“To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.”
Richard Bach

Source: http://siliconbeachfest.com

Last week I had the pleasure of spending time at the various Silicon Beach Fest activities in Santa Monica. My conclusion: Los Angeles is a serious tech hub.

Make no mistake; we still have a long ways to go. There is a serious lack of growth capital. There are still very few large, brand-name successes, and more often than not, there is more hype than substance.

As William Gibson said, “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

But overall, the quality of the new companies being funded has improved dramatically. There is a drastic improvement in the quality of teams, as well as deeper understanding of business models, monetization mechanisms, and scalable models. Much of this improvement is due to the incredible work being done by the likes of Paul Bricault, Jason Nazar, and Jeff Stibel to name a few, who are helping create a thriving environment for young entrepreneurs and CEOs.

The ecosystem in Los Angeles finally has the necessary infrastructure, seed, and early-stage capital, support, and advisory services, business development opportunities, and an excellent talent pool to be sustainable. Many CEOs are now on their 2nd and 3rd companies. They are now more mature, experienced, and in most cases, more in touch with reality. Many Silicon Valley firms are setting up shop in LA to get access to the deal flow here.

There are few VCs in Los Angeles, but they are committed, great advisors, generous with their time, and sincere in their desire to see our startup scene succeed and grow.

The quality and frequency of tech-related events are fantastic, which allows for frequent networking events at all levels. We are seeing an increase in the number of exits and growth rounds.

As other cities are actively building their tech ecosystems, it is wonderful to see how far we have come in LA.

As Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”

This is a great time to be a tech entrepreneur in Los Angeles.