[rwhitman]

LA has tons of tax breaks for new and small businesses. As a new business or one making less than $100k you pay no city taxes at all.

I have actually been quite surprised by how accommodating such a large city was in facilitating tax breaks towards starting my business there. The city clerks actually called me up and helped me file for deductions after I had completely missed deadlines.

Anyhow the problem with LA as a startup culture has a lot to do with the proximity of Hollywood. People dream big, and have a tendency to ignore the more pragmatic aspects of building a business over the long term. Businesses in LA tend to go big and flame out very quickly. It doesn't help that its relatively common for LA startups to be funded by dumb money from someone who made their bucks as a big dreamer. LA is unique because of its lack of tempered pragmatism, but unfortunately and ironically I feel like for a startup culture, thats its undoing...