Draft:History of Technology Companies in Washington, DC

• Comment: It's not clear, from the draft or the sources, whether "DC Tech" is an organisation, a specific initiative, etc., or just 'technology sector in the DC area' in a general sense. In any case, the sources don't seem to discuss it in significant enough extent and detail to demonstrate notability per WP:GNG. (There is also more than a hint of WP:OR in this.) DoubleGrazing (talk) 09:16, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

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DC Tech is the commonly used name for Washington, D.C.'s tech sector, similar to Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. DC emerged in the early 2000s as a hub for startups and its present landscape encompasses influential companies across sectors like media, real estate, education, and e-commerce, as well as recent advancements in B2B and B2G software.

History

As the national capital, metropolitan Washington, D.C. boasts the third largest tech workforce in the US.. An early tech cluster in the region developed in Northern Virginia and became the Dulles Technology Corridor.

In the early 2000s and 2010s, the District of Columbia itself emerged as a hub for startup companies, growing several influential tech companies. Among US technology clusters, DC Tech is notable for its highly centralized, enthusiastic community of employees and entrepreneurs. In 2012, the DC Tech Meetup was recognized as the world's largest tech meetup. with over 1,000 attendees and over 25,000 members. By 2021, the DC Tech Slack group was notable for having 1,000 weekly active users and over 10,000 users

Some of the earliest tech companies in DC arose in the federally regulated media and telecommunications sectors. Companies like BET and SiriusXM's predecessor were founded in DC by entrepreneurs with experience in satellite communications and cable television policy. Satellite services provider Intelsat began as an intergovernmental consortium with a landmark administrative headquarters in DC.

Real estate information provider CoStar Group, was founded in DC in 1987, and its database and analytics tools had become widely used through the real estate industry by the time of its 1998 IPO. Subsequently, CoStar has grown into the world's largest real estate technology company through a series of acquisitions.

In educational technology, learning managment system Blackboard was founded in 1997 and IPOed in 2004, maintaining its headquarters in DC until 2019. Everfi, a DC based educational tech platform, was acquired in 2022.

In e-commerce, LivingSocial launched a daily deals website for local experiences in 2009, grew to 4,500 employees in 2011, and was purchased in 2016 by its leading competitor Groupon. Optoro, founded in 2008, is also a leader in retail returns and reverse logistics.

Recent Developments

In contrast to the Dulles Technology Corridor, DC Tech companies typically focus on information services and B2B sectors with a strong government influence such as education, healthcare, and transportation, and less on B2G sectors like government contracting, defense and cybersecurity.

Many recent DC Tech companies focus on B2B and B2G software. Notable companies include government relations software FiscalNote which IPOed in 2022, digital identity verifier ID.me, event planning software Social Tables (acquired by Cvent), transportation information software company Actionfigure, and mapping software company Mapbox.