“Maturing,†“emerging,†and “vibrant†are the commonly used words used to describe the Los Angeles (LA) tech ecosystem. Every night is full of multiple events across the city where LA’s tech community comes together to share about the entrepreneurial journey and offer their experiences to one another.
The two events in the last few weeks stand out the most.
WeAreLATech founder, Espree Devora, hosted an event for her recently launched podcast aimed at helping to promote the LA community. The amount of passion and enthusiasm Espree has for her community drizzled over to everyone in attendance. General Assembly, a homestead for a plethora of LA tech events, hosted the evening where startup attendees shared in live music, spirits, and h’orderves. Over 100 of us mingled and exchanged company pitches as we tried to find opportunities to grow. The takeaway from the night was the openness of the community and the quality of companies in attendance.
A few days later, I found one of the major resources for LA’s entrepreneurial aptitude, General Assembly (GA). GA is an international organization that serves over a dozen startup communities across the world, offering immersive and evening courses in web development, sales and business development, graphic design, and a variety of other core entrepreneurial courses. But they’re not academic, they’re practical, and model a 21st century educational institution.
General Assembly is “the†place for transitioning professionals and entrepreneurs to learn specific startup skills and level-up in their role. Their beach location in Santa Monica seemed to act as a hub for the local entrepreneurial community. The constant movement of the place was intriguing; Uber cars were dropping off startup teams at the front door, while other teams were diligently working inside. The positivity and stimulating “buzz†in the building was enough to inspire a mime to talk!
Between the two events, I found myself looking around and realizing how much intellectual property (IP) is being created here. And, as the startup community continues to grow here and across the globe, the amount of valuable IP is going to be astounding. Innovation is driving new value into our economy and intellectual property captures this value for businesses.