On Tuesday, more than 1,000 attendees and 50 speakers, among them Southern California’s most celebrated founders, executives and investors, gathered at the scenic Skirball Cultural Center in Bel Air for the first Startup Grind regional conference to be held in the SoCal’s booming startup scene. Startup Grind, the entrepreneurial membership organization that actively connects and educates 250,000 entrepreneurs in more than 80 countries, has held regular meetups in Los Angeles for more than five years, but this is the first time that it brought its full day conference agenda to entrepreneurs and investors in Southern California.
Michael Gasiorek, editor-in-chief of Startup Grind with startup exhibitors
One can’t talk about Southern California without mentioning Hollywood. This iteration of Startup Grind was infused with conversations about the convergence between entertainment and technology. One of the best presentations was one by Troy Carter, founder of Atom Factory and a celebrated music manager whose past clients have included pop music icon Lady Gaga and Meghan Trainor. Carter made a high-profile foray into venture capital by investing in what later became some of the decade’s hottest startups, including Uber, LYFT, AirbnB, Warby Parker, and the viral female-targeted newsletter publisher theSkimm. At Startup Grind SoCAL, Carter offered welcomed motivation to entrepreneurs still trying to figure things out: “Having your back against the wall and on cold concrete is the best incentive for entrepreneurs.” Carter also offered some boosterism for Silicon Beach, saying “the best step for L.A. Tech to move forward is to not look north.”
Another centerpiece of the conference was a chat between film producer Brandt Andersen and Shay Mitchell, star of “Pretty Little Liars” and a favorite social influencer among millennials.
Brandt Andersen and Shay Mitchell
With more than 14 million followers on Instagram alone, Mitchell is intimately familiar with the ins and outs of social media marketing and generously shared with the audience ideas about how they should tailor social strategies to different platforms. Known for being open and candid on social media, Mitchell also advised founders to “not compare yourself to others” and to “stay in your own lane.”
Shaun Neff, co-founder of Neff Headwear
Shaun Neff, founder of the cult headwear apparel brand Neff Headwear, similarly spoke to attendees about the power of being who they are. In a gritty, down to early keynote with the theme “Believe, Dream, Hustle,” Neff encouraged fellow LA founders to “focus on what you’re good at.”
Representatives from venture capital firms and accelerators also spoke at the conference to share observations about current trends and insights into what they are looking for in startups. Scott Dudelson, GM of the LA Dodgers/R/GA Accelerator, and Stephen Plumlee, COO of R/GA shared their experiences finding and building startups that create technology that disrupts the sports industry. Appetize, a mobile point-of-sale system for sports and entertainment venues, was given a loud shoutout as one of the most successful Dodgers-backed startups from last year’s cohort.
Founders of some of L.A.’s most successful startups — including Gunner Lovelace of Thrive Market, Jilliene Helman of Realty Mogul, Rosie O’Neil of SugarFina, Leura Fine of Laurel and Wolf and Brian Lee of Honest Company — spoke about their experiences and lessons they have learned as entrepreneurs.
From left to right: Tucker Kain, CFO of LA Dodgers, Stephen Plumlee, COO of R/GA Ventures, Scott, Dudleson, Managing Director of LA Dodgers Accelerator, and Joe Famalette, Director of Startup Grind LA.
Helman gave a great talk and spoke to entrepreneurs in a very candid, hands-on fashion. She sees running billions of dollars of commercial real estate transactions through her crowdfunding platform in the not too distant future.
On the exhibitor floor, dozens and dozens of budding entrepreneurs eagerly promoted themselves and their companies to media representatives and investors, hoping to emulate those L.A. success stories. Among those that caught our eyes was Local Roots Farm, an innovative indoor vertical farming company founded by Eric Ellestad, who is on a mission to disrupt traditional agriculture and the harm it inflicts on the environment.
Allison Towle, Director of Social Enterprise at Local Roots Farm
According to the founder, the startup is aggressively developing technologies that help people eat healthfully and well while being environmentally responsible. Another interesting company, ThinkSmart Whiteboard, turns a Tablet PC into shared whiteboards through which team members can collaborate remotely. Glipped.com, a platform that allows any company to streamline their corporate giving and employee volunteerism, also stood out from the crowd. In our opinion, the startup’s CEO Gaurav Bhattacharya deserved the most passionate entrepreneur award at the event in the startup exhibition hall.
Getting a full-scale Startup Grind conference in Southern California provided the region with a much needed gathering opportunity where founders and investors could discuss what is working and what lies ahead from a unique area perspective. As Brian Lee, co-founder and CEO of Honest Company, put it, “LA is starting to have the talent and capital it needs to grow a [tech and startup] ecosystem.“