(BTW I'd vote for Northern VA for some of the meet up sites)
https://nvite.com/refractionlaunch/party
Is anyone else interested in going?
Also, it's a little more formal but there is a startup weekend in DC:
I was also planning on starting a security meetup in NOVA around Fairfax or Reston in case someone is interested in security.
Head over to dc.started.in/apply/ and let's talk.
Ann Arbor in Michigan has amazing startups and has started amazing companies. http://madeina2.com
Even Detroit has amazing start ups.
Yep. We have quite a group of amazing startups here in the Triangle area of North Carolina as well:
http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/startup+direct...
http://www.triangulatenc.com/companies/index
http://www.triangulatenc.com/companies/map
There's also an RTP "Hackers and Founders" group, although we haven't been meeting much lately. But if you're in the area and interested, join the Meetup and/or give me a shout.
We're always looking for people who are interested in having a site launched in their area.
Contact us if you are (or you know someone who is) interested: http://started.in/bring-started-in-to-your-city/
EDIT: Sorry. I didn't see or click on the link before commenting. That's awesome. We love resources like madeina2.com!
All that to say I agree...
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).
* We have a strong bike sharing program and decent biking infrastructure. I'm not a biker and I use this most days now.
* 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.
* The North West part of the city is very clean.
* I don't own a car. So long as I live here--I will not need a car.
* 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.
* 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hiring? C# & .NET pro here.
I like a lot about DC, but my thoughts on why I'm moving away within a year:
Vastly inflated real estate prices. Silicon Valley prices but with god-awful weather. (Look here http://weather-explorer.com/compare?USAF=745090&WBAN=23244&U...) The house price to median annual income exceeds a factor of 5 in any neighborhood without an hour plus commute.
The coolest place to live is DC, but it has an AWFUL, CORRUPT, INCOMPETENT city government and horrifically bad public schools. Violent crime is a problem too, but the residents don't like to admit it. My good friend was shot in the back walking through his neighborhood. He didn't die, so it didn't even make the news. The police, naturally, never caught the perpetrator. He is currently walking around DC and likely feeling very empowered to commit more violence. My other buddy has been mugged 3 times at gunpoint. He moved to Maryland. My brother's wife was punched in the face and had her purse snatched. As she lay on the ground sobbing, the local racist asshole kids crowded around her laughing and calling her a "stupid white bitch." She had a broken jaw and it took 15 minutes for someone to actually help. This was the "up and coming" neighborhood of Columbia Heights.
The suburbs here are AWFUL. Overpriced, congested on all days, even weekends. The culture in the suburbs is not like in other places I've lived. Unlike in the city of DC, the people in the suburbs here are rude and keep to themselves. Its a notoriously hard place to meet people. Perhaps they are all angry and miserable because of the traffic, which is horrific. Expect an hour plus commute each way.
Or you can take the Metro. The Metro is awesome, until you factor in the fact that the union here prioritizes employees benefits and pay over the integrity of the system. I won't even go into how this contributes to the decay of the infrastructure, but trust me when I say that if you bring a person in a wheelchair to DC, do not count on any elevator at the metro stations actually being operational. Also, expect significant delays one day out of 5.
Your developers will be constantly being tempted with high-paying job offers by government consulting gigs. Due to the extremely high cost of living, they might take it. The fact that these jobs are awful, mind-numbing bullshit with strict 9 to 5 schedules doesn't mean anything when they have a kid on the way and can't afford the rent in Arlington.
That being said, I do love the tech community here. It is my refuge. The only downfall is you run into a lot of so-called developers who are just .NET recipe corporate drones who can't do FizzBuzz when you interview them. But then you meet the brilliant amazing but bored kid leaving a consulting firm.... and all is salvaged.... But I can't handle the rest of it. I'm done.
Fuck DC.
When did this happen to your friends? I've been living here for about 2 years now, and thankfully nothing of the sort has happened yet.
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.
Culture, maybe. Food though? DC's food scene is very surprisingly strong, particularly in new-immigrant ethnic cuisine. For some cuisines (notably Ethiopian) it's the best in the country. And of course, it's long been ground zero for the gourmet hamburger craze.
> 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.
That is an astonishingly high bar. CMU is regarded by many to be the best CS program in the world.
Maryland's CS program is extremely strong: it usually hovers in the low teens nationwide. You forgot GMU and UMBC, both quite strong programs (I can personally vouch for GMU).
I do agree that startups in DC lack young people. I've tried to go to two hacker/startup meetups in DC. Both times, it sucked. These hackers/startups guys were too old for me. It just didn't click and I left.
To be honest, many of the big Defense tech folks just go to local state schools, University of Maryland and GMU have pretty good CS programs and a very high percentage of grads work at the Raytheons and CSC type places.
[1] http://geocod.io
We'd love to talk to you!
We're hoping to be down there soon. If you know someone who'd like to curate startup profiles in LA, we'd love to talk with them.
Aside: when will LivingSocial be there? ;)
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/arlin...
dc.started.in/apply/
And another:
Our thought is that it's easier to learn about all the startups in a community one at a time. Each week we'll post just one startup and get a little more in-depth than a repository of startups.
It's proven to be valuable in Seattle and Atlanta, so we're hoping we can find our spot right next to resources like proudlymadeindc.com. If we don't provide enough value or you see room for improvement, please contact us at any time. We're always open to ideas.
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.
Thanks!
You're right. We want to profile startups in the DC area. You don't have to be in DC proper.
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.
We LOVE the DC startup scene. We want to build it out and make it the "Silicon Capital". :-)
We're also hiring... http://www.hellowallet.com/about-us/careers/
Head over to dc.started.in/apply/ and we'll start the profile process. I look forward to speaking soon!
dc.started.in/apply/
Simple encrypted email from your existing email address (eg, Gmail!): https://www.virtru.com/what-is-virtru
Great idea by the way!
We're all about flipbooks, started in 2014 at Reston area.
I love DC's startup scene!
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 have to get to know the area and should setup shop in those places if you can. Nobody in the Fed/Defense Space is impressed that you set up an office in a trendy D.C. neighborhood.
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.
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.
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.
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.
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/centers-excellence/dingman-center...
