Where SoCal techies let loose

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If you go by stereotypes, techies who sit behind the computer all day aren’t the most social people (current readers excepted, of course). So what’s the best way to get SoCal techies to get together and check out promising local start-ups? Dim the lights. And serve alcohol.

That’s the idea behind Twiistup, the year-old party/conference that picks promising SoCal start-ups, invites them to a fancy club and brings VCs and tech-heads to take a look. People drink. They dance. They talk about things like behavioral targeting. What could be more fun?

On Wednesday its organizers announced the 11 start-ups that will be featured at the fourth Twiistup July 17 at the Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica. The seven local companies and four from elsewhere help you do things you never knew you needed to: like insert a 3-D avatar of yourself into famous movie scenes, rent a book online or compose music even if you are tone deaf. For a complete list, check here.

Sound like your idea of a good time? Too bad. The $50 tickets sold out immediately, which Twiistup founder Mike Macadaan said...

... was a testament to the strength of the growing L.A. tech community. ‘Now there’s an event every night,’ he said, ‘and there’s a lot of attention from here and also from Silicon Valley.’

More than 100 companies applied to be featured in this round. That’s probably because VCs often use Twiistup to find out about new start-ups, according to Sumant Mandal, managing director for Clearstone Venture Partners. That type of interest from the people holding the pocketbooks makes start-ups salivate.

‘We wanted to have more exposure and attract potential investors,’ said Kihong Bae, general manager of Musicshake, a Koreatown-based company that moved here in February from Korea.

If past Twiistups are any indication, that’s just what he’ll get. Last time Perez Hilton and KCAL showed up. So did the L.A. Times. Local search site Yellowbot, one of the previous show-offs, got calls from VCs interested in potential partnerships after being featured at Twiistup.

‘It’s a much more relaxed party atmosphere, and it allows you to just approach people,’ said Emad Fanous, Yellowbot’s co-founder. ‘There were people drinking -- or so I heard. Maybe it made them open up more.’

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers marketing and the L.A. tech scene.