For seven years, I taught UX design to career changers in DC. One thing that struck me during that time was how DC attracts brilliant, motivated, highly educated people from all over the country to work in the federal government, at our top-notch universities and hospitals, at the NIH and at the thousands of professional associations across the area.
These days, more and more of those people are leaving their fields to become entrepreneurs. They’re launching businesses to address the problems they spent years working on, and they know those problems better than anyone.
What usually stops them is the question that this year’s Tech Track at DC Startup & Tech Week is built around: “How technical do I actually need to be?”
In the last couple of years, my answer to that question has changed. AI won’t turn an analyst or paralegal into an engineer overnight, but it doesn’t have to. What it does well is adapt to the person using it, extending what they’re already good at and covering the gaps in their skillsets. I see it in my own work every day. I’m at my best figuring out what to build and why. With AI, I can now code integrations and animations, explore and iterate on ideas faster, and keep my schedule and my business running smoothly. Even my inbox, never my strong suit, finally tells me who’s waiting on a reply!
At every tech and startup event I attend, I have the same conversation with folks eager to share what they’re working on and the secret workflows they’ve discovered with the latest models. That eager energy to learn, share, collaborate, and grow will be at a fever pitch during the five days of DC Startup & Tech Week.
And that is what the week is all about. Bringing together our local founders and subject matter experts in the highly regulated fields that DC knows best — defense, cybersecurity, energy, health and AI — in the same room with the lawyers, operators, investors and tech talent who can help them thrive.
This year, DCSTW goes worldwide, as startup teams from around the globe come to DC to establish US ties. The beauty of the annual convening is that everyone is truly welcome, from college students to first-time founders to the tech-curious, and everyone will find something valuable to help them take that next step.
Where you’ll find us on the Tech sub-track
Monday, Oct 19
- How Technical Do I Actually Need to Be? A panel of founders and builders on what you really need to know and what you can lean on others (and AI) for.
Tuesday, Oct 20, MLK Library
- Do You Have the Right Flight Crew? Opening keynote with Lee Cage Jr. on building your tech team.
- What Does 0→1 Really Mean? (And Really Take?) Mylon Blueford of TattMe and I walk through what it took to go from idea to first product.
- Stop Guessing: How to Test Your Biggest Startup Assumption. A hands-on game: spot the assumptions you unconsciously operate with.
- From Fathers to Founders: The Story of Building Highlighter as First-Time Founders, with Jake Fishbein sharing his experience as a first-time founder.
- Vibes Don’t Ship, with Vicki Harrison and Lilah Schaeffer on getting from a promising prototype to something real.
