Why L.A.'s Start-up Scene Beats All Others

By Frank Addante

A five-time entrepreneur makes the case for launching a company in Silicon Beach. He's not the only fan.


Los Angeles is the capital of small business in the United States, according to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa, at a reception earlier this month for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists.  L.A., dubbed "Silicon Beach," has become a breeding ground for successful Internet and advertising companies.  I have a theory about why.

I moved to L.A. (from Chicago) 13 years ago, in the midst of the dot-com boom, to build an online advertising company, L90/adMonitor. In addition to warm weather and beautiful beaches, I found a very creative, innovative talent pool of agile thinkers.  I think it was behavior bred from Hollywood, an industry that's highly competitive and constantly innovating. We had a great ride with the company.  And we didn't raise venture capital money until our IPO.