One place to start to get an understanding of the current state of Washington’s tech scene: the jerseys of the Washington Spirit. That’s the women’s professional soccer team that has called DC home since 2012 and that, at the end of last season, added to its kits the name of its new sponsor: IntelliBridge.
Few Spirit fans probably know it, but the McLean company has emerged as a major provider of IT and data-analysis services to the government and the intelligence community. It was formed just two years ago through the merger of two local companies, an effort led by a Chevy Chase investment firm headed by a Georgetown grad who trained by the side of a former Secretary of Defense.
It’s the DC tech scene in a nutshell: homegrown, interconnected, rooted in government but looking beyond—and successful.
Yet as many constants as there are in Washington’s tech landscape—defense and cybersecurity remain big business, regularly producing billion-dollar companies that dot the area—much is constantly changing, too.
This past year saw growing companies trying to navigate a flood of money into the tech arena; funders scrambling to diversify the tech pipeline to include more women and people of color; new arrivals in government looking to remake the country’s rules around competition; and lobbyists working to reset official Washington’s increasingly tense relationship with the American tech industry. It also saw innovation grown out of the pandemic: One entrepreneur used our region as a laboratory for a new approach to matching customers looking for a haircut with barbers seeking more autonomy at work.
Washington might not be Silicon Valley, says Melissa Bradley of the investing firm 1863 Ventures, “but there’s a vibrancy” here. That’s reflected on this year’s Tech Titans list.
Reggie Aggarwal, David Quattrone, and Chuck Ghoorah
Cvent | CEO and Founder (Aggarwal), Cofounder and CTO (Quattrone), and Cofounder and President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing (Ghoorah)
This Tysons event-technology business of more than 4,000 employees is planning for a future when events are hybrid or when going to a convention is more attractive because the plane ride is part of the experience. As 2021 wrapped, Cvent went public for a second time, via a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in a deal that valued it at $5.3 billion.
Randy Altschuler
Xometry | CEO
The Rockville manufacturing platform started by Altschuler—a serial entrepreneur and two-time congressional candidate—might pair a small Rust Belt manufacturer looking for work with a coastal company …….