DC Startup Week 2021

Here's some tips from an insider and how to get the angels with the deepest pockets to pursue YOU with their money!

Our energy is our most valuable asset, and it is chronically mismanaged. From putting your energy towards tasks that drain you to missing crucial opportunities to build a network that brings you energy rather than takes it - there is immense potential in fine-tuning your "Energy Return On Investment" [EROI.] In this talk, you will explore ways to identify how your energy is best utilized and map out ways to fully leverage the energy you give to increase the energy you receive. In an ideal world, when we put energy out, we get energy back. So, let's calibrate your EROI and maximize your return.

Learn from the ideas42 Ventures team about using outcome-based road mapping and behavioral science when building products. We'll share our process for getting from idea to MVP as quickly as possible and how to set yourself up to move fast and iterate with no time lost. We'll also share how we use behavioral science to build products that make measurable impacts and meet our users where they are. Together we'll look at some of what we've created recently with our studio businesses and try out some of these methods on your products or ideas.

Understanding the flow of money in and out of your business is paramount to essential business success. However, this issue is often misunderstood or put on the "back burner" by startup founders. In this session, we will provide attendees a template model (in MS Excel) that includes revenue, cost (COGS and Fixed), Operating Income, Cashflow, and break-even analysis for a 36 monthly period. We will also introduce a simple CAP Table in the model. Sample practice numbers will be provided for discussion! You get to keep and use the model!

Want a real brain breaker? Every single productivity challenge is a combination of one or more of just four challenges: Focus, time, priorities, and commitment. So if you can learn to troubleshoot these four areas in your life, you can learn to live in your unique Productivity Power Zone every day.

You'll walk away from this session understanding the four challenges, knowing exactly what exercises to use to troubleshoot each one, and having a clear vision for how to bridge the gap between where you are now and daily life living in your Productivity Power Zone. Life Coach Cristina Roman will be doing live coaching during the session, so prepare to get vulnerable.

Joining an accelerator is one of the ways many early stage startups have used to gain traction, funding, strategic partnerships, and reach faster than doing it by themselves.

We are very excited to bring four leading accelerator program leaders together from Techstars (for tech founders), 2Gether-International (for founders with disabilities), Halcyon (for social impact founders), and FedTech (for government innovation focused founders ) for you to learn how their programs can support your startup to scale.

Each accelerator will share their insights on everything you need to know - from applying to how to make the most out of their programs, to key growth strategies regardless if you plan to join a program or not that will help you grow.

This conversation will be moderated by the Lead Reporter at Technical.ly DC, Michaela Althouse. If you are a startup considering applying to an accelerator program or just looking for proven business growth strategies—you don’t want to miss out to this valuable content.

Startups and early stage companies rarely have sufficient revenues for large scale advertising and marketing campaigns, so many turn to public relations to help launch their organizations, build awareness and create product demand. This one-hour workshop can demonstrate how you can harness the power of media relations to achieve those communication objectives. Steve Winter, president of Brotman|Winter|Fried, a division Sage Communications, will discuss when it’s right and when it works to do it yourself vs. when you should bring in the heavy hitters.

Raising money? Learn the metrics investors look for at each round and ace your next fundraise. Zoë Barry, exited founder & angel investor, teaches you the fundraising milestones for early-stage companies, from Friends & Family to Series A.

Have you thought about vacating your 9 to 5 job and going into business for yourself? Whether the dream is starting a home-based business or starting a retail company that becomes the next Amazon, the fascination of owning and operating a small business can be overwhelming. This workshop is dedicated to startup businesses who need assistance knowing where and when to start their business. So do you ask yourself how, what, when, where, and why? Then this course is for you! You'll walk away with new knowledge on how to source access to capital, completing your business plan, how to manage your funds, building successful partnerships, and more.

If you are looking to get funded, you probably already know you need a pitch deck and a business plan.

But many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of having a tightly written Executive Summary and a 7-9 slide pitch deck. An Executive summary is often the first document investors want to see before a complete pitch deck and business plan. It can be the key to opening more doors!

Join startup/scale-up expert Ines LeBow on how to pitch investors and get funded. The session includes information on how to write an Epic Funding Story and Executive Summary. She will tell you the ten things you need to have to go through the fundraising process.

Growth is probably top of mind for you as you’re beginning your journey. Not sure where to start? Join us for an interactive session on getting started with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). KPIs allow you to get an overview of how your business is performing at any given time.

