With the wave of technology and venture capital that is flowing through Los Angeles, city officials are taking more interest in engaging executives from this growing industry. We’ve participated in a few of these events already to contribute to the valuable dialogue of building greater relationships between tech companies and the city of Los Angeles.
Last week, we were fortunate to meet Eric Garcetti, the current mayor of Los Angeles, at an event hosted by Fika Ventures and moderated by Matt Spence at Andreessen Horowitz. It was also hosted by the outgoing LA city entrepreneur in residence, Eva Ho, who I happened to have worked with at Google several years back. She received a plaque from the mayor for her service overseeing entrepreneurial projects in the Los Angeles metro area.
Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and Matt Spence of Andreessen Horowitz take the stage.
Future Growth of Los Angeles
The mayor was a great speaker with a very solid approach and vision for Los Angeles. Mayor Garcetti talked a lot about LA’s impressive progress in recent years and how the city is tackling how we will need to adapt to technology, changing demographics and future growth. These plans include transparency, technology and being more open to entrepreneurial ideas.
Due to the impact that PeerStreet is beginning to have on the national housing stock, one interesting highlight to me was a conversation around the future of housing in Los Angeles. Mayor Garcetti spoke about trying to create both affordable and desirable options including upcycling existing homes.
PeerStreet and LA’s Housing Stock
Matt Spence, a partner in the policy and regulatory affairs group at Andreessen, invited us to attend the event. He skillfully weaved PeerStreet into his conversation with the Mayor. It elevated our presence at the event and everyone wanted to learn how PeerStreet is helping improve communities on a local level, one house at a time, by providing more capital to more lenders, who then can lend to more borrowers.
Left to right: Brett Crosby (PeerStreet Co-founder and COO), Matt Spence (Andreessen Horowitz Partner) and Sara Priola (PeerStreet Chief Legal Officer)
As PeerStreet has grown to having loans in over half the country, we have also been able to increasingly engage in our local community. We recently spent some time with a borrower who is making a major impact in neighborhoods in Southern California’s Inland Empire. We got to know Christian Fuentes a while back when the Los Angeles Times wanted to hear about PeerStreet and how we are helping improve the US housing stock.
We’re now working to help tell Christian’s story and demonstrate how he buys properties in need of rehab and creates quality homes for families in his own community. We also introduced him to some friends at HGTV and they already filmed a pilot. Fingers crossed that it gets picked up!
Overall, it was encouraging to hear how Garcetti and other city officials have their pulse on important issues in Los Angeles, like the growth of Fintech. We hope to continue to help encourage the development of this industry within our home city, as well as outside of it. For PeerStreet.
Learn More About PeerStreet
If you want to learn more about how PeerStreet works, watch our explainer video or contact us at 844-733-7787 or info@peerstreet.com.
