Empowering Entrepreneurship Video Series
InnovateDMV is diving into the local entrepreneur community to examine how business founders are bringing their ideas to life. Hear their stories through our video series below.
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Local Founders
InnovateDMV is helping startups meet their technical goals and ultimately scale to the next level. Meet the founders who are making this happen.
Our Partners
Supporting startups and small businesses. Reaching technical goals. Making an impact in the DMV region. Meet the partners who are making this happen with InnovateDMV.
The DMV Region
With a storied history in tech and close proximity to the nation’s capital, the DMV region offers a competitive advantage to startups looking to grow their business. Hear from founders themselves on what makes the DMV so special.
Ecosystem Building
Building a network of people who are on the same non-traditional career path can be vital for navigating the questions and challenges that all entrepreneurs face, from making tough business decisions to knowing where to look for answers. Hear from founders how InnovateDMV has given them a supportive startup ecosystem.
The Future of Education
Entrepreneurs don’t see gaps in the industry, they see opportunity. Whether it’s bringing work opportunities to K-12 students or creating new mental wellness programs, DMV business founders are investing in the future of their local communities. InnovateDMV sat down with founders who tackled opportunities they found to grow in the fast-evolving education technology space.
Capital eXperience Group
Tonja Peña sees hospitality as the heart of success for service-based businesses. She used her sales experience and passion to create Capital eXperience Group, which helps businesses navigate technological transformation projects to improve their customer experience capabilities and remain competitive in a booming marketplace. Learn more about how InnnovateDMV, powered by US Ignite, helps Peña bring her ideas to life.
Long Angle
What happens when your small business idea makes it big? DMV-raised Sriram Gollapalli faced this challenge once he successfully sold his software company and sought out a network to help him navigate his next steps with wealth management. That’s why he co-founded Long Angle, a community for high-net-worth networking, crafted for a diverse range of investors, entrepreneurs and professionals. Listen to his story of successful entrepreneurship in the DMV.
GoPursue
For Kathryn Adabonyan, Founder & CEO of GoPursue, there is more work to be done in connecting K-12 students with career pathways. Kathryn sat down with InnovateDMV to talk about how she founded GoPursue to bridge that gap by working directly with high school students to offer mentorship and work opportunities for local employers.
Black Meta Agency
How do we make workforce development in the technology industry fun and accessible? Howard R. Jean integrated his technology background, education and community foundations to create Black Meta Agency, an organization working to create a pipeline for BIPOC individuals entering the emerging tech industry. Tools like Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence are changing how we train the workforce, and entrepreneurs like Howard are working to bring those benefits to the DMV and beyond.
Balmoré Art
Andrew Jacobson fell in love with contemporary art. But he knew there was a gap in bringing this $70 billion industry into the daily lives of those as passionate about art. That’s why Andrew founded Balmoré Art, a Washington, D.C.-based initiative dedicated to promoting arts education through media, journalism and insights on the business of art.
Effective to Great Education
Schools were never designed to focus on the mental well-being of students. But Laura Thomas built a mental wellness management platform for schools to provide to their educators to integrate mental and wellness into core learning for historically marginalized student communities. Effective to Great Education aims to advance education equity and social impact through technology.
RASA
Food is the gateway to culture. For Sahil Rahman and his co-founder, that meant sharing the flavors of the Indian food they grew up eating with the DMV community through RASA, their fast-casual brand.