We’ll cover:

· The goal and importance of KPIs

· Defining KPIs for your early days

· 4 Needed KPIs Early Stage Startups to Track

· Evolution of KPIs as you scale

Activating your audience of users to become paying customers is part art, part science. Learn how to build a strong process to help move users through your buyer journey. The founders in this panel will share what's worked as well as what's not worked when building their activation strategies.

Congrats, you’ve launched your business, gathered some co-founders and are well underway with your proof of concept! What’s next? Fundraising. Easy right? You hope so, but don’t leave it to chance. Here are ten things to do (and not do) as you ready your company for its first financing. From equity to co-founders to contracts, get a startup lawyer’s take on how to prepare for success. 

This will be a discussion of how studios and accelerators operate, how the studio and accelerator models are evolving, and how they help entrepreneurs drive their ideas to success.

Did you know that: 10,000 people are turning 65 in the United States every single day? And in the US, people over 50 generate $8.3 trillion annually in economic activity? And by 2050, it is projected that people over 50 will spend 61 cents of every dollar. So the older adult population is too big to ignore.

This panel will address the size of the older adult and caregiving markets, how to get to know these customers, themes of interest to Longevity investors, and the deep support the DC area offers startups in the category.

Developing new business ideas, especially in software, comes with many challenges for technical and non-technical founders. In this talk, we will examine how to start a software business, from testing the market to find your MVP (minimum viable product) to evolving the software product using three principles: Innovation, Scale, and Execution. Join this session if you want to learn how to start your software business or take your software to the next level.

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur that is confident that you can build the next great start-up, but you just need the core innovative technology to get you started? Enter the world of deep-tech. Large research universities, like Virginia Tech, create new early stage technologies from their research. These technologies provide a powerful catalyst for startups opportunities. Often called “deep tech,” these technologies emerging from research offer enterprising entrepreneurs a potent spark of inspiration for creating new ventures. In this session. Mark Mondry, Director of LAUNCH Center for New Ventures at Virginia Tech, illuminates the possibilities in leveraging deep tech to build great startups and explains how the unique attributes of the DC region offer significant advantages over other startup ecosystems.

Access to capital is critical in any business. Whether you are just starting up, expanding into new markets, or scaling in earnest, access to capital can make the difference between success and failure. This workshop will show you how to identify the right source of capital for every stage in your business development cycle.

What You’ll Learn
• How to position your startup for success by developing a strategic fundraising plan
• How to target the right investors at the right time
• Where your startup sits on the investment-readiness scale
• What types of funding are available to you at every stage in the startup lifecycle
• Identify the 10 proven sources of funding for your business
• Walk away with the exact tools you need to help you move forward.

How it will help you
If you want to know how to raise capital to build your business, you’re not alone. Each year more than 70% of small businesses use some form of financing. While money doesn’t grow on trees, there are a number of ways you can seek funding for your business—some more traditional than others. You’ll develop a deeper understanding of how to get the capital you need to succeed as you launch, grow and scale your business.

Building a high-performing leadership team is one of the most important and impactful activities you can do for your startup. Research shows it’s what differentiates an organization that cruises from one that soars. Identifying the right co-founders is more than just finding people with technical skills and qualifications; it starts with understanding yourself and your team, as well as who complements and fits within your team and collective culture. This session focuses on  assembling high-performing leadership teams, providing guidance and tools for assessing and developing co-founders that fit and thrive.

There's no question about it- bootstrapping is tough. Yet, it offers clear advantages in protecting equity, maintaining autonomy, and building a sustainable business model. In this candid conversation, join founders who have successfully bootstrapped their companies to multi-millions in revenue as they share the real-life lessons, challenges, and advantages of bootstrapping to success.

Most software developers might not want you to know this, but writing code is the easy part of building a great app. The hard part is understanding how that app solves real, human problems, and that's where you, as a founder, come in. You don't have to know how to code to prepare an excellent product for development. Still, you need to translate your solutions to the language of your development team and understand what they are going through as they build new technology. In this session, you'll hear from ThinkNimble's CTO, William Huster, and Head of Product and COO, Marcy Ewald. In this session, you'll learn: - Common misconceptions non-techies have about building technology - Prioritization matrix for MVP features - Aligning on user outcomes - How to write user stories and wireframes before approaching a developer

