Panel
Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Why L.A. Is Working
Milken InstituteSteve Drobny, Julie Gerberdinger, Kara, Walter, Scott Goldbaum Jr., Eric Schmidt, Steve Cowpert Jr., Harry
- Milken Conference attendees in Los Angeles are expected to remain in the region post-event, with VC capital anticipated to flow into LA as the market normalizes and conditions find a market-clearing level due to current dislocations.
- The LA tech ecosystem is projected to rapidly catch up to New York, potentially becoming a global leader by generating genuine engineering talent and attracting Silicon Valley investors, though traditional institutional respect is currently contingent on achieving "real big exits."
- Term sheets in LA are expected to shift toward Silicon Valley norms as local engineering competency matures, while LA companies are forecast to grow by over 50 percent annually, potentially for the next decade.
- Trucar forecasts doubling its business two to three times before self-driving cars are widely available and targets generating $1 billion in revenue by 2018 or 2019; the CEO role is subject to reevaluation or replacement if the company plateaus.
- The automotive sector is expected to see strong fundamentals, with vehicle ownership rising if affordability improves and a product shift favoring SUVs, luxury cars, and trucks, despite gas prices remaining low.
- Self-driving technology is predicted to reduce accidents and improve driver safety without diminishing vehicle ownership, with an event horizon of 10 to 15 years before a new market emerges to disrupt the entire industry.
- Future car buying will evolve into a comprehensive marketplace solving payment, trade-in, and valuation issues, with sharing economy habits expected to become natural for younger generations.
- The market is expected to become more efficient as companies map to the entire car transaction process, while YouTube is predicted to become a top-performing acquisition channel and high-cost office spaces will be selected based on employee satisfaction.
- Engineers are expected to relocate to LA rather than commute from Silicon Valley, fostering a culture where the tech community fights together to establish leadership and genuine "tech cred."