Irons in the fire

12th September
2007
written by Will

I want to start off by disclosing that I am not a technologist, nor do I even attempt to fake it. With that being said, I am still very interested in Technology (primarily from the product vision, strategy and management perspective) and it’s presence in the greater DC metropolitan area. The Valley we are not, but there are a lot of initiatives that have either recently taken place, are planned or happen on a regular basis in the area that would lead one to believe that the tech community is growing and gaining traction in the area.

Nick O’Neill wrote about bringing the Valley to DC the other day and it excited me. I am involved in several of the activities that are taking place in the area, and it was good to see someone else writing about growing the tech community in DC. There is no reason why it cannot happen, we have a lot of bright individuals, hungry entrepreneurs and good schools (OK, not Standford, but) in the area, we just need to gel the community to bring it all together. The one glaring piece that seems to be missing is the involvement of the VCs and Angels in the community, I know they are out there, but it is my impression that they are not as actively involved as say a Brad Feld (Boulder), Fred Wilson (NYC), Seth Kopelman (Philly) and the list goes on for the VCs in the valley.

Perhaps with the excitement that is brewing and the upcoming events in the DC area will bring out some of them, but only time will tell. In the meantime, here is a shortlist of all of the irons that are in the fire as it pertains to events/activities/groups in the DC area:

  1. Tech Cocktail DC
  2. DC Technology Network
  3. Barcamp DC (happened about a month ago, but I am sure there will be another)
  4. RefreshDC
  5. Northern Virginia Open Coffee Club
  6. DC Startupweekend

So if you want to get involved, there is a lot brewing, so get in on the excitement. You will meet a lot of cool people along the way and get a chance to be involved in some really cool stuff.

Business, Opinions, Web Community

4 Comments

  1. Jared Goralnick
    14/09/2007

    Great thoughts on this, Will! I’m coming at the tech community in DC from a similar place. And I really applaud how much time you’ve been putting into organizing things like Startup Weekend.

    After reading your post I responded over at Nick’s site, and I plan to get in touch with you both as well as folks like Justin Thorp, Jason Garber, and Martin Ringlein, etc…about all that’s going on regarding the DC as Silicon valley 2.0, or whatever.

    Nick mentioned that we need press. You mentioned that we need VCs. I think we have some VCs; actually I think we have a lot of them. They’re just not at our events, but they’re at lots of other events in the area. And I think we can get them–IF that’s what we really want.

    Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you for furthering all this stuff and hope that all of us who are trying to help this community grow (metamorphose?) into the vision we all have for it. I’ll be in touch…

  2. Will
    14/09/2007

    @Jared,
    Thanks for the comments! I think with enough of us doing similar things, we can grow this into something very great. I agree, we need press coverage as well as VC involvement, and with those I think we will begin to see the growth pace pick up.
    I look forward to hearing more from you on this.

    Will

  3. RSklarew
    20/09/2007

    Will, You need to place your list in the DC Tech Net for others to add theirs to it. We need some better organiational way to compile and add to these lists of organizations and events. Just this eveing I found out from Nick that you need to belong to the Facebook “DC Network” in order to join in some events like Lunch 2.0 D.C. Just where is that documented? So how do newbies find out? Justin did the first major step in starting the Dc Tech Net now the rest of us have to fill it up and use it!
    Best wishes, Ralph

  4. Technotheory.com - The Bigger Picture of DC Technology
    22/09/2007

    [...] What the latest round of DC technology needs is a vision.  Do we want mainstream attention?  Do we want investor attention?  Do we want to be divided between members and vendors toting products to us (like most other groups)?  Is the focus partnership, education, socializing, business deals, the reputations of the organizers, or just a place to find like minded individuals and play it by year?   Right now the answer is “all of the above” but mostly playing it by year.  I’m not convinced what’s happening now is sustainable on its current path. [...]

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