Finding customers is one of the most important yet hardest aspects of running a startup. In this panel, we will discuss how each of our high-growth startups found our first customers and share what's worked and what's not worked when running customer acquisition campaigns. Activating your audience of users to become paying customers is part art, part science. Learn how to build a solid process to help move users through your buyer journey. The founders in this panel will share what's worked and what's not worked when building their activatio

AgeTech shortened for Age Technology, is a term applied to solutions at the intersection of longevity and technology. Technology to address the aging economy is needed now more than ever. Older adults are projected to outnumber children under age 18 for the first time in US history by 2034, according to Census Bureau projections. The world is aging, and the needs for tech-enabled solutions are in demand to support this transition. According to the UN, by 2050, 20% of the world's population (~2 billion people) will be over 60. Are your tech solutions accessible to older adults, or are you overlooking this $9 trillion sector? You will learn about : - The massive opportunities in AgeTech - The four critical audiences in this sector - The startups that are leading the way - How to tailor your solutions into this sector

Did you know you don’t need to code to launch a successful startup? You don’t even need a technical cofounder. Non-technical founders are underrepresented and underserved but they can still be incredibly successful. Join Daniel Abrams, CEO of MassLight, and learn how to raise capital, build momentum, and grow your company when you don’t have technical capacity. RSVP to find out more!
We can’t wait to see you there!"

When you perform local SEO, you not only increase your visibility, you position yourself to beat out more regional and national brands for the same or similar products and services. Local SEO is centered around on-page optimization and your Google My Business listing.


In this webinar, I will dive deep into 11 strategies you need to build your local brand online and start to beat out your competitors.  

We Will Cover: * The Benefits of Local SEO  * 11 Strategies for Successful Local SEO * Free and Paid Tools to get the job done

Crowdfunding is hotter than ever and expected to continue to surge. Learn from crowdfunding experts and entrepreneurs what its really like to successfully complete a Reg CF crowdfunding campaign.

How do I get into Techstars? What is the experience like? When is the right stage to participate? Where are the programs around the world that DC area founders can tap into, and what are their themes?

If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, this panel is for you! Techstars, the #1 early-stage investor in the world by volume according to Crunchbase, has supported over 2500 early-stage companies via its 13-week accelerator model since 2006.

Hear from local Techstars alumni and the Managing Director of Techstars first DC-area program.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy, reports that people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to pursue entrepreneurship compared to the non-disabled population.

During this session, we will discuss how disability and diversity are an asset when thinking about innovative strategies to building a business, securing investors, and building creative teams. Our expert panelists will share their own journeys, explore challenges they faced, share fundraising strategies, and detail their own work in bringing the discussion of disability and diversion to the front of the startup ecosystem.

Join us in envisioning a world where disability and diversity are synonymous with innovation and creativity.

Join us for an in-depth conversation led by Verdance Capital on how to engage, pitch and obtain venture capital as an early-stage startup from leading venture capitalists from QED Ventures, Route 66, and Motley Fool Ventures.

Being a startup founder can be challenging. Now add being a female to that, and it gets tougher. Let's get fintech female founders together, and you might see the word "rare" get highlighted. 88% of Fintech founders are male. Women make up 23% of traditional bank boards but only 14% of fintech boards. We have a long way to go achieving gender parity in this sector. Let's meet the brave female founders who are paving the way to make fintech more equitable. Learn the following: - The trends shaping the fintech sector - The targeted fintech solutions to meet changing needs - Developing products for a diverse and inclusive customer base - The opportunities to support female founder

What are the keys to successfully raise outside money whether it's friends and family, seed, angel or VC monies? No matter the stage of growth or the traction earned, the challenges facing the founding team are great!

Come learn the fundamentals of raising capital - both legal and strategic considerations!

Are you ready to get found, get funded and get famous? If you are looking to build your personal brand, but you don’t know where to start, this workshop is for you.

As an entrepreneur, your personal brand is your greatest asset - it’s how you show up in the world and how people think about you when you’re not around. Just like a comic book superhero, your personal brand clearly communicates your hidden superpowers to the world.

If you are like most entrepreneurs, you are so wrapped up in building your business, you might have overlooked the importance of building your personal brand. Or maybe you’re not 100% sure of your super powers, and you’re struggling to let the world know what you can do.

Learn how to discover your hidden superpowers and supercharge your personal brand in 10 easy steps. You will walk away with a deeper understanding of your hidden strengths and unique talents and develop a step-by-step plan to help you build a powerful brand that clearly communicates the value you bring to the world.

If you’re ready to supercharge your personal brand, this workshop is for YOU!