Primed and Ready for Startups

A year ago, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal ran an article about the Santa Clarita Valley’s (SCV) burgeoning high tech community, dubbing us the Silicon Suburb. In the months since then, we’ve seen a rapid increase in both startup companies and the local resources available to support them. At the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCVEDC), we have been working to enhance these efforts and to raise awareness of our vibrant tech community. Paired with the SCV’s educated workforce and business-friendly environment, companies are discovering they can not only find a highly-qualified team, but they can vastly stretch their startup funding by choosing to locate their companies here.
Santa Clarita is already home to many successful startups – take Scorpion for example. Recently recognized on the Inc. 5000’s “Fastest Growing Private Companies” list for the 7th consecutive year, this internet marketing company chose to commit to the SCV with a new, state-of-the-art 100,000 SF building. Founder Rustin Kretz who started the company in his parents’ house, now employs over 400 people locally and has recently expanded nationally with the acquisition of New York company, Driven Local. When asked why they chose to locate their headquarters in Santa Clarita Kretz said, “Because our employees live and thrive here, and we see it developing into the epicenter of a tech hub that spreads across Los Angeles County.”
Local, ongoing efforts to support the startup community include the City of Santa Clarita’s Business Incubator that helps nurture innovative startup companies like Nuhubit, 3D-SensIR and Outlyer Technologies, and resources such as the Small Business Development Center and training programs at College of the Canyons (COC). The Santa Clarita Valley is also home to groups like SCV Startup, sponsor of Startup Weekend and monthly networking events, and a new co-working space called Steamwork Center.
But perhaps the most exciting new development to hit the scene is Google Startup Grind, which launched its Santa Clarita chapter in September. Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs in the tech field and beyond. With monthly events in
250 cities and 100 countries, successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Startup Grind is a connected online and offline network of vibrant startup communities – communities that help fuel innovation, economic growth and prosperity at the local level.
As Santa Clarita’s demographics shift towards a more robust population of millennials and our local educational institutions like Cal Arts and COC continue to graduate highly talented individuals with dreams of starting their own innovative companies (or dreams of being employed by one), this is an opportune time for our local tech community to be coming of age. Santa Clarita is already home to eight Inc. 5000 companies, along with other major companies across a diversity of industries. Santa Clarita is primed and ready to nurture our entrepreneurs and their startup efforts.
For more information about Startup Grind visit: www.startupgrind.com/santa-clarita/
The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation is a unique private / public partnership representing the united effort of regional industry and government leaders. The SCVEDC utilizes an integrated approach to attracting, retaining, and expanding a diversity of businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley.  

Comments