Reasons to Move From Silicon Valley to LA
What does DocuSign, MarkLogic, Zenefits, and MuleSoft have in common? They’re all San Francisco-based startups, and they all earned the coveted “unicorn” status within the first three weeks of May. That’s 4 startups (maybe some you’ve never even heard of) crossing the billion dollar threshold in a matter of days.
That is big considering there are only 94 venture-backed private companies worldwide with that valuation or higher. And to no one’s surprise, the bulk of these came from SF / Silicon Valley. Among the 20 highest valued US startups, 14 of them are based in the Bay Area, with just 3 based in LA county.
So why did I…
- an entrepreneur in my mid 20's
- with the goal to eventually run a billion dollar company of my own
…move to Santa Monica? I’ll walk you through some of my reasons. My goal here is to make this informative for anyone considering a similar move.
I have zero family in the Bay Area and tons of family in LA.
I won’t elaborate much on this point, other than to say that prioritizing personal connections has rewarded me with new perspectives, a firm grounding, and a constant reminder of the bigger purpose.
