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Mr Cranky has a tendency to get over-cranked and sometimes, okay most of the time, ignores the good. I justify that by saying that there are enough outlets celebrating all that exists as good that just another voice puffing up our hot air startup balloon would not add any significant... Read More
DC Tech has become all about the most amazing meetings with the most amazing people running the most amazing companies. Now I’m going to put away my Cranky hat or pants or whatever for a very few moments and say, everybody is amazing. You’re all amazing and I love you.... Read More
What: Dingman Center Angels Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 Time: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM Where: University of MD, Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 9:00 AM Breakfast 9:30 AM Company Pitches The University of Maryland, RH Smith School, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship’s Dingman Angels Investors will be meeting this Wednesday to hear pitches from the following companies: Kaprica Security, Inc. is an early-stage... Read More
863 US companies raised .9B dollars in Q1, down 14% from the 1,013 companies that raised .7B in Q4 2012. DC jumped from 10th place to 8th, largely on the strength of the 4M raised by distressed Living Social (0) and M for Intrexon (See: The DMV has 2 of... Read More
If you've ever worked for a Silicon Valley tech startup there is one area where SV firms are challenged and that's in internal Information Technology (IT). Doing non-strategic IT in the land of technology innovation is like being the company maintenance engineer and not as in the guy who maintains... Read More
I’ve been less and less optimistic about the future of entrepreneurship as I am constantly assaulted with the lack of critical thinking and inability to accept and learn from constructive criticism, cynicism and any question that challenges the status quo. In other words the eschewing of startup core values. A great... Read More
What: Dingman Center Angels Date: Wednesday,April 10, 2013 Time: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM Where: Univ of MD, 2518 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD FlagTap helps businesses increase online engagement, understand traffic, and get new users with the world's largest game of capture the flag. FlagTap is like AMEX reward points for online engagement across the entire Internet. Management... Read More
Talk is cheap. Talk is so cheap that there’s a new “Startup Community Organizer” organizing their YJASTE (Yet Just Another Startup Community Event) every day. Here’s a tip: We already have the largest Tech Meetup in the country — DC Tech Meetup. We also already have one of the most... Read More
You know you're not in DC when embattled May0r, Vincent Gray, sheds his standard, out-of-touch political wardrobe for a "Look At Me I'm A Tech Hipster" SXSW Garb. Obviously he's got top image, wardrobe consultant, SpeakerBox's Lisa Throckmorton (pictured behind him to the right) advising him to not look so... Read More
Recently one of my favorite startup CEOs, Sam Aparicio of Ringio, took me to task for one of my numerous Mr Cranky rants (See: Taking Issue With Mr Cranky’s Thoughts on DC Startups and Is DC the New New York). I’m happy he did because: My rants are designed to evoke... Read More
What happens when thousands of government workers and contractors are furloughed? What will sequestration mean for DC Startups…. There will be good, there will be bad there will be ugly. The furloughs are going to be particularly difficult in the DC Region and will have a definite effect on the DC... Read More
In recent years DC has been slipping as a center of startup activity. In terms of raising money the region has slipped from 6th, to 8th and now 10th on the latest PWC MoneyTree survey. Meanwhile other regions are making moves to be relevant. There's startup stuff happening in some of... Read More
As funding is drying up in DC, startup founders are getting restless and angry. Unfunded or underfunded founders are whining about the state of funding in the DC Region. People keep complaining that DC is the most difficult town in the world to raise money. It’s like we’re the new, New... Read More
According to PWC MoneyTree, Venture Capital Firms Headquartered in DC, MD and VA (DMV) made 56 investments. Only 25 of those investments were in the DMV. That includes Virginia's state run CIT Gap Fund with 11 local investments and Maryland's TEDCO with 2. Without those two firms the numbers would... Read More
The 4th quarter 2012 was a weak quarter for raising VC money in the DC Region. In money terms Q4 was a 0M drop from the third quarter and M less than the same quarter 2011. A total of 39 companies received money in Q4 versus 48 in Q3 and... Read More
DC Ventrure Capital Investing is back to 1995 pre-dot.com bubble. How does that compare to the national numbers? The DC Trend isn't that far off of the national trend. Source: National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PWC Money Tree ... Read More
