From the January issue: Jill Bigelow didn’t plan on building her postpartum medical device company in Hollywood. Then WeWork discovered her at an innovation contest and pitched her on its co-working space located on Hollywood Boulevard, three blocks from tourist mecca Hollywood & Highland.
Mama Strut, as her company is known, is one of many nonmedia companies that have become rooted in the new Hollywood, a nexus for entertainment, technology and design professionals. When Bigelow ended up needing some video production work done, she only had to look one floor above her in the WeWork space. And she hired the website guy from another floor downstairs.
Megadeals like the one Netflix inked at Icon — a new 323,000-square-foot tower on the Sunset Bronson Studios lot, which the streaming media company leased in its entirety — have shone a spotlight on high-tech office leases. But not all of the businesses attracted by the new and renovated offices in Hollywood fit neatly into the stereotype of new technology and entertainment companies.