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Breaking into a whole new startup scene can be a daunting task, but for Science’s Matt Monahan, accelerators and mentoring roles were what enveloped him so quickly into the LA community. As the cofounder and CEO of social advertising company Alphaboost, he relocated to LA in 2012 after time spent advising Wildfire, which was acquired by Google, and cofounding The Comotion Group/Sharethrough.
“I reached out to accelerators, tried to become a bigger part of the community, so that I could get acclimated with what sort of challenges startups face here as opposed to New York where I just moved from or in San Francisco where I cut my teeth into the startup world,” Monahan said.
He found a lot of that community support through various advising roles and at 500 Startups, which eventually led him to his current role. During 500 Startups’ GeeksOnaPlane in Brazil, Monahan met Science CEO Mike Jones, which sparked an ongoing relationship eventually sprouting into a new opportunity for Monahan. Recently Monahan was named VP of Social Media Marketing at Science, giving him a diverse range of companies to work with from Science’s portfolio such as Hello Society, Madrigold Media and Dollar Shave Club.
“I am really excited about the leadership team at Science, the portfolio of diverse companies that they have managed to grow and the opportunity that I have to make a dramatic impact on the growth of the companies,” Monahan said.
The “scrappy skillset” Monahan said he picked up while cofounding Comotion Group now will allow him to help a wider variety of startups specifically through his social media marketing expertise and work on even “bigger plans that we can’t speak to just yet” with Science in 2014. Built In LA sat down with Monahan to find out what he really thinks about the LA tech scene:
So how do you find LA’s tech scene?
I have a unique perspective in that I’ve operated startups in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles now. I think the greatest distinction is the industries of focus: San Francisco seems to be very much built around infrastructure technology, big “pie in the sky” ideas and consumer apps, whereas New York is a lot more advertising-focused because of all the customers out there - and somewhat also fashion-focused. LA seems to be focused on e-commerce and media. It’s not as convenient to go out and get stuff from stores when you have to drive across town. So ordering something online and having it shipped to you has probably been engrained in the lifestyles of entrepreneurs who are emerging and starting businesses.
What types of companies have you seen be the most successful in this environment then?
LA does have a specific focus and it seems like from a holistic perspective that businesses that have the most success in LA and that the press seems to be talking about have been in the transaction space - businesses that focus on delivering products to customers and making real revenues. Those seem to be driving force behind investment trends in Silicon Beach.
What is your advice to LA founders and entrepreneurs?
You can control your destiny if you generate profit, rather than relying on investors to scale something. If you can generate revenue, you are going to have a better chance at success.
What do you find so enticing about advising and mentoring so many startups?
What’s ironic about being a mentor at 500 startups is that I probably learn more listening to the challenges of other founders than I can actually teach everybody. It’s a really great opportunity; it allows me to meet some of the smartest people around the world working on startups. It’s kind of like when you’re in a university. You don’t learn everything that’s super valuable from your professors, you typically learn from your peers - and the same logic applies when interacting with folks at incubators and accelerators.
