Bay Meadows

With its steady job-growth and a stream of innovative companies thriving here, San Mateo has become a key region in Silicon Valley. In addition to being home to heavy-hitting innovators such as SurveyMonkey, SolarCity, Marketo and startup incubator Draper University, San Mateo also boasts hundreds of high-growth startups.

According to tech investor site Crunchbase, San Mateo startups have an average valuation of $5.6M. With recent news of one such startup making headlines for its Super Bowl themed marketing play, we looked a little deeper at the city’s startup scene. Below is a sampling of a few cool businesses we uncovered that are located in our backyard.

Tile Inc. sympathized with the Atlanta Falcons’ big loss in Super Bowl LI, so it’s offering their fans a hand. The Bluetooth-powered tracking device company donated 51,000 Tiles to fans at various Atlanta locations in February, giving them a chance to use its devices, which you attach to keys, wallets or whatever else to make sure that nothing is lost. A PR-stunt, perhaps, but the gimmick has earned Tile news coverage throughout the country.

An Emmy-award winning comedy production company co-founded by SNL’s Will Ferrell is located in San Mateo? You read that right. Funny or Die is primarily a comedy video website that combines user generated content with original, exclusive content. Celebrities, up-and-coming comedians and regular users alike can all put up material they think is funny. From James Franco to Billy Crystal to President Obama, name a celebrity and it’s likely they’ve appeared in Funny or Die content.

Dubbed the “Imagination Platform,” Roblox is sizzling hot and just secured $92M in capital investment. The company’s business is more than tripling annually. Its workforce has gone from 68 at the end of 2013 to 163 at the end of last year. Roblox has created a Lego-like virtual world for kids with online games created by independent developers. Roblox encourages these developers by supplying them with the tools needed to create the games in a way that is optimized across PC, mobile and virtual reality devices.

San Mateo-based company Cora was recently recognized because its founder was named one of Forbes’ Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30. Cora is an organic tampon subscription service that also has a do-good mission: The startup gives a month’s supply of products to a girl in a developing country for every month’s supply of Cora a customer buys. The company also employs and pays a fair wage to women in India to make their products. Twenty-eight-year-old Molly Hayward founded the company less than a year ago.

Ipsy is a beauty sampling service that curates the Glam Bag, premiere products produced by Ipsy’s sponsors. Since its founding in 2011 by top You Tube creator Michelle Phan, the company has grown dramatically. Ipsy ships to over 1.5 million subscribers every month and reaches over 20 million people monthly through stylist videos.

Founded in 2013, PacketZoom is a B2B  service that optimizes the mobile app experience. With download speeds up to two and three times faster, PacketZoom’s specialties result in better user experiences, higher retention and conversion rates.

Founded in 2009, Apixio is a data-science company for healthcare. The company’s patented cognitive computing platform extracts and analyzes clinical data in electronic health records and feeds insights into applications. The service enables insurers and health systems to deliver better care.

Businesses expanding or relocating within Silicon Valley, San Francisco or the greater Bay Area need look no further. Bay Meadows has 5 new office buildings conveniently located on Caltrain. Station 4 will be the new headquarters for SurveyMonkey, which will occupy the building in mid-2016. Station 3 is nearly opened, with only one floor remaining available for lease. Station 2 is under construction and available for lease. These state-of-the-art buildings feature floor to ceiling glass, bike storage, expansive floorplates and locker room facilities. All Bay Meadows Station buildings will have access to 18 acres of open space, a social street featuring coffee shops, restaurants, bocce court and plenty of outdoor gathering spaces. The buildings are minutes from the Hillsdale Caltrain Station and proximal to SFO. It’s just 10 minutes to Palo Alto and SFO and 25 minutes to San Francisco!