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Does anyone in Los Angeles have a startup mentality? Ahhhhh....

7 points by iamyoohoo ↗ HN
I'm having a hard time connecting with fellow hackers/entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. The mentality of most people is to do a day job if they are programmers. No one in tech has a startup mentality - does everyone have that problem where you are? Looks like a move to the valley seems imminent.....

23 comments

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chadboyda
Have you tried attending any of the tech networking events in LA? There is a strong, small, but growing tech / startup community in LA. If you haven't attended Twiistup, Lunch 2.0, LA Web App Meetup, or Los Angeles Open Coffee Club, etc. than I would suggest you start there. But there are definately people with the 'startup mentality'.

It's no valley, that's for sure, but there are those of us in the trenches working full time on our startups in LA. Don't give up!

mhartl
I second chadboyda's comment. There's a real sense of excitement about an emerging startup scene in LA, especially on the Westside (Santa Monica, Venice, etc.); you just have to get out there and mix it up. (I've been to both Twiistups, and I've added the other events endorsed by chadboyda to my list.)

In this vein, I'd be happy to meet with any Hacker News readers in the LA area. My background and contact info can be found via my profile page.

iamyoohoo
I've attended the last Twistup, I've also attended the last couple of geek dinners. And - yes, I live in Venice. There are very few people that are genuinely interested and most want to do it part time to see where it goes (they don't have the courage to give up the cube).

I even started the startup weekend organization in LA (startup.eventbrite.com). There are 32 signups - however only 3 developers of which 2 I know.

I did connect with a couple of people, but they seem so busy with their personal lives and don't seem to have that burst needed to go all the way. We started a small project on labor day weekend and the next day one of them replied with "it's too hot so I can't concentrate". And this is on our second day !!!

zach
That's cool. I've been to one of the geek dinners before I acquired a commitment on Tuesdays and it seems like over the course of this year things have really improved. I saw recently that an OpenCoffee Club started up over the summer and I'm looking forward to going to that too.

Zach - LA Life http://www.lalife.com/

iamyoohoo
Chad - I googled you a bit and seem to have a connection. I met Erik Osterman who I think you created socialverse with.

There's only a very few of us here that want to go all the way - that's for sure.

bootload
"... I'm having a hard time connecting with fellow hackers/entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. The mentality of most people is to do a day job if they are programmers. No one in tech has a startup mentality ..."

Move

... or startup a startup group in LA to let like minded people clump. We've had one just start in au, melb (artichoke end of the startup world) around twitter. A twitter channel was created, MTUB (Melbourne Twitter Underground Brigade, http://twitter.com/mtub ), broadcast to people living in melb and the clumpiness began ...

- http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/258693

- http://www.flickr.com/photos/byte/sets/72157601494320939/

- http://benbarren.blogspot.com/2007/06/mtub1-when-friends-fol...

I don't think this is an uncommon problem. You just have to know where to look. A bit like at school, the computer lab, chess club or D&D groups.

Any chess clubs in LA?

iamyoohoo
Tried that - attended a lot of local tech groups as well. However, people seem to have their weekends busy with "stuff" here. That's the bad part of being in LA, there is a lot of "life" here and hence erodes into your time - difficult to get focused people.
bootload
"... That's the bad part of being in LA, there is a lot of "life" here and hence erodes into your time ..."

Sunny weather syndrome. who wants to be a hermit when it's nice day? That's one plus to geography. If you live in a place (higher lats/longs) where it gloomy "in-doors" weather for a part of the year you don't have a choice but to concentrate-hard on things.

"... difficult to get focused people ..."

Don't really have any answers to this other than Linda Stone's "Attention: The 'Real' Aphrodisiac" talk. You might be able to use your situation to your advantage ~ "http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail739.html

green
I do. :-)
iamyoohoo
my email is iamyoohoo AT yahoo dot com - if you want to connect ...
geebee
The first startup I ever worked for was in LA - a film compositing software company. The scene isn't nearly as big as silicon valley, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if tech startups related to the film industry are more common in LA.

It's a cool area, too, especially if you have a math background. Plus, you can get academy awards :) The founder of the company I worked for had three, and another dude I worked with had one. Of course, these are the sci&tech ones, not the ones you see on TV. But they do send a cute actress to host it.

One thing I'd say in favor of LA - the entertainment industry may be hard driven, but they sure do reward talent. If you rock on the tech side, there is trememdous opportunity.

staunch
It's definitely not the worst place to do a startup, but it's only a few hundred miles from the best place. I'm not going to work in LA ever again myself.

iamyoohoo
Since you've been at both places, can you do a quick compare ...
staunch
Entertainment is the focus of the LA. Everything and everyone there supports that. Technology is the focus of The Bay Area. Everything and everyone supports that. The Silicon Valley is for tech geeks what Hollywood is for entertainment geeks.
dappelbaum
Yeah, I do.
iamyoohoo
my email is iamyoohoo AT yahoo dot com - if you want to connect ...
colortone
i don't know if you can trust this dappelbaum character

;-)

Viva Hollyweird

chengmi
I wonder if any ad hoc teams have been funded through yc. And if so, how many? Most (all?) of the startups I know have had founders who met in college or had otherwise worked together previously.
iamyoohoo
Maybe pg can answer your specific question, however, Ideally you should work on some small projects with your co-founder before you proceed full scale. Usually you'll find out within a few weeks if the cofounder gels well with you. Sometimes (as i found out soon enough), there is a conflict of interest, some people are more dedicated than others etc. Hence, it is always better to work with someone on small projects before you start a company or even apply to YC.... that's what I think.
chengmi
Agreed. I've known my co-founder for ten years!

In "A Student's Guide to Startups," pg writes:

Most of the questions people ask Y Combinator we have some kind of answer for, but not the co-founder question. There is no good answer. Co-founders really should be people you already know. And by far the best place to meet them is school. You have a large sample of smart people; you get to compare how they all perform on identical tasks; and everyone's life is pretty fluid. A lot of startups grow out of schools for this reason. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, among others, were all founded by people who met in school. (In Microsoft's case, it was high school.)

webwright
There's always Seattle, my friend. Mild and sunny summers, nearby skiing in the winters, ocean, mountains, etc.... AND a lively startup community.
iamyoohoo
Thanks - but I guess I'd move to the valley if I decide to. You can feel the startup vibe in the air there - I can still smell it :)