If you are reading this, it probably means you care about the startup community here in LA. And if you care, we have no doubt that you believe, like we do, that LA’s technology ecosystem (and more broadly, Southern California) is on a cusp of something big. We, the partners of MuckerLab, are excited to announce the launch of our startup accelerator for the LA startup community. We want to be part of the coming transforming and do our part helping to make it happen.
Los Angeles has what it takes to become a major technology hub – all the fundamentals are here. We have roughly the same size of technical labor force as Silicon Valley, thanks in part to the presence of three of the top ten engineering schools in the world (Caltech, UCLA, USC). We are the epicenter of the world’s entertainment, media, sports and fashion industry.
Some of the most important and industry defining technology companies came out of our backyards – particularly in adtech, e-commerce, social and local. And for sure, the Los Angeles entrepreneurs we’ve met are smart, passionate and irrationally committed to their visions. Today, kids grow up in Los Angeles wanting to be the next … Justin Bieber (!?) … because it seems so tangible to them; but we hope one day, these kids (and our own sons and daughters) will aspire to be the next Steve Jobs or Larry Page, because more than ever, great technology businesses can be built anywhere — from Estonia (Skype) to Seattle (Microsoft, Amazon) to Australia (99designs, Atlassian).
The founders of MuckerLab have spent the majority of our careers in both Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. What is clear to us is that LA is poised to experience the same seismic shift in the seed/incubation ecosystem that started to take place in Silicon Valley circa 2006, when a whole new, efficient ecosystem emerged — fueled by a rapidly growing and robust angel network, new seed funds and a slew of accelerators that drove the evolution of how new companies get started. The black box has started to open up — young and not so young entrepreneurs have a place (literally) to get their bearings before heading off to conquer the world. We want to help build that platform for Los Angeles, be a part of next wave of innovation and, perhaps, with all of your help, do our part to amplify the outcome.
MuckerLab is about the people — our mentors, the entrepreneurs and us all working side-by-side to jumpstart exceptional businesses in Southern California. You can read our chest stomping bios and make us feel better about ourselves. 
But, we think we can help entrepreneurs because we’ve all been there. We are operators who have built and scaled technology businesses at all stages – from founders to Fortune 100. We earned our stripes as product managers, marketers, engineers, and general managers. We are successful entrepreneurs ourselves. We have built companies from scratch, recruited co-founders, raised hundreds of millions in capital and sold our ventures. We have a proven track record of success in diverse segments of Internet and media, such as e-commerce, entertainment, payments, local, mobile, content, digital advertising and social. And though we have spent a sizable portion of our careers in the Valley soaking in whatever magic that makes it so special, we have our roots firmly planted here in Los Angeles, integrated into this community.
We’re also not so far removed from our humble beginnings to think it’s beneath us to help design wireframes, build user acquisition models, develop marketing plans and write user surveys. (We actually enjoy it!) You, the entrepreneur, bring your passion and vision — we are going to do everything we can to help you be successful.
