DC (and nearby Arlington) has a lot of established companies in the area - all of the big defense contractors are around, as well as the big consulting companie

DC (and nearby Arlington) has a lot of established companies in the area - all of the big defense contractors are around, as well as the big consulting companies. Many major news companies also have a lot of tech working around, such as USA Today, U. S. News World & Report, Washington Post, Bloomberg, etc. And of course, all of the government agencies. OPower had a $100 million IPO earlier in the year - they have some good employees (I know some of them). Palantir does business in the area (unsurprisingly, given that part of their funding comes from the CIA's venture arm, In-Q-Tel, and their business is in visualization & analytics). Thinkgeek is in Fairfax (I believe they're owned by someone else now though?), and Custom Ink in Tyson's Corner. The Motley Fool is a fun company in Alexandria (been around for a while though) in the business of financial advice. I formerly worked at Learning Objects, which is a bootstrapped edtech company - really miss my time working there, the environment beat all of the Valley companies I've been at so far easily IMO. LO is based right in the heart of Dupont Circle, maybe the envy of all of the tech companies in the area in terms of location being right at the north side metro stop. Rally Health (formerly Audax Health) is one that got bought out by UnitedHealth earlier in the year. Optoro is another shop that has been doing well, had a Series B round earlier in the year & some excellent engineers. TrackMaven is a startup in the marketing space that has been doing pretty well - I worked for a company in the Valley once who viewed them as sort of competitors. Vox Media is between Dupont & Farragut Square I believe (they run Vox, Polygon, SBNation), probably a fun place for a more designer oriented person. There are a lot out there - keep in mind though, while it is an employee's market in the DC area market right now, there is only so much they are able to pay. Pay seems to be more commensurate with experience. If money is of concern, you're not going to beat government contracting. Otherwise, there are a bunch of great startups to choose from around.