Venture Capital Investment was off slightly by Billion dollars this year from .5 Billion in 2011 to .5 Billion in 2012. Regionally Silicon Valley retained their supremacy and dominance garnering Billion or 41% of the total. In fact the next 5 regions together didn’t quite equal the Silicon... Read More
So it’s December 28th and it is 78 degrees at the new Palo Alto, (not the one that over looks San Jose. The one overrlooking Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.) Headquarters of Mr Cranky’s, Driven Forward LLC. I’ve been chillin here since the 23rd, drinking Corona, Imperial, and Tona beer. Opened... Read More
What: Dingman Center Angels Date: Wednesday, December 12 2012 Time: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM Where: University of MD, 2333 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 8:00 AM Investor Education - Sussing out new markets by Dan Gordon, Valhalla Capital 9:00 AM Breakfast 9:30 AM Company Pitches Distil safeguards an organization's revenue and reputation by protecting their web content from bots and other malicious... Read More
There is a large group of people in the DC Tech Scene who believe that holding hands and singing Kumbaya is the way to build community. Cheering on effort no matter the significance is supportive and noble. That questioning a premise, that calling out a perceived misconception, that calling bullshit... Read More
Monday, December 10, 2012 6:00 PM iStrategyLabs 1630 Connecticut Ave NW 7th Floor, Washington, DC Join us for our inagural Startup Grind Washington D.C. event as Eric Koester (Co-Founder of Zaarly) interviews Steve Blank (The Startup Owners Manual) on December 10th. Steve Blank co-founded E.piphany, in his living room in 1996. His other startups include... Read More
Novak Biddle In July 2012 Novak Biddle Partners, the once formidable force behind DCs early stage venture financing ecosystem announced their intentions to raise a sixth fund. The past year has seen reshuffling at Novak Biddle as several partners have taken on reduced roles while increasing roles outside the firm. Phil... Read More
Has Gene Riechers, former co-founding venture partner of Valhalla Partners returned to the light after nearly 15+ years in Venture Capital? Gene has long term entrepreneurial startup roots in DC working in one of DC's first software companies, Software Center/VM Software culminating with his last full-time legitimate job as a VP... Read More
Venture Capital firms completed 57 transactions investing in 37 DC regional companies last quarter. DC area firms led the number of transactions with 13 firms making 28 investments. Silicon Valley followed with 10 firms making 13 transactions. Virginia’s CIT fund once again led the region with 6 transactions followed closely by... Read More
The 3rd Quarter saw 20 Maryland Companies raise a total of nearly 0M for an average of M per deal while perennial powerhouse Virginia saw only 12 companies raise M for the same period. The DC region (DC, MD, VA, WV) raised a total of 6M with 13 DC companies... Read More
Lately many folks have asked me why I’m against pay-to-pitch events. Is it personal? Do I hate the profiteer promoters? The answer…. hell no, it’s not personal, it’s reality. Is it personal that people no longer buy film? Do they hate Kodak employees? Do they want to see Kodak employee families... Read More
I'm here to rant today. Today, I stop fiddling while Rome burns. DC Tech is becoming a fiddling crowd creating a town full of cheerleaders. We've got the rah rah DC Tech Facebook Group we've got the rah rah InTheCapital folks who haven't seen a turd that wasn't the next... Read More
In the last 2 months I've been asked 3 times about the upcoming October Angel Venture Forum in DC. I figured I’d do some research. Angel Venture Forum is one of at least 8 DC area, regularly scheduled venues and a host of untold ad hoc events that put entrepreneurs seeking... Read More
Listening to Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey, at the Republican National Convention last night I was struck by these thoughts: This guy gets things done because he speaks bluntly, says what needs to be said, and tells the hard truths. He talks Jersey. Well I'm a Jersey fat-boy who understands... Read More
Startup America offers special deals for qualifying registered startups which incents Startup Founders to register with them. Registered companies do not necessarily reflect a 1 to 1 relationship with actual startups and yet they have some relationship in terms of density. Major changes in the rankings since I last reported on February... Read More
Featured on Speakerbox Sounding Board We like to turn the camera around, so to speak, from time to time and conduct our own interviews with the movers, shakers and influencers in our community. This Ask the Influencers interview is with Glen Hellman, a notable force in the DC community as well as on a... Read More
This company is amazing, that company is doing amazing things, that guy is amazing. The superlative amazing is just so abused. It’s overused on the DCTech Facebook Group page, it just might be used more often in InTheCapital articles than punctuation marks. Here there and everywhere you see amazingly abusive... Read More
