27 February 2008
Technologists in DC?!
Posted by Andrew under: Washington D.C. .
Technologists do exist in Washington D.C. Initially, we thought we were alone in D.C., like Y: the Last Man (not as dire, but with the same sense of self-importance). Whenever we would meet with media companies, I would have to explain the “long tail” for the fortieth time.
The Washington Post reports on the growing web startup scene in D.C. though. Well, for the past two months, I have been going to Refresh DC, where I have made great friendships with many people in the D.C. technology community. It wasn’t one of those events where everyone is a PR/Marketing/Sales/non-technical person who wants to ride on the brilliance of people who make products (the no-talents like myself, although I am recovering). Indeed, (I still somewhat cannot believe it)… there were actually people who could create cool stuff (like us!).
Some of these cool people include:
- Jason Garber, one of the primary organizers of Refresh and a member of the Mixx team (yes, they’re trying to take on Digg)- Jason was introduced to me by Jeremy Carbaugh (who is currently at Sunlight Foundation). Jason is phenomenally nice, well-regarded, and his only flaw is that he actually sometimes talks with me.
- Martin and Alex from NClud (they’re pretty good at Mario Kart… okay, really good)
- Justin Thorp who left the Library of Congress, and is now working at Clearspring.
- Nick O’Neill of AllFacebook and Social Times- who I had met in San Francisco before I met him back in D.C.
- Samantha Warren and Jackson Wilkinson of Viget Labs
- Dan Yates and Alex Eagle from Positive Energy
- and many more as mentioned!
Referring to the Washington Post article, where are Qloud, Freewebs, and Hungry Machine folks? Where is CollectiveX, which debuted on TechCrunch? We do see others (both VC-backed and bootstrapped) at these get-togethers, but it’s no wonder that most people, as Paul Graham says, move to a startup hub, especially since those network effects don’t occur as much inside the beltway. So, come on big guys (the other ones), host something or at the very least, show us that you tried. It helps little startups (like mine) know that we aren’t completely in the wrong city.
7 Comments so far...
Conor Sibley Says:
28 February 2008 at 12:35 am.
Do you know when/where the next Refresh DC meetup is scheduled? All I see for “Our next meeting” is a date last week. I’m interested in connecting with other Technologists in the DC area and I can fill you in on where CollectiveX has been going since we debuted on TechCrunch.
Justin Thorp Says:
28 February 2008 at 8:21 am.
Dude, thanks for the mention. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and the publi.us crew. You guys are really doing some great work with the apps that you’re building/have built.
You guys going to SXSW?
Cindy Li Says:
28 February 2008 at 8:55 am.
You sir are correct. The guys and gals at Refresh DC are super friendly and talented. I miss them 
It’s been a year since my last meeting (before I moved out to SF). I’ll be at the meeting in April so I hope to see the new people like you!
Andrew Says:
28 February 2008 at 9:01 am.
Even though I don’t use Twitter (much to my business partner Arjun’s chagrine), I’ll use the standard nomenclature.
@Conor, thanks for responding Conor. Not exactly sure when the next one is exactly. According to Jason, there was going to be one in March around the 20th or the 27th.
@Justin, yeah, we’re going to SXSW, totally don’t know what we’re going to do there, but I think we’ll figure it out.
@Cindy, yeah, we’ve heard a lot about you (all good things!).
Jeremy Carbaugh Says:
28 February 2008 at 9:33 am.
Glad you guys have gotten involved in the community. I’m a big fan of the work you do.
Looks like there will be quite the large DC contingent at SXSW this year!
Brian Wynne Williams Says:
28 February 2008 at 6:45 pm.
Thanks for the Viget mention, Andrew. I hope we get a chance to meet at SXSW.
I wrote a longer comment on Nick’s recent post about this topic.
http://www.socialtimes.com/2008/02/whats-the-future-of-dc-technology/#comment-748
We (Viget) are doing what we can to host / sponsor events and get the community together. We work with a lot of start-ups — some local, some not — so it’s natural for us to want to foster a more start-up friendly region. I think there’s more going on than people realize, and the potential to do a lot more.
One more thing: I agree, Samantha and Jackson are indeed cool people (along with the others you mention)!
Andrew Says:
29 February 2008 at 7:47 am.
@Brian, thanks for the reply, it’s good to know that folks are dedicated to developing this area.
