DC rising
The growth of the DMV ecosystem and DC Startup Week 2023
“You’re the 3rd DC based VC we’ve talked to this week!”
DC isn’t top of mind when people think about startup ecosystems, but that’s changing.
DMV startups raised $5bn in 2021 and $6bn in 2022. And we’re a lot more than govtech and cybersecurity. 👩🏾⚖️🔐
CAVA went public with a top decile market cap of all IPOs YTD ($4.8B), joining notable DC based food & ecomm startups 🥗 sweetgreen, 🍕&pizza and 💐UrbanStems.
The VC in DC community is over 150 investors strong representing billions in AUM. And we all want to see more success stories like Mapbox, Optoro, ChurnZero, Arcadia, EVERFI and FiscalNote come out of our ecosystem.
Since joining Hustle Fund a year ago, Anthony Obi at Virginia Venture Partners has been a constant drumbeat 🥁 sharing the great work that entrepreneurs in our area are doing.
Many of the key startup ecosystem ingredients are here with:
🎓 Leading universities like Georgetown, John Hopkins, UVA (wahoowa!) and Howard
👩🏿🔬 Thomas Jefferson Highschool for Science and Technology in Fairfax bringing together some of the brightest young minds in the country
🏃🏻♂️ Accelerators and foundries including Halcyon, DataTribe, 1863™ Ventures, multiple Techstars programs & more
🏕️ Top outdoor spaces and activities for inspiration and collaboration (what’s up Outerly!)
DC Startup Week is around the corner with 100s of events meticulously curated by the incomparable Seema Alexander. I’ll be speaking with other folks at the following events:
🧠 10.16: 3:20P-4P Inside the Mind of an Investor w/ Nasir C. Qadree, Managing Partner of Zeal Capital Partners and Dahna Goldstein, Managing Partner of Halcyon
🌱 10.17 4P-4:45P Investor Take: Emerging Tech & Funding (AI, Web3, AR/VR) w/ Abid Siddiqui, EIR at AI Fund, JP Minetos Investor at Hartmann Capital, Marlon Avery of Aimpact
🫱🏾🫲🏿 10.18 1P-5P Founder and Investor Speed Dating w/ Shulman Rogers
💰 10.20 1P-1:45P No More Bootstrapping: We’re Ready to Raise w/ Jade Garrett founder of Positive Deviancy Frank V. Taylor investor at Virginia Venture Partners Scotty L. investor at Las Olas Venture Capital and Macie Mincey founder of KT Winery + Mom Juice Wines and investor
Hope to see you there! If you’re a local or visiting founder/funder and want to grab coffee or go for a walk that week, please get in touch: haley@hustlefundvc.com