One year ago today, we launched ProudlyMadeInDC. I sent out this message to our mailing list
In the wee hours of the morning, on December 2nd, 2010, the two of us
started throwing together a simple WordPress site, after a dinner discussion
with other entrepreneurs about improving the scene in DC. We posted a list
of startups that we knew about (a total of 40!), and shared it with a few
close friends. On December 13th, 2010 – we opened it up to the world. And by
“open it up” – we actually mean making a couple tweets/FB posts. We expected
maybe a couple hundreds hits to the site, and eventually it would just trail
off and disappear.But you, the community, latched on to it. You took what we built, and ran
with it, turning ProudlyMade into something we could never have imagined.More importantly, we’ve seen the community grow. While we could focus on the
birth and growth of so many follow-on efforts (DC Tech Meetup, DC Tech
Summer), as well as dozens of other resources coming online in the DC
area… That doesn’t matter. What matters is that every day, more and more
people are seeing that realizing their dreams is possible in the DC area.
They’re escaping their cubicle prisons, working nights and weekends,
validating their ideas, raising funding, and building companies. We’re
creating jobs and making the world a better place. Sites like
ProudlyMadeInDC, events like the DC Tech Meetup, and thousands of other
resources, meetups, and groups… we’re just here to support that. Just a
few years back, would anyone have dreamed that DC would be a place where
hundreds of startups would bloom? We certainly didn’t. Yet here we are. DC
is on the map. And you are making it happen.So here we are – roughly a year after launching, still going strong. We’ve
established ProudlyMadeInDC as a home for entrepreneurs helping
entrepreneurs. We work 24/7 on our own startups (it’s currently 1:30
in the morning as we write this), and try and put whatever remaining time we
have into helping you. Going forward, we’re going to be adding more
resources, both internally and on our site, with the aim of helping you. So
thanks.
