Los Angeles county saw $871 million in venture funding in 2012, and a new startup born every 40 hours, according to research from Built in LA. Forty-three companies were acquired in that period.

Last year, numbers were even higher. Over $1 billion was raised in 2013, with over 100 companies collecting at least $1 million in capital. The e-commerce site JustFab raised two rounds totalling $55 million. Content provider Edgecast Networks raised $54 million before being gobbled up by Verizon for $350 million. And let’s not forget new media darling Snapchat. The company raised $123 million before 23-year-old cofounder Evan Spiegel turned up his nose to a $3 billion offer from Facebook.

Then there are lesser known successes like the six-year-old Swagbucks, a fully bootstrapped El Segundo coupon site that awarded members $55 million in rewards. CEO Josef Gorowitz attributes his company’s staying power to pure hustle. Since they didn’t have VC money, it was succeed or die, an environment Gorowitz calls “ideal for growth.”

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