For the first year, we’re honoring the entire Maryland ecosystem with our 2025 Technical.ly Awards — and y’all did not disappoint in showing up to support them.
Instead of just Baltimore, we scouted the top products, people and groups from all over to come up with a list of 24 nominees. Over 4,000 people across the mid-Atlantic voted this year, and the winners are in! Keep scrolling to meet the movers and shakers with outsized impact on the community this year.
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Product of the Year: RightHear
For people who are visually impaired, unfamiliar places can be tough to navigate.
Rockville-based RightHear wants to change that with an audio wayfinding system that turns buildings and outdoor areas into spoken maps. The system links an app to small wireless sensors placed throughout a public space, giving users spoken descriptions of their surroundings.
The startup works with over 2,500 locations worldwide, including libraries, parks, universities and hotels. In June, the company partnered with its first pro sports venue in Houston.
“This year, RightHear doubled its footprint in the US and added several Fortune 500 brands to our growing network,” RightHear CEO Idan Meir said. “We’re also proud to have raised significant awareness around the growing gap between ADA compliance and the real-world effectiveness of traditional signage.”
Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year: Logan Cundiff
Logan Cundiff moved to Baltimore two years ago and has quickly become a familiar face in the city’s entrepreneurial community.
His platform, Props, gamifies events by rewarding participants for deeper engagement, like earning points for collecting business cards or completing other networking activities.
Props has been used across startup-focused events and nonprofit community gatherings. Cundiff recently finished Towson University’s StarTUp accelerator and previously participated in bwtech@UMBC’s Maryland New Venture program.
“2025 was a breakthrough year for us …We launched to app stores, found our first paying customers and created a novel platform that offers something truly unique to event organizers,” Cundiff said.
Cundiff already has a slate of events lined up for Props next year, including Mindful Tech Club’s January Challenge and Dent’s Bet on Baltimore summer program.
Thought Leader of the Year: Lo Smith
Lo Smith began the year as the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition’s new executive director, championing expanded digital skills training and affordable internet access for city residents.
In the role, Smith has brought together people interested in digital equity and connected them with ongoing efforts across the city.
They did this during a challenging period for the field, marked by the Trump administration’s cancellation of the Digital Equity Act and shrinking philanthropic support, pressures that threaten progress made since the pandemic exposed deep gaps in internet access.
Those funding strains ultimately hit Smith directly. They announced they’ll step down at the end of December from their role in BDEC, but plan to continue supporting the coalition through contract work.
Program of the Year: Maryland Student Venture Showcase
Honoring pioneering entrepreneur Pava LaPere and her commitment to student founders, the Maryland Student Venture Showcase brought together teams from colleges and universities around the Baltimore region to spotlight the city’s next generation of entrepreneurs.
Thirty-nine ventures took part, and nine winning teams each earned $50,000 through the Pava LaPere Legacy of Innovation Act of 2024.
The program showcased student innovations across sectors, from affordable skincare products to alternative energy storage. The second cohort is scheduled to present in February of next year.
Power Move of the Year: 4MLK Building
After years of advocacy from Baltimore’s biotech community, the 4MLK building officially opened early this year.
The eight-story building, designed to relieve the lab space shortage for researchers and smaller companies, offers 160,000 square feet of wet labs for life sciences firms and anchors the University of Maryland BioPark campus.
“We needed bioengineering in Baltimore for a long time, and now we have it,” University of Maryland, Baltimore President Bruce Jarrell said during its unveiling in January.
The developers behind 4MLK are still working to lease out its space next year.
Money Move of the Year: X-energy’s mega deal
Maryland reached its highest quarterly venture capital total in over a decade in Q3, driven by a $700 million-plus deal from Rockville-based X-energy. The deal has brought more attention to the state’s energy industry and the company’s future plant plans on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The nuclear energy company plans to use the proceeds from its Series D round to expand and support its portfolio of more than 100 small modular reactors, which are quicker and more efficient to build than traditional full-scale reactors that can take decades.
The round was led by tech-focused trading firm Jane Street, and X-energy counts customers including Amazon and energy company Centrica.
