Wishful thinking. Linked is the more common reason (lobbying), but I'm looking forward to more institutions recognizing the talent we have in the DC region.
The YC SFBA thing is about network effects from companies working in close proximity, and about the investor market (1) believing the same thing and (2) having themselves an even more significant network effect that keeps them all in the same area.
I work for a large-ish all-remote YC company in which none of the founders live in the Bay Area (or in the same city, for that matter). People have some odd ideas of how YC actually works.
Most of startups in the area are catering to the government. There are already VC/PE/Startup accelerators more equipped for the unique market.
There's also a hugely educated workforce, many of whom don't love their daily grind (hiring opportunity). There's a creative community in DC and even more so if you include the greater DMV or mid-Atlantic. A ton of compute and infrastructure (including us-east-1) is based here, which has its own benefits for businesses.
In my opinion, one of the things that would benefit the region is a less conservative (read: more risk-tolerant) investment community. YC isn't the only way to get that done, but I think it would be a helpful catalyst.
i took a brief look at that "Tech Titans" list and frankly it is not that impressive, compared to an actual hub like SF, NYC, Seattle or even compared to tier 2 hubs like Boston or LA.
i mean they're counting "Vox Media" as a tech startup... which is very DC, I guess. many of the others also are due to regulatory reasons, like Revature or Wirewheel.
i lived in DC for 20 years.
As for "not actual tech talent," I don't agree. There's talent from Richmond to Baltimore. But something is missing, which was the point of my original post in this thread... a mindset shift could be impactful.
For the tech titans, it's not a complete list, but I used it as a shortcut. There are companies on there you may have overlooked (Rocket Money, Optoro, Alarm.com)
Maryland has companies across edtech, health tech, bio/pharma, hospitality, and cyber (not enumerating since many aren't household names, though Marriott is).
NoVa has regional/global HQs for Amazon, Capital One, CustomInk, E-Trade, Google, Iridium (and several other satellite companies), Mars (the candy people), Microsoft, Nestle, Rolls-Royce, USA Today (and Gannett), and Volkswagen.
DC itself is largely focused on gov and gov-adjacent companies, but the community is rebuilding. There are still people pushing tech forward here.
I'm not affiliated with either but DC Tech has a meetup Wednesday, and TEDXMidAtlantic happens Saturday. Sounds like you might not live here anymore but, if you're at either, I'd love to say hi and continue the conversation.
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?
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.
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.
Both seem to be targeting B2G investments.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dc-tech-lobbying-shop-raising... [2] https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2024/05/22/andre... (sorry about the paywall, but it's the original reporting)