Finding that Santa Monica’s culture and concentration of talent outweighed the lure of other comparable Silicon Beach communities, rapidly growing MD Insider has signed a lease for 10,000 square feet on Main Street.

After outgrowing its digs in co-working space Real Office Center on Arizona Avenue and conducting an exhaustive nine-month search, the self-described “Money Ball for doctors” decided to stay in Santa Monica.

“We looked at pretty much every major area on the Westside of L.A. to find a better place, and in the end we really wanted to stay in Santa Monica,” said Chief Executive David Norris.

MD Insider uses big data computing techniques to rank the performance of doctors for employers and health care providers. The startup is looking to capitalize on the U.S. health care industry’s shift towards transparency.

The company has about 50 employees, up 300 percent over the last 12 months. It raised a $9.5 million Series A round in April to ramp up hiring and has plans to double its employee count by the end of the year. Many of those hires will be data scientists and software developers.

“We need tech talent to process billions and billions of data about physicians so we can rank them,” Norris said. “That makes recruiting top on the priority list.”

And he said he’s found no better place to recruit than Santa Monica.

“We do think there is a Silicon Beach feeling, where there is a concentration of high tech talent,” he said. Santa Monica is “where the best talent wants to be.”

MD Insider’s decision to stay in Santa Monica comes as the City of Los Angeles is putting on a full-court press to lure tech companies, including offering a gross receipts tax rate five times lower than paid by other businesses.

“We want to have an engaging and really fun environment. Santa Monica encourages that culture,” said Norris. “It gives us the ability to attract the very best talent and give the very best environment for that talent.”

The company said that many of its out-of-town, future employees share that opinion too.

“A lot of people we are hiring are relocating to Santa Monica so they can walk to work or bike to work,” said Norris. “It’s a great place to work and live.”

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.