dot.LA, the premier source for news and information about the Los Angeles tech scene, has been acquired by HouseVenture Inc., a technology and media startup founded in 2023 by Mike Chang, Adrian Delgado, Hailey Chang and Nick Thomas.
“We grew up in Southern California and see such huge potential,” Chang said. “I think it’s the perfect time for this tech ecosystem to explode.”
dot.LA was started in 2019 by Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow, Pacaso, and 75 & Sunny. After moving back from Seattle to LA, he wanted to bring more visibility and sense of community to LA’s tech scene.
“I'm proud of what we accomplished,” Rascoff said. “We wrote over 2000 stories highlighting the successes of the LA Tech ecosystem, we put on over a hundred events, and helped bring together the LA tech community.”
But Rascoff said the HouseVenture team is the ideal group to take dot.LA. forward in this next phase.
“Mike and his team are fellow LA entrepreneurs and founders, and have the energy and innovativeness to lead dot.LA through the next chapter,” Rascoff said “They are also community builders, and that’s perfect for the mission of dot.LA, which is to bring people together to lift up all LA startups.”
The HouseVentures team previously built two bootstrapped multimillion dollar proptech companies and Real Estate Mastermind, the largest online community for real estate agents in the world. They plan to double down on dot.LA’s community focus by launching a mobile app with a slate of new networking features.
“I don’t think people know how many tech companies there are in LA,” Thomas said. “Connecting everyone in the same place will be critical to help this ecosystem achieve its potential.”
HouseVenture is also planning to create a new dot.LA website and app devoted to bringing together people who work in real estate and tech. There will also be a dot.LA venture fund dedicated to investing directly in early stage LA startups and real estate companies.
Since launching eight months ago, HouseVenture has already achieved $1m in monthly recurring revenue.
Chang has spent time living and working in the Bay Area and Austin, but says he prefers Southern California.
“People come to LA to hustle and pursue a dream,” Chang said. “We want to help show LA is the best place in the world to build a tech company.”