Silicon Beach has the best of both worlds. You get the iconic California beaches and sun, as well as the tech start-ups that built the community that we see today.

About Silicon Beach

Silicon beach is home to over 500 startup companies. It is also home to big tech companies such as Google, Yahoo, Snapchat and Buzzfeed to name just a few. The region is considered to be the second largest tech-hub in the entire world.

The influx in tech companies has greatly affected homes and business availability in Playa Vista, Playa del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice and even parts of Marina del Rey. When finding a property you love in Silicon Beach you must move fast in order to get beat out the increasing number of competitors. 

What Makes Silicon Beach Different?

Silicon Valley has always been known as the tech-hub of California, but young entrepreneurs learned that it is hard to compete with all of the big companies in Silicon Valley. In recent year, start up companies have been calling Silicon Beach home instead. It is home young tech companies with an entertainment, celebrity or mobile edge. 

Cheaper rent and better weather than Silicon Valley has the young entrepreneurs coming in droves and staying as they build their companies. 

The creativity that lives in Venice Beach has also played major roles in the startups. James Citron, the CEO of Venice-based mobile entertainment marketing company Mogreet, spoke to USA Today about why he resides in Silicon Beach.

"There's a creative energy to Venice,” Citron said. “A better quality of life. You can go surfing in the morning, code by day … and the weather's better than Palo Alto."

Google in Silicon Beach 

Many of the start-ups might not be world-renowned yet, but that hasn’t stopped major tech-companies from swooping in and grabbing some of Silicon Beach’s prime real estate. 

Google rented the prominent Binoculars building in January of 2011, and is currently leasing 100,000 square-feet. The lease was part of a major expansion to establish a larger employment presence in Los Angeles.

"We're helping the second-largest city in the United States become a veritable tech center," Google says on its website, when trying to attract employees for sales and engineering positions.

"Want 300 days of sun a year?" Google says. "Forget the Valley — pack your bags for Google L.A."

Home to Snapchat 

Snapchat is a slightly newer platform than Google, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less popular in the growing world of mobile apps and social media. 

Snapchat, much like Google, was originated at Stanford University. Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown created the app for a class that Spiegel was taking. The app was first launched in July 2011 in Spiegel’s living room under the name “Picaboo.” It wasn’t long before it was launched again as “Snapchat,” and social media was reinvented forever.

Today, Snapchat aquires more space than just Spiegel’s living room. Now Snapchat resides in a 47,000 square foot complex in Venice.

 

The app is one of the biggest start-up successes of Silicon Beach, but it is by no means the only one. Start ups like the popular online “Dollar Shave Club,” the confession app Whisper, and the online car buying site, TrueCar.

If you want to be in the hub of Silicon Beach, click here to take a look at our homes!