Software Development Companies in Southern California

I've helped organize the Los Angeles CTO Forum for almost 10 years. As part of doing that, I've had the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of different chief technical officers from different kinds of companies over those years. This is a private group of CTOs who are responsible for software development within their companies. They are generally the senior most person responsible for custom software development, database design, database administration, web development, etc.

In a recent conversation with a fellow CTO, we lamented about the fact that while there's very active software development and web development going on in Southern California and West Los Angeles, yet there didn't seem to be as much of a community around it. Yes, there are some events around particular technologies. But where do the software development companies in Southern California congregate?

Part of the reason is that when I look at the CTOs, we see that the industries (games, entertainment, aerospace, retail, etc.), size of company (startup to very large), stage (early stage to established firms) vary widely. Most networking events tend to either focus on specific technologies (PHP, .Net, C#, Microsoft, LAMP, MySQL, Open Source, Hadoop, Java, etc.) or focused on industry or type of company. They are most often not focused on a particular functional area. Actually, there are some CFO events. But not really CTO events. Part of this is that CTOs have a tendency not to go to networking events. :)

Actually this is something that the Software Council of Southern California realized a few years ago as we changed to focus on broader set of companies – and rebranded to become the Technology Council of Southern California. It was an interesting discussion among the board during that transition.

Even still, this barely touches all the different companies in Southern California where software development is happening. For example, an online retailer probably doesn't see themselves as a technology company.

What that means is that while Southern California is a vibrant software development location, when you look around for Software Development Companies in Southern California, often you come up fairly empty. As an example, I did that as a search on SoCal Tech Central and Software Development Companies really didn't come up with much.

Bottom line – if you are looking for Software Development Companies in Southern California – you are probably going to need to drill a bit deeper. This is also discussed in Los Angeles Web Developer.

Networking Events in Los Angeles and Southern California

I've updated this a few times now. Most recent additions to Los Angeles Networking Events:

• Open Stack Meetup - cloud computing and storage, discussing OpenStack deployment, coding to further the project, and creating a collaborative local community.
  
• LA Ruby Meetup - anyone interested in learning or sharing experiences with "Ruby" or "Ruby on Rails".
• SoCal Web Designers - Web designers and developers talking about technology and design process.

Additions Fall 2011

• LeanLA Startup Circle Meetup

  I’ve gone to a couple of these. Often the presentations are pretty basic because of a fair number of newbies in the audience. However, there are some great folks who have lots of experience also attending so the networking and discussion is generally pretty great. Especially if you are looking at early-stage start-up issues.

• Social media week Los Angeles

  Runs week of Sept 20 - 24. Lots of scattered events around LA on social media.

• SoCal Kanban/Lean software meetup
• Coloft

  They have a line up of events there. Doing a good job of helping to make events happen. And for what it's worth, a few folks I know have used their space as a coworking space and say they really like it.

Don’t forget to check out Plancast. I sometimes find some interesting events through that system.

Great post by John Shiple. He talks about a bunch of the different networking events that occur in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. In his post, he mentions the following events / event organizers, and you should visit his post for a bit more on each of them.

• LA CTO Forum
• Dealmaker Media
• Digital Family Reunion
• Startups Uncensored
• Social Media Club, LA
• Twiistup
• Mindshare LA
• LA Hadoop Meetup
• Dorkbot
• Geek Dinners
• LA Cloud Computing
• LA Web Application Developers
• LA PHP Developers

In addition to these, I'd recommend looking at:

• Technology Council of Southern California – Surprised John didn't mention this one. They put on great events.
• VentureNet – Great annual event by the Technology Council.
• CalTech MIT Enterprise Forum – Great events on various topics – there's one this Saturday that would be great to go to.
• AITP-LA – Monthly events. Often very IT focused, but can be interesting topics.
• TechBizConnection – Orange County monthly events. Often good topics and interesting networking.
• AWT So Cal - Association of Women in Technology
  

Update: I was just sent a link to Todd Zebert's blog where he has a list of networking events in Los Angeles and Southern California along with some commentary. Here some of those groups:

• Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs
• LA Mixers
• Twestival LA
• Digital LA
• Los Angeles LinkedIn Networking Event
• ExecTec
• So Cal Sushi
• XING Community Los Angeles
  Challenger Networking Group
• Ventura Highway Networking Group
  Pasadena Professionals
• L7scene
• Work It Forward; Bootstrap 2-2
• LA Tweetah

Update: Just pointed to another great post. It discusses more than just local events, but offers quite a list of organizations and events, so here are some additions to the list:

• Word Camp LA
• LA Twestival
• Tech Supper Club
• Media Leaders
• ThinkLA
  
• Digital Hollywood

And here's where you can find more events:

1. SoCalTech Calendar – A great aggregation of events around Southern California that has been pulled together for years by Ben Kuo.
2. Mixergy - A great calendar of events.
3. TechZulu - Another great calendar. I believe that a lot of the events on Mixergy come from TechZulu.
   
