5 ms·

Santa Monica is becoming Silicon Beach

42 points by dirkdeman 15y ago

tlrobinson 15y ago
Arguably every beach is a silicon beach, since sand is composed mostly of silicon dioxide. But LA also has Silicone Valley... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Adult_entertainment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Adult_enter...
Axsuul 15y ago
Should also mention that Hulu, MySpace, Fandango are also in that area
- earbitscom 15y ago
  Chill, Grubwith.us, Earbits, Vokle, LaughStub (now TicketMob), BetterWorks, DocStoc, Mahalo, LunchMoney, TopSpin, W4, Rubicon Project, and a whole lot more. And that's just some of the ones I personally know on the west side.
  - dpe82 15y ago
    I believe Jason said recently he's moving Mahalo to Culver City because the rent in Santa Monica is getting too high. Or he's running out of runway. Or both.
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against?
  - mgalica 15y ago
    AW SNAP. At least they're not in Culver City.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
kittxkat 15y ago
that office looks amazing!
jpdoctor 15y ago
Don't listen to the article! It's terrible here! There's a big yellow ball in the sky making the place constantly warm, you can't get any work done! But seriously: Founder of Caltech had the Pepperdine property and decided to put the school elsewhere so that more work would get done.
lclaude01 15y ago
My office was on Main Street, Santa Monica for 5 years. Coming from NYC , the sun , the beach ...wow...after the first year, it started to feel like "groundhog day"...every day blue sky, sun, same stupid movie business conversation, at the bars, with the young drunk girls wannabe movie star...the guy above is so right. The sun , the beach, the drunk beautiful stupid girls are just distractions. Took my bags and now back to the east coast dreaming of the sun.
tzm 15y ago
We launched a startup at DEMO 2010 vowing to change e-commerce. We had an office at the Santa Monica airport. My neighbor was David Ellison. My other neighbor was Harrison Ford. We pivoted and I left to focus on my own company in NY. We often had meetings that involved major VCs and founders visiting the area. I left the company with the impression that Santa Monica rocks and is definitely "silicon beach".
kd1220 15y ago
When the tech industry is booming the silicon epithet is wantonly attached to any geographical feature. I remember back in 2000 when New York was becoming "Silicon Alley", South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale - Boca Raton - West Palm Beach) was "Silicon Beach", and Israel was forming a "Silicon Wadi." New York is still mostly alleys, Florida mostly beaches and Israel mostly deserts; not many glimmers of silicon remain. I bet this time around there will be "Silicon Fjords" in Scandinavia and "Silicon Rainforests" in South America. The tech industry will make beachheads in various places and eventually be swallowed up and integrated into the industries that already dominate the area.

42 points by dirkdeman 15y ago

Arguably every beach is a silicon beach, since sand is composed mostly of silicon dioxide. But LA also has Silicone Valley... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Adult_entertainment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Adult_enter...

Axsuul 15y ago

Should also mention that Hulu, MySpace, Fandango are also in that area

earbitscom 15y ago
Chill, Grubwith.us, Earbits, Vokle, LaughStub (now TicketMob), BetterWorks, DocStoc, Mahalo, LunchMoney, TopSpin, W4, Rubicon Project, and a whole lot more. And that's just some of the ones I personally know on the west side.
- dpe82 15y ago
  I believe Jason said recently he's moving Mahalo to Culver City because the rent in Santa Monica is getting too high. Or he's running out of runway. Or both.
georgemcbay 15y ago
I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against?
- mgalica 15y ago
  AW SNAP. At least they're not in Culver City.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

kittxkat 15y ago

that office looks amazing!

jpdoctor 15y ago

Don't listen to the article! It's terrible here! There's a big yellow ball in the sky making the place constantly warm, you can't get any work done! But seriously: Founder of Caltech had the Pepperdine property and decided to put the school elsewhere so that more work would get done.

lclaude01 15y ago

My office was on Main Street, Santa Monica for 5 years. Coming from NYC , the sun , the beach ...wow...after the first year, it started to feel like "groundhog day"...every day blue sky, sun, same stupid movie business conversation, at the bars, with the young drunk girls wannabe movie star...the guy above is so right. The sun , the beach, the drunk beautiful stupid girls are just distractions. Took my bags and now back to the east coast dreaming of the sun.

tzm 15y ago

We launched a startup at DEMO 2010 vowing to change e-commerce. We had an office at the Santa Monica airport. My neighbor was David Ellison. My other neighbor was Harrison Ford. We pivoted and I left to focus on my own company in NY. We often had meetings that involved major VCs and founders visiting the area. I left the company with the impression that Santa Monica rocks and is definitely "silicon beach".

kd1220 15y ago

When the tech industry is booming the silicon epithet is wantonly attached to any geographical feature. I remember back in 2000 when New York was becoming "Silicon Alley", South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale - Boca Raton - West Palm Beach) was "Silicon Beach", and Israel was forming a "Silicon Wadi." New York is still mostly alleys, Florida mostly beaches and Israel mostly deserts; not many glimmers of silicon remain. I bet this time around there will be "Silicon Fjords" in Scandinavia and "Silicon Rainforests" in South America. The tech industry will make beachheads in various places and eventually be swallowed up and integrated into the industries that already dominate the area.