Over the past few weeks I have become increasingly focused on one of my goals: creating an environment that is comparable to Silicon Valley right here in Washington, D.C. On a daily basis I consider moving out to the valley to become more involved but instead I decide to stay here. Why? It’s much more exciting to watch this city transform into something incredible (in regard to technology) then go to Silicon Valley where I know what I’m going to get. So how do we create such an environment in D.C.?
Well, it’s already underway. There are events popping up all over and people are starting to become more active. The one issue that I see is that a large portion of the community is not locally active. While I can’t tell you why that is, I know it’s the case. There are investors who are quietly involved but they seem to be hesitant to become active in the community. What are the components of a successful technology community? I think there are a few components:
- Technology enthusiasts
- Entrepreneurs
- Investors
- Scholars
- Technology journalists
In discussing Lunch 2.0 with my new friend Isaac a couple days ago, Isaac brought up a good point: there is not enough coverage of events in Washington, D.C. by the local press. Why is that? Perhaps we are failing to do enough public relations. Why wasn’t there a Washington Post article about the recent Barcamp or any of the other technology events that have occurred? A few of the local tech companies are successful with coverage but there are bigger things happening. I have met a number of local companies that are now significantly invested in Facebook application development. So invested that it is now their core business model. Is such a shift in the technology environment not news worthy? I think is.
When we launched Tech Cocktail early this year, finding local sponsors was a difficult (if not impossible) task. The majority of the sponsors came from companies that have significant presences in other cities. Barcamp was the first event that I saw with actual local sponsors. So I guess there is forward motion. Rather than continuing my diatribe about what’s wrong with the existing environment, I will simply suggest a few things that I think can be done to continue the motion that is present:
- More press! - Every event deserves a press release. There needs to be more outreach to local journalists. Right now there isn’t.
- More investor outreach - There is a lot of money locally that is looking to be invested in new technology companies. For some reason the people that are investing that money are not showing up to events.
- More sponsorship - It should be a duty of every local tech company to sponsor the local events. Period. I know there are companies that have sponsored local events but perhaps we should be compiling a list of companies that are willing to donate even $50 to an event.
Those three things will help further the progress that has already been made over the past year. There are a lot of events that have been popping up and it will be great to see even more. I am excited for the future of technology in D.C. but I think there needs to be a bigger push for coverage. What do you think? I surely don’t have all the answers.
September 8th, 2007
11 Responses to “Bringing The Valley to D.C.”
September 9th, 2007 at 2:39 am
The very nature of people on the East is that they are more reserved than their brothers on the West. I’ve spent some time in San Francisco (and a little further South) and there’s a different spirit.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Dude, good post! I’m with you. It’s more fun to start a brand new community from the ground up then try and join another one.
When is the next TechCocktailDC going to be??
September 9th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
We’ve got the wrong colleges, if you subscribe to Paul Graham’s theory. Georgetown and Maryland ain’t Stanford and MIT.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Or Cal Tech and Harvard for that matter.
September 10th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Nick,
Great to hear your interest in creating a more active tech community here in D.C. I’m D.C.-based and find it frustrating. Do you remember Mario Marino and Netpreneur’s “coffee & doughnets”? Interestingly, there was a more active community here 10 years ago.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
The funny thing is we have a pretty vibrant tech sector around the DC metro area. It’s just that they are more geared toward servicing and the fed gov and non-profits instead of towards innovation.
Additionally, the cost of living in this is ridiculous. So living on nothing for 2 or 3 years is not much of an option for most people.
Lastly, DC is knows for politics. It’s going to be very difficult to break that stereotype.
That being said where i the next event? and is it metro accessible?
September 11th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
DC has a very strong tech history. With the convergence of Mae West and May North in Maryland the 270 tech corridor has a strong back ground. The problem is most ‘new techies’ see industrial tech as passe. Your shift in tech shouldn’t be to ‘bring’ tech to the District, but to shift perception and application. I have worked in Tech PR for a few years now and find no lack of clients in this region. Granted most of my clients want a gov. presence but that is life.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:33 am
I’m very jealous of the environment in the States for web/creative entrepreneurs. It’s very hard to get something “non-mainstream” going here in the UK. There’s very little in the way of business support for those of us who do things a little differently.
And although the majority of all the great entrepreneur networks out there seem to be concentrated in Silicon Valley etc, I still think you have lots to work with. An old friend of mine gave up on the UK a while ago and moved to Boulder, CO, where someone fell over themselves to invest several million bucks in his idea. It just wouldn’t have happened this side of the pond.
Anyway, I really like what you’re doing Nick, and I enjoy the blog. It helped me decide to set up www.pollenhq.co.uk (temporary site!) for the creative entrepreneurs of South Wales.
Cheers!
September 14th, 2007 at 7:43 am
I’m with you, Nick. Though it’s not there isn’t a tech community here, it’s that it’s not the kind of tech community that you and I are seeking out. I rode the Netpreneur wave and I’ve been heavily involved in many of the technology councils in the area, and I can say with confidence that there’s vibrancy, but it’s of a different sort.
Right now the technology focus in the region is on where business meets technology, rather than the other way around. If you want to find VCs and IP lawyers and new technologies there are plenty of local outlets, but they’re placing technology second or third to networking and business.
What I love about what’s happening right now is that the mentality is of geek as cool. The topic of conversation and the vibe is of technology. It’s hard to explain, but it’s one that’s conducive to designers and developers socializing. In the other groups, they’d feel out of place.
A few months ago you may recall that I got active in this new technology community–that was because I was seeking it out to see if it was worth trying to start something new. I see that there IS a following and there ARE people–that we definitely are way past “starting from scratch.” I’ll be emailing you and some other folks (or blogging about it) in the coming week–because I really do think we all have a shot at making this into something larger.
Maybe, as you suggested, it’s about press. I’m not so sure. But something’s going to have to change and we really do have an opportunity here.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:50 am
I think technology bloggers in place of journalists
September 24th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Nick,
You make some great points about how we are all hungry to have the type of tech community that exists over in the SF Bay Area, just don’t forget that what is over there has been building since the 60’s and 70’s. It started out with the home brew computer club and a lot of little startups like your company and CollectiveX, Jobmatchbox, Mixx, Freewebs, nClud, Qloud, and Searchles, and also with a few big ones like AOL, Jobfox, community like that takes time. There was also a lot of support from academic community. The combination of this drew in people from the Northeast who were excited about being closer to the coast. AS our community grows organically we need to keep these things in mind and work together to figure out ways to build buzz for our community outside of the area and locally. I was in San Francisco last week and while I was there I was really elated when DC area companies (Jobfox and Mixx) were the subject of everyone’s attention. Jobfox managed to upstage Seattle social network/job board company Jobster, and Mixx managed to impress a circle of friends of mine working in the elite startup community out there.