L.A.'s Private Club for Techies Is Over Before It Began
When we first heard L.A. had a members only club for techies like The Battery in San Francisco, we were stoked. More Bling Ring, less Social Network, fingers crossed. But during a visit in March, I was told not to bother sneaking in: "There weren't enough members to support the place."
Now even one of the founders of the exclusive venue tells Re/code it turned out pretty lame:
"Don't go to 41 Ocean. It's already over," said one of the 41 Ocean founders, Josh Berman, who runs the e-commerce company Beachmint. "Like, it would be a little embarrassing. We're starting a new thing, actually."
Why is it so hard to get Hollywood entrepreneurs to adopt Silicon Valley's pack mentality and silo themselves off? Perhaps because 41 Ocean was "an explicitly tech space," reports Re/code:
"We had a vision. We wanted to install plugs, we wanted to make it a place to work and meet," Berman said. "The guy running it just wanted it to be a nightclub."
It's not that they don't wanna pardy, they just want to be celebrity adjacent:
At one entrepreneur's birthday party, Selena Gomez was there, and somehow I found myself wedged between her and some founders in a selfie. The Winklevoss twins of Facebook infamy — the Winklevii — and Troy Carter both have excellent parties, many people said. And almost everyone agreed that Elon Musk has the best parties. He recently bused partygoers half an hour outside LA for a Renaissance party.
Sigh. You can take the founder out of the Renn Faire . . .
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