There is a saying about three different magnificent cities I have lived in twice. “If you are smart, you move to San Francisco. If you are ambitious, you move to LA. If you are smart and ambitious, you move to New York.”
My time in New York was a good nine lives ago, but my adventures in both Los Angeles and San Francisco are fresh and ripe for dissecting. So when Sean Percival, the prince of all things juicy in online fodder, asked me to write a LA Tech versus SF Tech themed article, who was I to say no?
First off, it goes without saying that tech professionals in San Francisco are automatically acknowledged for their intellect and tech savviness because of their location, and because they’re pretty damn smart. LA techies have to work harder to be taken seriously because Los Angeles is the entertainment mecca of the world, not the tech capital. In due time, the convergence between the two industries is going to be so tightly knit that it will be difficult to distinguish between them. But in the meantime, the biggest ostensible distinction is that SF has all the brains, and LA holds all the beauty.
Right out of the gate, both communities are deliciously warm and inviting, and they don’t seem to care if you have anything to do with tech so long as you’re on Twitter. However, while both crowds love to love the city of San Francisco, San Franciscans love to loathe Los Angeles, which is understandable in some regards. Traffic here is tragic, and this IS where buttock implants were invented.
With all the intertwining between both clubs, combined social circles, trading of tech employees, partnerships, conference shenanigans, and occasional grab-ass, there is quite a bit of cross over. But let’s be honest. Bay Area techies think us Los Angelenos are hung up on image and money, and LA geeks think SF-ers need to dress better.
I hadn’t thought much about whether or not people in LA Tech were unhealthily consumed with image until a friend of mine, who is not a Los Angeles resident, offered that disparity while I was in Vegas covering CES last month. At that moment, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was right. So I tapped into my memory bank and chronicled my initial and lasting impressions of both ecosystems thus far.
SF Tech is All Tech All the Time
My introduction to SF Tech stems back to my TechTV days when Leo LaPorte was saving screens and Kevin Rose was a production assistant. Raconteur Cathy Brooks was rounding up top tech experts around the clock, and Jim Louderback was radiating with gadget guru enthusiasm.
Fast forward through a series of dark New York minutes and four years in Hollywood to a fortuitous rainy San Francisco night in May 2009, and I’m crashing Los Angeles transplant Drew Olanoff’s departure party, where I met former Gawker gossip king Owen Thomas, now of NBCBayArea.com. I vividly remember our conversation about the web video scene in LA.
“Oh, online video producers in Los Angeles are so cute,” said Owen. “They love making their little movies for the Internet.”
“Well, yes,” I said. “People move to Los Angeles for a reason – to be in entertainment. If they end up in tech, their work is generally tied to entertainment in some way.”
“They’re just very cute,” said Owen with that mega-watt smile that only he can don all day long.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen, the lovely and whip-smart Maya Baratz and Eric Eldon chatted about blogging and the latest social gaming coverage, as Drew and MG Siegler showed off their newest iPhone apps. Anyone at that party who didn’t work in tech other than myself stayed in the living room and played Rock Band.
As I met more people dialed into the SF Tech community, I began attending conferences and tweetups. My good friend Karen Hartline, who I’m convinced knows every influencer in social media, as well as the lyrics to every top 40 single, made it a point to get me out there.
Of course, I felt a tad out of place at first. People couldn’t have cared less that up until that point, my career revolved around hanging out with celebrities. The new friends I made were particularly dumbfounded when I didn’t know who Scobleizer was, and when I had to ask what Brian Solis did for a living. The truth is that the people of Silicon Valley do care about celebrities – their own.
Most of the events I attended involved listening to people geek out over Google Analytics, SEO and Twitter. In short, the tech community in SF, lives, eats, and breathes technology. Can we really expect anything less?
You Can Take the Tech out of LA, but You Can’t Take LA out of the Tech
My introduction to the LA Tech scene took place in October during a 140 Characters conference after-party at the Roosevelt. After hours of listening to panelists abuse the word “engage” and expound on how to get more Twitter followers, I ventured toward party host extraordinaire Paige Craig’s hotel room – the designated end-up spot for all the little Tweeters to go after the bar closed.
As I approached the party zone, the first thing I noticed was Sean Percival’s hair. The now-nicotine-free father-to-be was standing outside smoking a cigarette, looking quite cool and dapper with a full head of smoothly groomed locks. I wanted to poke one of my fingers through the strands, but security was nearby, so I walked inside the room.
To my left stood wordslinging temptress AV Flox, waxing poetic on epic sex. When I looked to my right, I met the wonderfully verbal Alana Joy, who admired my purse and asked if she could feature it on one of her multiple blogs. Next, young baller Mike Prasad introduced himself, promoted Kogi BBQ, and gave me his GirlGamer business card. Five minutes later, satirist Brooks Bayne tried to persuade me to talk politics and admit that I’m a closet conservative.
A few weeks later, I met Mark Jeffrey at a dinner party, where we talked literature and then discussed working together on a potential new online venture. A couple of days after that I had brunch with Francisco Dao at Norm’s (shocking I know), and listened to him elaborate on Twiistup as a conference versus a party.
In short, everyone had their hustle on. Why? Because you can take the tech out of LA, but you can’t take LA out of tech. To make a name for yourself in LA, one must stand out, stand tall, and stand in a long line of hustlers who all want a taste of the good life. To stand out, one must have a persona, project an image, and make some noise. Whether they’re in film, TV, music, porn, real estate, restaurants, or tech, career-minded people in Los Angeles possess rapacious ambition. Can we really expect anything less?
Concluding Thoughts
For the most part, a great deal of esteem exists between LA Tech and SF Tech. Far too many friendships and business relationships exist among members of both clubs for there to be any significant lack of respect. That being said, SF Tech heads will continue saying LA Tech members party too much and LA Tech will keep saying SF techies need to pay more attention to their bottom line.
So do I agree with the aforementioned saying about three different magnificent cities I have lived in twice? Yes, but I have my own variation.
If you are a genuine geek, you can thrive in San Francisco. If you are even a smidgen of a geek with hustle, you can play and thrive in Los Angeles. If you are a genuine geek with hustle, you can thrive and play anywhere with anyone. But stay on the West Coast, please. We can’t let New York get all the glory.
(Photo by (CC) Brian Solis. www.briansolis.com)
