D.C. Innovators

Washington, D.C. has a host of discovery platforms, event series, contests and entrepreneur centers designed to transform the region into the Digital Capital.

By Avery Fellow | April 12, 2010

Washington, D.C. innovators have created a myriad of contests, discovery platforms, events and entrepreneur centers to redefine the city as the Digital Capital – poised to make the nation’s political power center the hub for new and creative business.

dcTechSource.com puts a face behind some of the biggest ideas in the region.

Affinity Lab / Phillipe Chetrit

Chief Operating Officer for Affinity Lab Phillipe Chetrit started out as a filmmaker in New York before realizing "I was a terrible filmmaker, but I liked helping my fellow filmmakers promote themselves." Two years ago, Chetrit stepped in as the COO for Affinity Lab, a collaborative work space for new businesses. The lab started in Adams Morgan and just launched a new center on U Street.

Affinity Lab

"It’s shared office space, but for us its way more about the culture and community," Chetrit said. Affinity Lab allows its members to work in an open room, share a desk, or rent space full-time. 

"Entrepreneurs are a pretty rare breed," Chetrit said. "We try to create different packages for different people depending on where you are in your business cycle. The idea is to create a very flexible space."

Chetrit said the space works as a passive incubator. "Nobody starts a business wanting to run an office, they want to focus on their mission, so we clear those operational tasks off your plate so you can seriously focus on your mission. The only other thing you have to worry about is meeting all the people around you – who will probably push you to success," Chetrit said.

"There’s nothing more effective than starting a business around 35 other people who are starting a business," Chetrit said. "You can go online and find a checklist for how to start your business, but its better to ask the person next to you who did it the week before. These people become your friends, your colleagues and then you put a piece of paper between you and suddenly you are business partners," he said.

Over the nine years that Affinity Lab has been in operation, more than 90 businesses have passed through its doors, 84 percent of which are still in business today, "10 times the national average," Chetrit said. Many of the businesses graduate from the space into the neighborhood.

Affinity Lab hosts weekly brownbag lunches for members to teach classes on anything from martial arts to hula hooping, as well as professional speakers’ series and happy hours.

In addition to building up the local community, the space is strengthening the economy.

"We call this place a force multiplier. With every new lab, essentially you are paving the way for 50 new businesses, which equals 200 more jobs, which equals hundreds of thousands of new tax revenues," Chetrit said.

Chetrit said the lab is currently looking to open a third space, in the metro area but "probably not in D.C.," he said.

1410Q / PointAbout Co-Founders

The cofounders of mobile app company PointAbout – Scott Suhy, Daniel Odio, Sean Shadmand and Isaac Mosquera – opened an innovation hotspot at a gorgeous four-story townhome near Dupont Circle in January.

The innovation center is billed as a space for entrepreneurs to come work, share ideas, and just hang out.

"One really important thing from our perspective about the way we brand the space is that its not networking space. There are plenty of places to network," PointAbout cofounder and COO Daniel Odio said. "This is a knowledge transfer place. We want people to learn when they are here."

To keep with this mission, the center is hosting a slew of activities featuring local and national luminaries. On a recent Thursday night, the center held a workshop hosted by Guy Vidra, the head of new media at the Washington Post. It has also recently hosted an iPad Eve happy hour to celebrate the launch of Apple’s popular tablet. The center is also host to several local tech meetup groups.

The center features conference rooms, offices and open workspace, with rooms named after historic innovators, including Nikola Tesla, Leonardo Da Vinci and Stephen Hawking.

The desk space and event calendar are both filling up quickly.

"We just want this to happen," said Sean Shadmand, cofounder and chief strategy officer at PointAbout.

Disruptathon / Pete Erickson

Pete Erickson, Disruptathon

Pete Erickson moved to D.C. two and a half years ago and immediately noticed a need for an innovation forum. So he started Disruptathon, an innovation discovery event series that "identifies and celebrates innovators and connects those innovators with people who will help that innovation survive," he said. The series, which uses mobile apps to help attendees evaluate innovation, launched last summer.

Erickson describes the series as a "blend of a philosophy, technology and a process that results in human connection. It helps innovators know what is important about their innovation."

According to Erickson, the name Disruptathon plays on the idea of disruptive innovation, doing something new and different in a better way, and marathon, an event that has beginning end takes place in a matter of hours.

"Disruption is not only good, it’s necessary," Erickson said.

Erickson is using the D.C. mobile development community as a beta test for the concept, but says the platform will expand to include anyone "interested in innovating – regardless of the industry they are in." Erickson names managers, developers and marketers as possible innovators. "That’s when the spark happens," Erickson said, "When the business mind and the creative mind come together. That’s where I see Disruptathon going."

Erickson also sees Disruptathon as a way to drive the country out of the economic slump. "Innovation is a pathway out of the economic situation we are in," Erickson said.
   
The next few Disruptathon events will focus on mobile business apps, government apps and transparency, and clean tech and IT. "Were really gaining our stride as an innovation forum," Erickson said.

Digital Capital Week / Peter Corbett

Peter Corbett, Digital Capital Week

Peter Corbett was a television producer in New York before he moved to D.C. and started iStrategyLabs, a marketing firm that focuses on interactive strategy and creative use of the Web.

"I view it as my role to be a technological and creative community organizer, bringing people together who share a passion in the tech creative space, because that’s who I am – a designer, a developer, an animator, a videographer."

Corbett co-created Apps for Democracy with now Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, a contest that resulted in 47 apps for Washington D.C, engaging citizens in government while saving the government millions in app development costs. The contest spurred Apps for Democracy Finland/Belgium/Germany/Australia, Apps for America and NYC Big Apps. "Its just incredible what’s happening with this," Corbett said.

Corbett also co-founded the Government 2.0 Club, Government 2.0 Camp, and Transparency Camp.

Now, Corbett is launching Digital Capital Week, a 10-day festival bringing technologists, artists, entrepreneurs and the public together to innovate. The event is scheduled for June 11 to June 20, 2010.

"It’s the biggest thing we’ve done for D.C.," Corbett said. "It’s going to change the way that talented citizens of the District of Columbia show how they can produce civic innovation, how can they be better business owners and how they can be better entrepreneurs to move our economy forward," Corbett said.

Corbett said more than 600 web developers, 200 mobile developers and hundreds of designers and videographers are slated to attend.

"It will be the first time these people are brought together en mass to do things. The word ‘do’ is really important to Digital Capital Week. It is more than inspiration and networking. In addition to events, parties, panels and music, we will have project labs. We are creating a pop-up technology and creativity incubator on H Street for 10 days. We are going to rehab a vacant library on 13th and H Street and bring the community in to talk to technologists and creatives. We want to strengthen the local businesses on H Street so people can learn how to use social media and social tech to drive more traffic to their locations," Corbett said. "We basically want to bring the brain trust that is part of the community to other parts of the community."

The event will include pro bono consulting , a graffiti mapping project, and a slew of other collaborative design, development, business, art and nonprofit projects.

"I’m most excited about seeing that action happen. People will change their neighborhoods, they will change the way the government relates to organizations," Corbett said.

Corbett hopes to draw at least 5,000 attendees to the event.



Related Keywords : New Technology , venture capital , apps

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