4. Meetup – My personal experience has been mixed with these.
5. Southern California Tech Central – Brings together posts from top bloggers around Southern California including John's blog and this blog. You can use keywords like: Events in Los Angeles or Southern California Events or even Santa Monica Events.
6. You can also use Southern California Tech Central's list of Organizations to find possible events: UCLA, CalTech, Twiistup, USC, AeA, TCVN, OCTANE,
   BarCamp, Enterprise Forum, TCOSC, LAVA, UCI, LINC, UCSD, AWT, Digital Hollywood, WITI, TechBiz, ASP, Stirrers and Shakers, AMA, ACG, Pepperdine, PMI, CTC, LMU, LARTA, AITP, iHollywood, Media Leaders.

Quality of Events

Of course, the bigger issue with events is finding the ones where you will have a really good opportunity to network with interesting people. I guess I should confess that I used to go to a lot more networking events. Now, I'm more likely to only go to a few and to heavily use Prenetworking – see Secret for Networking at Events – Prenetworking and Pre-network with LinkedIn. This is why I say that Local Event Organizers Need to Adopt Social Media.

These days, it might be more effective to just invite a small group of people to get together for an interesting discussion than it is to attend an event.

Hard to Evaluate Knowledge Workers

Some Dilbert backup on why it's hard to Evaluate the Performance of Knowledge Workers:

Digital Family Summit

Just a quick note that I'm going to the Digital Family Summit on Wed around online communities. Hope to run into some people there.

Twitter Revenue from Tools

Just read this article - Twitter sees tools, not ads, for revenue

That could be really bad news. Part of the appeal of twitter is that it's a fairly open platform and that there are a lot of people building tools that live on top of the platform. If Twitter begins to charge for tools, they will likely need to lock away aspects of their platform to prevent other people from creating competitors to the tools they create.

In fairness, I often go back and forth on Twitter. Recently, I've been feeling like it's really just a messaging platform like email or IM.

Curious any thoughts. I wonder if this will come up tonight at the social networking panel I'm moderating.

Social Networking and Business Value

Just a quick note that I'll be moderating a Technology Council Event:


Social Networking as a Business Strategy

May 19, 2009 - Culver City


Social networking media are used on a daily basis to grow businesses and expand career opportunities. Individuals use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo as career-advancing tools, even more useful in a down economy. Corporations increasingly see social media as a key PR, communications and marketing medium. Social networking sites and microblogs are used not only to build company brands, but to foster productivity; social media tools help build communities around the question, "What are you working on?" Companies also use social networking sites in the hiring process, and increasingly, to do innovative advertising (such as the recent Jack in the Box campaign). This Panel will explore issues such as: How can companies best utilize social networking media? What are the risks and rewards? Can social networking be a money-maker for companies? Does advertising work in the social networking world? Top officers of some of the leading social media websites and tools (including Facebook, MySpace and Yammer) will be on the Panel, and there will be panelists from the worlds of media sharing platforms (Pringo), online advertising (Stun Media) and law (Greenberg Glusker), the latter to highlight risks relating to such issues as corporate blogging and privacy.

Speakers:

* Jason Oberfest, Senior Vice President, Business Development of MySpace
* Paul Ollinger, West Coast Vice President of Sales of Facebook
* Sam Cimino, Sales Manager SW, YouTube
* Majid Abai, CEO of Pringo
* Michael Goldstein, CEO of Stun Media
* Richard Neff, Head of IP & Tech Group of Greenberg Glusker
* David Schwartz, Vice President, Corporate Development of Yammer

Moderator:

* Dr. Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a Software Development Company in Southern California

Speaker Bios:

Jason Oberfest, Senior Vice President, Business Development of MySpace

Jason Oberfest is Senior Vice President, Business Development at MySpace, as well as SVP and GM, MySpace Open Platform. Formerly, he was Managing Director of both Product Management and of Business Development at Los Angeles Times Interactive. Before that, he was VP, Client Strategy at Blast Radius. He has also sailed a boat across the Atlantic.

Paul Ollinger, West Coast Vice President of Sales of Facebook

Paul Ollinger is the West Coast Vice President of Sales for Facebook. He has also been a Regional Sales Director and National Account Director for Facebook. A 12 - year veteran of the online world, he has worked in sales, business development and content partnership functions for Yahoo!, LAUNCH.com, and The Improv Comedy Clubs. He graduated from Rhodes College and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (MBA).

