there's usually only one company in that space.

For example. Let's say I want to find a job involving "bitcoin" I search and find this link[0]. Ignoring all the links to companies that no longer own their own domain names, NO ONE HAS ANY SPECIFIC JOB OPENINGS. 3 of the sites I went to give a generic form for you to enter info if maybe you are interested. But nothing specific.

Okay so maybe bitcoins are not a good startup idea in LA, let's go for Drones. Everyone LOVES drones right? So I goto "drones"[1] on that same website. There's like 8 links there, half of them don't go anywhere and the rest have no specific job positions either.

Part of the lure of SFBA is that your options are pretty varied but also the depth of each tech space is relatively deep. Don't like this company in tech space Y? Try the 4 other companies in that same field.

You can't even get two options in LA. You can either goto Snapchat if you want to be part of the big social media company or you can join... what?

You can go with the hot online dating startup Tinder, or.... what?

About the only tech space you have options in is if you want to be part of a tech boutique shop that does custom websites for the big movie companies. I know people in that field and they seem happy with what they're doing so if that is your thing, LA could work out.

Oh yeah and they also pay kinda shitty considering LA (especially Venice, Santa Monica, Playa Vista where Rubicon is) is not cheap. And although I'm sure some companies do offer free snacks/perks, I've heard a lot where they aren't expected to provide that because it's LA, not SF.

Yes yes, no free snacks, first-world-problems and all that. But if you're trying to attract tech talent then you should be offering something besides, "LA Cool"

[0] http://startupsla.com/startups/bitcoin [1] http://startupsla.com/startups/drones

There's an important distinction between LA and SF: SF has startups with no revenue goals or strategic direction, but LA has businesses with plans to generate revenue (and even profits). Most of LA's businesses avoid LA's startup scene. Like SF, the startup scene here is a self-congratulatory frat party fueled by VC money, where funding announcements are celebrated with raucous applause but profit announcements are greeted by a silent room.

There is literally no alternative to seek another company in the same space in LA because most likely the company doesn't exist. You don't really have the freedom to still be in a certain tech category while avoiding certain companies in that space....About the only tech space you have options in is if you want to be part of a tech boutique shop that does custom websites for the big movie companies. I know people in that field and they seem happy with what they're doing so if that is your thing, LA could work out.

Your problem is that you used a single random list website as your data point. LA's a big place with many tech or tech-related businesses, and there are few if any websites that even attempt to gather all of that data.

LA has hundreds of companies revolutionizing media technology--nearly every VFX company in the area is working on some sort of innovative technology or software, companies like Machinima and Red Bull changed the way we produce media, and companies like Hulu have changed the way we consume media. LA is the home to hundreds of triple-AAA and indie video game developers, from the Braid guy and Riot Games to EA and Square Enix. We've got dozens of companies in the tech advertising space that you've never heard of even though they're wildly profitable because they're purely B2B. We've got hundreds of companies in the fashion/apparel space innovating at every step in the fashion process, from design to end-customer sales. LA is still the place to be for aerospace technology. While SF startups dream about one day dipping their toes into logistics, LA-based companies have already revolutionized the technologies and process underlying the biggest logistics operations in the Northern Hemisphere several times over.

And yes, we even have startups like Snapchat, a social app that no one in a media town would even remotely consider a media company.

Venice, Manhattan Beach, and beach-adjacent Santa Monica is LA's Silicon Beach area. Like most beach cities in desirable areas they are expensive, though it is possible to live inland and pay reasonable rates for housing. Most businesses are spread out across LA, and with the exception of the video game cluster in Playa Del Rel (a beach city south of Santa Monica) most of the clusters are not in the beach-adjacent areas.

> Your problem is that you used a single random list website as your data point. LA's a big place with many tech or tech-related businesses, and there are few if any websites that even attempt to gather all of that data.

Yup, never really trying to hide that. That was my cursory search example. Not a complete drill-down of every company in LA. I still can't name a bitcoin or drone company in LA.

> LA has hundreds of companies revolutionizing media technology--nearly every VFX company in the area is working on some sort of innovative technology or software

OK name some? Almost all VFX companies _make_ money but very few are looking for engineer/technologists are much as they're looking for people who know how to handle the expensive software. How many of those companies are actually hiring?

> companies like Machinima and Red Bull changed the way we produce media, and companies like Hulu have changed the way we consume media.

Cool. Not sure how this addresses the problem I stated.

> LA is the home to hundreds of triple-AAA and indie video game developers, from the Braid guy and Riot Games to EA and Square Enix.

"Braid guy" aka Jonathan Blow works in San Francisco now. Video games are definitely one of the few tech related fields where you have options, albeit with apparently poor pay. But again why work down in LA when SF have so many gaming jobs as well?

> We've got dozens of companies in the tech advertising space that you've never heard of even though they're wildly profitable because they're purely B2B.

So how would I even know to work at a tech advertising company in LA if "I've never heard of (it)?" And the problem again is there are tons of "tech advertising" in SFBA: Turn, Vivaki, Rocketfuel, Mopub, Facebook, Google, AOL, PubMatic just off the top of my head are all IN SF (although I think Google may do some ad stuff down in Irvine?). Why would I move down to LA to work at companies that are so bad at marketing I've never heard of them?

> We've got hundreds of companies in the fashion/apparel space innovating at every step in the fashion process, from design to end-customer sales.

Are we still talking tech or fashion?

> LA is still the place to be for aerospace technology. Cool, if you're mecheng or eeng.

> While SF startups dream about one day dipping their toes into logistics, LA-based companies have already revolutionized the technologies and process underlying the biggest logistics operations in the Northern Hemisphere several times over. Okay...

Apparently you've mistake my comment as, "there are no jobs in LA" when I never argue that. I've lived in LA and grew up in SoCal so I would prefer to work there if I can find the right job. But from what I've seen that is available it's a lot of slim pickings compared to SF.

> Venice, Manhattan Beach, and beach-adjacent Santa Monica is LA's Silicon Beach area. Like most beach cities in desirable areas they are expensive, though it is possible to live inland and pay reasonable rates for housing. Most businesses are spread out across LA, and with the exception of the video game cluster in Playa Del Rel (a beach city south of Santa Monica) most of the clusters are not in the beach-adjacent areas.

Cool, you don't address that the companies in LA still pay their Engineers shit. You can live further away but then you're paying with your time, gas and car maintenance.

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