Aerospace in LA used to be a lot bigger than it is now. A lot of companies migrated out or downsized over the years, though to your point, some of the more exciting ones are still around. I'd certainly consider it a real possibility for anyone interested.
It's kind of a different world, though. You don't generally see a lot of crossover between aerospace and the startup scene in LA. That's not to say it can't happen, that it doesn't happen, or that more cross-pollination shouldn't happen. Just that a lot of the skills required in aerospace are domain-specialized. Great space to be in, however, if you want to specialize. A good friend of mine spent most of his career at JPL, worked on navigational software for the Mars rover missions, etc. He was coding at the assembly level for most of that time. Which is super cool for people who are interested, and perhaps less so for people who aren't. If one has inclinations in that area, it's a fascinating place to be.
I work at JPL. We do see crossovers to start ups, but as mentioned, not many, and typically in selected domains like machine learning, robotics, and computer vision or image processing, all of which are represented at JPL. An early googler (@lisper on HN) used to work next to me at JPL, and so did a very early Amazonian. I also know early hires for SpaceX and D-Wave.
I would echo the comments nearby that the LA tech scene is not all Hollywood. Sometimes Hollywood has a hard time seeing outside itself. To me, the universities have a significant presence in the tech scene here (Caltech, USC, ISI, UCLA, UCI).
That's well said, and I certainly appreciate your perspective!
I didn't mean to imply that the LA tech scene is "all Hollywood," but rather, that Hollywood and the LA tech scene overlap in many ways, and that Hollywood has a way of being near-unavoidable in the upper echelons of the LA business community. That's not to say it's totally unavoidable -- and for that matter, not to say it needs to be avoided -- but it's obviously very influential in the city. A lot of that influence stems from the fact that Hollywood is a major financial hub for new investment, be it in tech or in other domains. As I mentioned, that influence will wane in direct proportion to the degree that the startup scene in LA grows and develops its own financial ecosystem. (That's starting to happen, although, as the article mentions, it's by no means complete just yet.)
I didn't mean for my comment to be too focused on Hollywood, but in going back and rereading it, I can see how I gave that impression. In retrospect, I should have phrased it differently.
Aerospace in LA used to be a lot bigger than it is now. A lot of companies migrated out or downsized over the years, though to your point, some of the more exciting ones are still around. I'd certainly consider it a real possibility for anyone interested.
It's kind of a different world, though. You don't generally see a lot of crossover between aerospace and the startup scene in LA. That's not to say it can't happen, that it doesn't happen, or that more cross-pollination shouldn't happen. Just that a lot of the skills required in aerospace are domain-specialized. Great space to be in, however, if you want to specialize. A good friend of mine spent most of his career at JPL, worked on navigational software for the Mars rover missions, etc. He was coding at the assembly level for most of that time. Which is super cool for people who are interested, and perhaps less so for people who aren't. If one has inclinations in that area, it's a fascinating place to be.