Sam Cimino, Sales Manager SW of YouTube/Google

As YouTube’s Southwest Regional Manager, Sam is responsible for generating revenue across YouTube and the Google Content Network which comprises a media network that reaches nearly 80% of all internet users worldwide.

Focusing on the entertainment, automotive, technology, retail and financial sectors, Sam oversees all aspects of the groups advertising relationships in conjunction with Google Team managers and sales leads across the region.

Prior to joining Google, Sam worked at CNET, The Wall Street Journal Interactive and Ziff Davis and has over 15 years of experience selling media. Sam earned a BA in Communications Arts and Sciences from Michigan State University.

Majid Abai, CEO of Pringo

Majid Abai is the Chief Executive of Pringo, Inc. an enterprise social networking platform provider located in Los Angeles, CA. For the past 26 years, Majid has founded, led, turned-around and merged several companies in various industries, as well as providing consulting services to corporate executives in the areas of technology, governance, turn-around and strategy. In 2005, Majid coauthored "Data Strategy" a book designed to help streamline information management within organizations. He has been an instructor in UCLA Extension for 9 years, and is a frequent contributor to various online publications.

Michael Goldstein, CEO of Stun Media

Michael Goldstein is the Chief Executive Officer & Strategic Creative at Stun Media in Los Angeles. A creator and producer of social media, Michael’s responsibilities include leadership for the design team, concept creation and strategic consulting for highly engaging interactive experiences. Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer & Strategic Creative at USA GROUP, INC., and before that, Co-founder and Senior Vice-President at Clearview Networks, Inc. and SVP, Branded Content & Audience Creation at nitetime.net. He is known for being able to monetize the social web. He was raised and educated in London.

Richard Neff, Head IP & Tech Group of Greenberg Glusker

Richard Neff is a partner at the law firm of Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles and Chair of the Firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group. He has a practice focused on complex software and internet transactions for an international base of technology and other clients, as well as on government relations and international policy and enforcement issues affecting the copyright industries. Many clients turn to him for advice on and negotiation of international transactions, often in Latin America. He is a former chairman of the Business Software Alliance, and currently is Chair of the LA Chapter of the Technology Council of Southern California. He has written several books on intellectual property law. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Yale Law School.

David Schwartz, Vice President, Corporate Development of Yammer

David Schwartz is the Vice President, Corporate Development, at Yammer Inc., a communications tool for enterprises. He has performed this role since the company’s inception after Yammer was spun-out of Geni Inc. (a social networking site for families), where the Yammer technology was developed. Yammer was launched on stage at TechCrunch 50 on September 8, 2008 and won Best in Show. He handles strategic partnerships and enterprise agreements with large corporate customers, as well as serving as the company's in-house general counsel. Prior to his roles at Geni and Yammer, David was the National Manager, Business Development & Business Affairs at LoopNet, Inc. He graduated from Stanford University and from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Dr. Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower

Dr. Tony Karrer is the CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a software, web, and eLearning development firm. He has 20 years’ experience as CTO. Dr. Karrer taught Computer Science for eleven years. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. Dr. Karrer graduated from Loyola Marymount University (Valedictorian), then attended USC as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30 engineers in the nation, and received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is author of the award-winning eLearning Technology blog and a frequent speaker at industry events.

Southern California Tech Central

I am excited to be participating in and announcing the of:

Southern California Tech Central

This is a community of people in Southern California who have come together to help find and organize the best content from blogs, news sources and other web sites all around technology in So Cal. The goal is to create a place where it's easy to find current and highly relevant content. And perhaps to stimulate new connections.

This site is being sponsored by the Technology Council of Southern California and my company TechEmpower. It also is using technology that we've developed over the past few years that powers a few different similar sites. You can read more about the technology in the post: Topic Hubs.

You can get a sense of the power of the site by visiting the site and clicking a keyword on the left. For example, if you click on Startup, you find:

=> The most recent posts, announcements and web pages on the top of the page that relate to Startups.

=> The best (according to social signals across the network) content below that such as:

• Acting CTO Role in a Start-up
• The DNA of an A++ Team
• Startup Delta Force…

=> The keywords on the left are ordered according to their relationship to the current term. So you can see that

• Entrepreneur (60)
• LinkedIn (15)
• Metrics (16)
• SEO (15)
• Company (141)

are all considered highly relevant to the term "startup."

As the site runs, it will get better at finding great content.

You can find Featured participants listed on the right hand side of each page. When you choose one of them such as Cliff Allen on Marketing, you will see the keywords are now based on what Cliff discusses more than other bloggers. You can see that he talks about: Marketing, Metrics, Customer and Social Media more than most. Lower on the page, you can find the best posts from Cliff based on social signals with the top spot belonging to his 9 Marketing Trends for 2009.

If you have ideas on how to improve the site or what to do something similar, I certainly would like to hear about it.