I grew up in the D.C. area, and as much as I rag on it for being plebe as far as food/culture goes, it definitely has a much stronger tech scene than people give it credit for. DC has a very well-established base of technology talent with a lot of domain-specific knowledge. The talent doesn't take the form of hot-shot 22 year old Stanford grads, but more very smart people that have been working at Raytheon, etc, and have deep knowledge of control systems, AI, image processing, etc. It's a different pool of talent than what VC-funded startups are typically looking at, but I think it's one that has a lot of potential for companies who want to work on "hard" problems that require advances in different problem domains.<p>The biggest weakness, in my experience working at a D.C.-area startup, is that it's hard to get the hot-shot 22 year olds when you need them. Virginia Tech and U MD are good, but I think the nearest really good CS programs might be CMU in Pittsburgh and maybe GT in Atlanta. Either are quite a hike.
Tangential topic .. If there are enough of us, anyone interesting in getting a meetup going?<p>(BTW I'd vote for Northern VA for some of the meet up sites)
There are lots of amazing startups in many places.<p>Ann Arbor in Michigan has amazing startups and has started amazing companies. <a href="http://madeina2.com" rel="nofollow">http://madeina2.com</a><p>Even Detroit has amazing start ups.
No longer a startup [1], but OPower was founded in 2007 in Arlington, VA (which is right across the river from DC) [2].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/arlington-based-energy-software-provider-opower-will-debut-public-shares-friday/2014/04/04/078e7ef4-bba6-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/arlin...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opower" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opower</a>
Not sure if joke... A slightly larger (but still grossly incomplete) list:<p><a href="http://proudlymadeindc.com/" rel="nofollow">http://proudlymadeindc.com/</a><p>And another:<p><a href="https://angel.co/washington-dc" rel="nofollow">https://angel.co/washington-dc</a>
There's been a lot of buzz about SocialRadar around town. I'm surprised no one has mentioned them yet<p><a href="http://www.socialradar.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.socialradar.com/</a>
So it sounds like this isn't just limited to D.C. proper based on some of the comments. To me that makes sense because there are a ton of startups and talent in the Beltway - and we all consider ourselves living in "D.C."<p>I am about to take my startup Visidraft full time in September and I know it will be massively helpful to be linked better with the D.C. startup scene - which I am already to an extent.<p>Thanks!
I'd add that one of the token mistakes out of towners make when setting up shop in "D.C." is to take the name literally. For example, if your target is in the Fed/Defense space, D.C. is paradoxically probably not the best place to set up an office. Good luck getting people from McLean, Reston or Springfield or even Ft. Meade to want to come to a meeting at your office, no/expensive parking, mass transit doesn't work for most places outside of D.C. (and no bureaucrat worth their departmental budget is going to take it anyway).<p>The Baltimore/D.C. metro area should be considered as a whole (about 10 million people!) and for the obvious benefits of being near your customers or for the synergy effects of being near like-businesses, you <i>have</i> to get to know the area and should setup shop in those places if you can. <i>Nobody</i> in the Fed/Defense Space is impressed that you set up an office in a trendy D.C. neighborhood.<p>Want to work high tech? The Dulles Tech corridor is where you should look. That's Virginia and goes 30 miles away from the city. It's the Silicon Valley of the East and it's slowly getting setup on the Metro system. Want to work bio? You want Southern Maryland.<p>I've lived in the D.C. area for a very long time and I see this mistake repeated again and again. D.C. means the entire region. D.C. (the city) is a very different thing. It also means that you're constantly dealing with the three territories here, VA, MD and D.C. and things are different in each of them, even if nominally they're one big area.<p>The other one I see is that everybody from out of the area underestimates the intensity and vagueness of D.C. traffic. I've seen a long list of West Coasters, who think they understand traffic from around the Bay Area slowly slip into madness when it comes to facing and dealing with D.C. traffic. It means that you can't setup a long string of meetings all over the area and expect that Google Maps's estimate of 15 minutes will make any kind of sense. On one day it'll be right, and the next it'll turn into an hour and a half slog and you'll blow through your next 3 meetings just trying to get to them.<p>D.C. is also very much perception based. You're either with the in-crowd or you're an outsider. And these two mistakes mark you as an outsider, a rookie and not a player to very many of the big organizations you might be wanting to do business with.