For the past couple of months I’ve been writing and thinking about, who’s got the back of Startups in the DC region. And after much discussion, cogitation, rumination, and constipation, I’m at peace. The revelation, the answer, the point? Who’s got the back of DC Tech Startups? ........they do! The term startup is... Read More
How has risk tolerance changed by DC Venture Capitalists in the last 3 quarters? In Q4 2011 Virginia's CIT made 1 seed stage investment as did Maryland's DBED fund. Last quarter CIT made 2 seed stage investments and New Atlantic Ventures made 1. No DC firm made a seed stage... Read More
If you've been feeling like DC Venture Investors have an aversion to risk, last quarter's investments appear to bear that out. In Q2 of 2012 DC Venture Capital firms were weighted to more mature expansion and later stage deals. No DC VCs invested in seed stage deals last quarter and... Read More
2 VCs with offices in DC woke up in Q2 of 2012. Boulder Ventures (Based in Boulder with offices in the DC region) made 2 total investments after 3 quarters of no investments and Updata who made 2 investments last quarter after 2 quarters of no investments. JMI continued a string... Read More
DC area Venture Capital participation investment in area companies represented 25 of the total 49 investments made in 33 local startups last quarter. While on a percentage basis the 51% local transactions was only 2% higher than the prior quarter, on a deal basis there were 8 less local investors... Read More
The DC region had a not-so-hot, quarter in terms of area companies closing Venture Capital financing and you can't blame Virginia for that. The Old Dominion carried the region raising 79% of all capital in the region versus Maryland's paltry 2nd place 13%. Here's the breakdown: The Deals Company Ind Raised ST Stage Round Near Infinity Corporation SW ... Read More
The numbers don't lie. Here's the data as reported by VCs to the National Venture Capital Association reported by PWC MoneyTree and Reuters. Not all VCs report yet this is data and not notional. Numbers do not include pure Angel deals. ... Read More
Check out these blogs, newsletters and resources to keep up to date on the DC Startup and Tech Scene. They are ranked by their Alexa Global Ranking. Blog Alexa Global Rank Link Description Facebook DC Tech 2 http://www.facebook.com/groups/washdctech/ Justin Thorpe's Moderated Facebook Group Capital Business 340 http://www.washingtonpost.com/capital_business Steven Overly and Other Washington Post Staffers Wash Biz Journal 1,856 http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/ Bill Flook makes this mostly Real Estate... Read More
If you’ve ever seen the movies Cool Hand Luke or One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest then you can relate to how I feel sometimes when I step into the crap-spewing-fan, cheered-on quietly by the silent masses, content to keep their heads down in their foxholes while this dope sticks... Read More
There are several Regional Organizations that are Technology Advocacy groups. There’s the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Tech Council of Maryland, there’s Startup DC, Startup VA, Startup MD. You’ve got DC Tech Meetup, DC Lean Startup, Founder Institute, The Middle Atlantic Venture Association The University of Maryland Dingman Center, Mindshare,... Read More
Talk to entrepreneurs who can’t get funded and they whine…. "we need to be more like Silicon Valley." Local governments trying to attract more capital and more high-tech businesses study and attempt to duplicate the Silicon Valley model.“In Silicon Valley, they do this. In Silicon Valley they do that. Silicon... Read More
It’s happening again. DC Tech natives are restless. The Jungle Drums are pounding.The mindshare listserv is abuzz. Why do DC Investors Suck! Why aren’t DC Angels more like Silicon Valley Angels. Why can’t I get money? Why doesn’t anyone love me. Why, Why Why? Waa, Waa, Waa! ... Read More
One of DC Tech's little secrets is a supposed regular Joe. A nondescript, anonymous, fellow who goes about his everyday life playing the DC Tech version of Clark Kent. When no one’s looking our hero takes off his glasses (if he wears glasses, few people know), puts on... Read More
Nine companies in DC garnished venture funding last quarter compared to fifteen in Maryland and sixteen in Virginia. The list of companies closing on Venture Capital: Company Market ... Read More
Stardust Venture Partners are pleased to announce we’ve concluded an investment in Social Tables. Social Tables makes event planning less stressful by facilitating collaborative seating plans for business and social events. Attendees at Social Table events are afforded the ability to interact, get to know each other, share memories and... Read More
If you’re part of the busy, overbooked DC Tech Scene, you’re working long hours, you’re up early, you’re out most evenings at networking events, you’re not devoting enough time to your mate, your kids, your mom or your dog. Well it’s time for us to introduce each other to the... Read More
