

$450 million DC-based and East Coast focused Venture Fund - wvanwazer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/leonsis-case-found-450-million-fund-to-aid-washington-area-start-up-firms/2011/11/30/gIQAtb1fEO_story.html

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jpdoctor
Spent a bunch of years in SF and DC.

The fundamental core competencies are quite different. In DC, the primary
startup mode is to 1. Suck money out of a gov't agency, by 2. Having a contact
willing to sign the checks.

Gov't funding has made that area quite fat. (5 of the 10 wealthiest counties
in the US are in greater DC.)

~~~
asolove
I very much agree, as a DC front-end dev who has worked both for gov't
contractors and now for a legitimate b2b startup.

Want to know why the federal government hasn't made much of a dent in the
recession? Visit the DC exurbs and then visit the exurbs of any other city in
the US. If you never left fifty miles of DC you would be forced to assume
there was an economic boom going on.

~~~
pelemele
The typical federal worker is paid 20% more than a private-sector worker in
the same occupation.

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-
pay_N...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm)

~~~
wtvanhest
It really depends on your quality within title. For example USA today probably
considers waffle house cooks making 6 Per hour the same as a government cook
working at the state house. There are far more low end cooking jobs by
percentage in private sector.

Another thing the USA today article over looks is living expenses. Almost all
professional government jobs are in big cities with high cost of living.

It is commonly known that at equal skill level you will make less pay for the
government.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _It is commonly known that at equal skill level you will make less pay for
> the government._

As much as the politicos would like to claim otherwise, I have never heard of
_anyone_ taking a govt job so they can make more money.

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wtvanhest
I've lived in DC, Santa Clara and now Boston.

DC/Baltimore has a number of companies that target nongovernment markets which
started there i.e. Living Social, Under Armour, Opower (office in SF too I
think), etc.

The biggest difference in DC and SF is the style of funding. SF VCs have the
perception of funding bigger addressable market size companies with excellent
engineers and lower probability of success whereas DC VCs and angels tend to
focus on companies with traction and maybe a lower possible addressable market
and do not seem to be as web engineering focused.

The result is lower level of headlines for DC companies in places like hacker
news which are focused on the type of company that is born in SF.

There are a number of great ways to get funding in DC and for companies which
are starting to prove themselves it is a great market to be in.

Made In DC (a bunch of startups in DC) University of Maryland’s "Dingman
Angels" (Although it is university affiliated, their focus is on community
startups rather than student startups) The list goes on.

Also, the guys from AOL are in a bunch of Angel/VC investments in DC according
to CapIQ.

~~~
omarish
Spot on with AOL guys doing Angel/VC. There is also a sizable cohort of ex-
advertising.com guys doing angel investing nowadays.