You guys are missing us, HelloWallet <a href="http://www.hellowallet.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellowallet.com</a><p>Been in DC for over 4 years. Have hosted many meetups and we are growing...very very fast. We are based in the West End, off of 22nd and M st NW.<p>We LOVE the DC startup scene. We want to build it out and make it the "Silicon Capital". :-)<p>We're also hiring...
<a href="http://www.hellowallet.com/about-us/careers/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellowallet.com/about-us/careers/</a>
If you are in DC and raising money, I would highly recommend you talk with Dingman Center Angels at the University of Maryland. They have financed a lot of companies over the years and most of which have no affiliation to the school.<p><a href="http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/centers-excellence/dingman-center-entrepreneurship/initiatives-programs/dingman-center-angels-2" rel="nofollow">http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/centers-excellence/dingman-center...</a>
I will be adding my company (<a href="https://performyard.com/" rel="nofollow">https://performyard.com/</a>) to this list, we are in Rosslyn.
I'll tell our founder to add our company, Virtru! We are in DuPont/Adams Morgan.<p>Simple encrypted email from your existing email address (eg, Gmail!): <a href="https://www.virtru.com/what-is-virtru" rel="nofollow">https://www.virtru.com/what-is-virtru</a>
One list I am aware of for LA is <a href="http://represent.la/" rel="nofollow">http://represent.la/</a>. Are there other websites which provide information on startups in So. Cal?
I've lived in DC for nearly five years and I run a software company here. Here are my thoughts:<p>1. The quality of life here is very high. I believe this is probably one of the best places in the US for young professionals (its reputation hasn't caught up with it yet).<p>* We have a strong bike sharing program and decent biking infrastructure. I'm not a biker and I use this most days now.<p>* I recently got rid of my car. I simply didn't need it. I can walk in four directions to neighborhoods with great restaurants. I also have several grocery stores within walking distance.<p>* The North West part of the city is very clean.<p>* I don't own a car. So long as I live here--I will not need a car.<p>* When I want to go running, Rock Creek Park is nearby. Same for the National Mall. If I want to go Kayaking on the Potomac, it's a longer walk, but I can hit a Dept. of Parks and Recreation boathouse and get a kayak.<p>* DC has a short-ish winter. We get one and it gets cold. Some days we get snow the city doesn't know what to do with. Overall though, January and February are the worst of it. Sometimes we get hints of Spring in March. April, Spring is usually here full bore. Spring and Fall here are beautiful. I'm from MI and I lived in Syracuse, NY. I judge weather through this lens.<p>2. DC is very expensive. I incorporated in DC and I suspect the city took a cue from the Spanish government in terms of forms and prerequisite forms and licenses one must acquire to start a business. They claim they're pro-startup. I don't see it. I just see a bureaucracy that nickels and dimes small businesses. Taxes are high too.<p>3. For my sector (cyber security) and the types of customers I have; DC is the perfect home base. I'm close to my customers and potential strategic partners. We even have a cyber security related accelerator in Northern Virginia. I see the concentration of folks and businesses in my industry as a big plus.<p>4. I travel a lot for my business. If I need to go to NYC--I take the Accela and I'm there in three hours. If I need to get into the suburbs of MD, I use the MARC train. If I need to fly, I have three airports to choose from. The closest airport (Reagan) is a 15-20 minute cab ride.<p>5. We have had a massive growth of startup and coworking spaces in the past two years. I don't know where they all came from--but it's insane. If you're looking for semi-affordable office space co-located around other startups--you'll find something here, probably walking distance from where you live.<p>6. DC benefits from a flood of ambitious folks who want to change the world and start their career here. When I moved here, I expected a scene of lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and their hanger-ons. It's not like that at all here. This is a very ambitious city with people who work very hard to make things happen. I like its energy and this is probably where I will stay.
Alright, if it's about amazing startups of DC then please add <a href="https://bubbl.in" rel="nofollow">https://bubbl.in</a> to this list too ... :)<p>We're all about flipbooks, started in 2014 at Reston area.