The LA startup community is growing; here's why

Kristin Karaoglu · November 23, 2012 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2bea

Meet the LA accelerators driving change - Amplify LA, LaunchPad LA, Idealab, Mucker Lab, Media Camp

How do you replicate a Silicon Valley ecosystem in your own town is being asked across the country. And, increasingly more books are coming out to address the same question, like Brad Feld's recently-released Startup Communiites: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City.

Here's a great panel that looks at what LA is doing to cultivate its startup community. At Splash LA, Rustic Canyon brought together several incubators and accelerators to learn more about how these groups are working with universities and investors to develop and fund more talent in the LA area.

The panelists included: Sam Teller, Managing Director at LaunchPad LA, David Austin, Senior Director, Turner Media Camp, Alex Maleki, partner at Idealab, Paul Bricault, Managing Director at Amplify LA and Eric Rannala of Mucker Labs. Nate Redmond, partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, was the moderator.

Interestingly enough, the panelists all brought up the importance of the universities and particularly the modernization of the school's engineering programs as a big factor in developing new talent in the area.

For a great look at the LA startup ecosystem, check out Rustic Canyon Partners' Neal Hansch's State of the Union - SoCal's startup ecosystem presentation. His slides are below.

Want to know what's happening in NY? We'll have a similar panel address what VCs and angels are doing and seeing in the NY area. If you're in Manhattan on December 5, try to join us. Register here. Thanks to KPMG, our Champagne sponsor, for making this event possible.

Here's the panel: Why the NY startup scene is exploding; the angel/venture market is changing and what's getting funded? - Moderator: Rick Heitzmann (FirstMark Capital), Panelists: Lewis Gersh (Metamorphic Ventures), Ben Lin (Great Oaks Capital Management), Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Deborah Jackson (WIM Accelerator, Golden Seeds), Max Chee (Millenium Technology Value Partners)