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Washingtonian is very pay to play. However, I'll point some that appear private like Cvent are in DC area because their early customers were trade groups that p

Washingtonian is very pay to play. However, I'll point some that appear private like Cvent are in DC area because their early customers were trade groups that put on big conferences. These trade groups are here because they lobby the government. So doesn't appear government focused at first but is. Others may have private sector customers but do huge amount of business with government. Appian, looking at you. Yes, almost all my work in DC area was with companies nowhere near the government but it was very difficult and I stayed with jobs longer than I wanted. Also, hiring was very very difficult. We would churn through tech resumes and interviews because either inflated salary due to clearance or just people who wanted to push button and get paid well for it. It was always very frustrating. Also, why do people seem to think there is tech hubs around big cloud datacenter? When did people start caring about being close to their workloads?

benslavin 2y ago
Completely agree those lists are pay to play, but they also include some cool companies that underscore my point. Rocket Money (nee True Bill; Silver Spring) is fintech. Optoro (Bethesda) is retail supply chain. Alarm.com (Tysons) is home security. FrameBridge (also Tysons) is home goods. (Beyond that, you've got companies like Mapbox, ID.me, Opower, Motley Fool, and Capitol One.) Cvent - agreed on causation, but don't agree that it's government focused. The US Government spending is something like 1/3 of GDP. It has massive ability to influence policy and national investment. It makes sense that non-profits, associations, and others would congregate in the DC region. It's why we have at least 2 nuclear fusion companies based here (one of which has a freaking rail gun in Chantilly). I should really do the math, but it feels like a significant portion of the Fortune 500 have "more than just lobbying" footprints within ~25 miles of DC. On hiring I agree that it can be hard, but I do still see cool small companies in the "#DCTech" scene. I think there's talent out there that could be moved to companies doing interesting impactful work. As for data centers, I'll concede that point. I almost omitted it originally because I couldn't connect the dots either.... I should have.
- stackskipton 2y ago
  Sure, with the money involved, there is some private companies. I worked for one you named. However, startup scene will always have government focused entities and therefore non-government specialized VCs (like YC) probably don't see juice worth the squeeze to try and find a few diamonds in the rough. As for talent moving to companies doing interesting impactful work, I'm not sure I see it. Tech people moving into area seemed to be drawn by government work so they are gone. Home grown tech workers are mixed bag of which I'm one. Some followed their parents and join the ranks of government employees/contractors. Others did find private employment. Really good ones seemed to depart the area. I wasn't really good one, I just moved for my partner.

benslavin 2y ago

Completely agree those lists are pay to play, but they also include some cool companies that underscore my point. Rocket Money (nee True Bill; Silver Spring) is fintech. Optoro (Bethesda) is retail supply chain. Alarm.com (Tysons) is home security. FrameBridge (also Tysons) is home goods. (Beyond that, you've got companies like Mapbox, ID.me, Opower, Motley Fool, and Capitol One.) Cvent - agreed on causation, but don't agree that it's government focused. The US Government spending is something like 1/3 of GDP. It has massive ability to influence policy and national investment. It makes sense that non-profits, associations, and others would congregate in the DC region. It's why we have at least 2 nuclear fusion companies based here (one of which has a freaking rail gun in Chantilly). I should really do the math, but it feels like a significant portion of the Fortune 500 have "more than just lobbying" footprints within ~25 miles of DC. On hiring I agree that it can be hard, but I do still see cool small companies in the "#DCTech" scene. I think there's talent out there that could be moved to companies doing interesting impactful work. As for data centers, I'll concede that point. I almost omitted it originally because I couldn't connect the dots either.... I should have.

stackskipton 2y ago
Sure, with the money involved, there is some private companies. I worked for one you named. However, startup scene will always have government focused entities and therefore non-government specialized VCs (like YC) probably don't see juice worth the squeeze to try and find a few diamonds in the rough. As for talent moving to companies doing interesting impactful work, I'm not sure I see it. Tech people moving into area seemed to be drawn by government work so they are gone. Home grown tech workers are mixed bag of which I'm one. Some followed their parents and join the ranks of government employees/contractors. Others did find private employment. Really good ones seemed to depart the area. I wasn't really good one, I just moved for my partner.