Tech Start-Up Envy: Why Does the Capital Region Come Up Short?

Driptech, Scribd, SolarCity, Zynga, Fitbit…they are all interesting technology start-ups recently included on BusinessWeek’s list of the “Most Intriguing New Businesses.”

There’s a problem with the list though: not a single company based in the Washington, DC region made the cut.

How can that be? Where I call home has all of the ingredients to nurture a world class community of entrepreneurial technology companies.

For starters, the largest buyer of information technology products and services has centered most of its decision-making here. That’s right, the US federal government spends billions of dollars each year on a broad set of products, services and capabilities.

In fact, the federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) recently unveiled a Web-based IT dashboard that tracks a fair amount of this annual spend.

This strong government footprint has attracted a myriad of systems integrators that cater to the technical and innovation requirements of government agencies worldwide. Lockheed Martin is based in Bethesda, Maryland. SAIC recently relocated to McLean, Virginia. CSC moved last year to Falls Church, Virginia.

These government contractors – often referred to as “Beltway Bandits” – serve as a training ground for technical and management talent.

Moreover, they often develop interesting products and applications with potential to be spun out as distinct companies. Systems integrator Mantech did just that two years ago with the successful creation of information security vendor Netwitness.

The potential for robust technology transfer also resides in the Washington, DC region’s research institutions, including George Mason University, George Washington University and the University of Maryland, College Park. All have outstanding engineering and business programs.

And finally, there is a mile-high stack of smart, experienced money in this town. Venture capital firms like NEA, Novak Biddle and Valhalla Partners, as well as private equity shops like Carlyle Partners are all well versed in helping start-ups successfully grow and mature.

So, again…I ask…why is the Washington, DC region a tier two player when it comes to technology start-ups?

You can’t put us in the same sentence as Silicon Valley without snickering. And we fail to measure up to technology hot spots in Boston, Austin and New York City.

Perhaps it’s about ego and attitude.

Are we in the DC business community content with modest success rather than aspiring to create the next Apple or Google? Are we too comfortable and conservative because of the government presence?

Survey Says Trades Take a Fall

Public relations professionals are challenged with information overload. To provide proper context and counsel, we must understand the macro trends shaping a myriad of industry segments, the strategies of market leaders and emerging vendors, and how our company fits into the mix.

The social media era has made the content tsunami worse. Personally, I’ve added a host of blogs, Twitter feeds and LinkedIn group discussions to the periodicals and journals I read on a weekly basis.

Yet, regardless of how many blogs I add to my Google Reader I still consider trade publications like Computerworld, InfoWorld, CIO, Network World and Informationweek a must read. Their writers know the markets they cover better than general business journalists, and they tend to provide reliable and well researched insight and analysis.

In fact, I have had editors at mainstream outlets like BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes ask me to send a client’s trade clips before they would seriously entertain developing a story about the company. You had to prove the client was the talk of its industry because the trade media typically sniffed out companies that lacked substance.

Based on a new survey I just reviewed, I may need to rethink my reading priorities. George Washington University professor Don Bates got together with Cision to query 12,000 reporters and editors about the outside sources they rely on for story ideas and research.

The results of the survey are comprehensive and cover a number of important topics. I’ll focus on the unexpected knocks on trade publications, which included:

--Blogs are used almost as often as trades as part of the reporting and editing process.

--For monitoring responses to stories, only Web sites and blogs are considered important. Conferences, trade journals, social networking sites and podcasts are lumped in the unimportant category.

Okay…what’s going on here? I know the trades have suffered due to a decrease in advertising and the lack of a viable Web business model. The resulting cut-backs have taken out many experienced writers who toiled for years to develop the expertise and contacts to effectively report on the most technical industries.

For the trade media to have fallen on par (and even lower) with the mass of peer review-less hacks who together comprise a significant portion of the blogosphere represents a shocking decline in their influence.

If journalists no longer turn to the trades for what is relevant in a specific market should I spend my time with them every week? And, of course, the bigger question is: Will the trades even be viable in the next 18 to 24 months?