Santa Monica in Los Angeles for many associated with palm trees and beaches, tanned bodies and “Baywatch.”
But during the last years of Santa Monica and Venice become a gathering place for the technology industry and a sunny alternative to San Francisco’s Silicon Valley.
Major technology companies like Facebook, Google and Snapchat has opened offices here. They have been joined by hundreds of smaller companies that GumGum and tech entrepreneurs have renamed the city along Southern California’s Pacific Coast to Silicon Beach.
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– Bigger fish in a smaller pond
DogVacay located in Santa Monica and is a kind Airbnb for pets. Actor Will Smith was so impressed when he made use of their services, he decided to invest in the company.
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Share-founder and CEO of DogVacay Aaron Hirschorn walking the Rocky and Maggie close its offices in Santa Monica, California. Photo: AFP
37-year-old Aaron Hirschhorn is one of the firm’s founders. AFP news agency says he has never looked back after that he decided to move southward from San Francisco.
– Here I am a bigger fish in a smaller pond. I do not compete with Facebook or Google when I will recruit engineers. It is a very knit community of tech-savvy here, and the network is huge.
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Several leaves San Francisco
San Francisco Silicon Valley was the site of one of history’s truly great technological revolutions when the world got the first real PC from Apple Computer. Apple was one of the first and largest forces in Silicon Valley and the area leads the world technological development.
But rising commercial rates in the San Francisco area has become an important reason why many startups that DogVacay and Service Technologies Inc has decided to move to Los Angeles.
– It is expensive for a company to expand in San Francisco, says 35 years old Michael Schneider told AFP. He is the founder of the service Service Technologies Inc, a call center that seeks to resolve disputes between consumers and businesses.
– You must obtain at least 50 percent more for the same, he adds. In his view, San Francisco could lose status as the world’s technological center.
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Michael Schneider in Services offices in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: AFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown
Local success stories in the billions
Santa Monica is known as tomorrow’s Silicon Valley and technology -boomen is the last five years been fed by local success stories. Including Snapchat which is valued at 16 billion dollars and date app Tinder is worth $ 3 billion.
This is of course not gone Hollywood celebrities unnoticed. More, actor Ashton Kutcher, has done as Will Smith and invested in various new companies.
Among the hottest today Dollar Shave Club in Santa Monica, which sells razors and other grooming products. The network company Scopely has with its mobile gaming has grown solid 600 percent during the past 10 months.
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Another quality of life
Michael Schneiders company Service Technologies Inc has traded for three million US dollars since he started nine months ago. He believes Los Angeles holds a different quality of life than if he were still living in San Francisco.
– Los Angeles weather, a completely different change of pace and you get away from a very one-way environment in San Francisco where everyone just talk only about technology.
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The employees of Rivalry Games in full swing working on MuckerLab in Santa Monica. Photo: AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Michael Jones recently started Wishbone, a trend-app targeting teenagers. He believes San Francisco probably unlikely to lose its status just yet.
– Can we have 10 companies that each has a turnover of 1 billion here? I think it’s possible, but I’m not sure whether Los Angeles will be able 50. Anyway I think the LA scene might grow extremely large.
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