The first DC Tech Meetup was held over five years ago. Around 150 people gathered in our law firm’s meeting room to hear a couple demos.
Next month we’re hosting our 47th meetup. We have over 16,000 members of our group. Each night attracts anywhere from 400-900+ people. The staying power of this, organized by otherwise-busy technologists, is a testament to the massive growth of the DC entrepreneurial ecosystem. Back when we started, the startup community was nascent – a handful of small companies we were aware of, with LivingSocial (at the time) just starting to take off. Now, every night, we see brand new ventures take form, inspiring many in the audience to go home and start theirs.
It’s hard to fully describe the change we’ve seen – the ventures started, dreams pursued – and as one of the founders + current organizers of the Meetup, I’m so thankful to have played a small part in it.
