over 8 years ago from Opeyemi O., Dev/everygood.co
I am a developer based in Nigeria and will be visiting LA at end of the month. I would love to know areas of LA where I will be close to the tech scene - areas where I can easily meet other techies, attend events and have access to co-working spaces.
Santa Monica and Venice Beach are dubbed "Silicon Beach" in reference to the number of tech companies and startups based around there. Try to get passes at some of the coworking spaces (Cross Campus in Santa Monica, WeWork in various locations, etc) and you'll be sure to meet some interesting folks.
Have fun in LA! Eat a Father's Office burger (if you like burgers).
Yo is shake shack in Cali now?
No idea dude, I moved from LA last October. But who needs Shake Shack when you've got In-n-Out?
(Let the burger wars begin!)
First one opens in WeHo early 2016.
Umami and FO or you're doing it wrong...
Nour is right - you'd make the best use of your time on the Westside (Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Playa Vista). I'm personally in Downtown LA where there's a growing tech scene, and hope that it continues to flourish.
Quora Discussion: http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-Technology-companies-in-Downtown-Los-Angeles
Map of LA Startups: http://represent.la/
LA Times Article if you're curious about Downtown: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dtla-tech-20150308-story.html#page=1
Yeah it seems to be mostly in Santa Monica/Venice (also a bit in Culver City, not too far), with downtown getting bigger. Apparently there is a scene in Pasadena too but it's still a bit small(?):
I've worked at companies in both downtown and Santa Monica. Santa Monica/Venice is where you want to be hands down. It's a far better hub for not only mingling, but also downtime.
Getting in/out of downtown sucks, it's nowhere near the water, and there not a whole ton going on at night to be honest.
This may help: http://www.represent.la/
There is a Silicon Beach Facebook group that you may want to join and introduce yourself to.
I think this question would yield more responses on HN
Conversations easily get lost on HN :( I actually posted it (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9698171)
I have very similar plan. I'd like to hear too. portfolio
I love your portfolio!
Thanks Ernest, hope to meet in LA :)
Here is a link to my portfolio: http://obem.be/opeyemi
I've peppered in comments, but although I feel Santa Monica/Venice is by far the best bet... it occurred to me that you never mentioned where you are staying.
In LA, the traffic is crazy-horrid... and if you happen to be staying at the home of friend/family, let us know. If you're staying in Anaheim or Long Beach for example... for all of us to blindly suggest SM/Venice is kinda sadistic.
I only bring this up because many people who've never been there just assume "oh, where I'm staying is only 15 miles from downtown" that's like 30 minutes max door-to-door. Yeah. No.
So, if you don't have a place lined up to stay yet... even though it costs significantly more... I'd aim for SM/Venice. To be fair though, it is expensive. Culver might be a decent option... or even one of the airport hotels as a central point of both SM/Venice and downtown.
If you are staying at specific area already... let us know... some of us may be able to steer you to places better with that in mind.
Enjoy your stay!
As most have stated here Venice and Santa Monica seems to be the epicenter of it all. Pasadena has a lot going on and the Downtown LA community is growing as well.
I'd recommend checking out the Search on Meetup.com and looking for groups that interest you within the Los Angeles area. LA is a lot more spread out than say San Francisco or New York so be sure to do a search with a 15 - 25 mile radius to get a better picture of the meetups throughout the city.
I also recently signed up for this SoCal Tech newsletter as it has a lot of interesting information about companies in the Los Angeles area you may never of even heard of.
On the flip-side, the OP needs to understand that the reason meets are kind of spread out is because traffic in LA is flat-out craptastic. Depending on where they are staying, a 15-25 mile radius can be 1-2 hours of driving... one way.
This is an excellent point. I give myself at least an hour to get anywhere if I'm leaving close to (or around) rush hour. Alternatively I'll go to somewhere like Philz in Santa Monica early and work from there until the meetup starts (obviously not everyone has the luxury of working remotely, but if you can skip out of work early).
That being said Google Maps Directions and using the "Depart At / Arrive By" selector has been pretty helpful in the past on estimating how long a trip might take.
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