As part of the city-specific kickoff party – we will be featuring a healthy dose of content for your region over the coming weeks.
Today’s edition brings us to Tech Cocktail’s East Coast home, Washington, D.C.
I reached out to a handful of those fully entrenched in the DC startup scene to nominate a startup who was destined to breakout. Whether that be from early stage to mid-stage, mid-stage to late-stage, the emphasis was on progress. This list is by no means all inclusive. Feel free to share your thoughts if we missed anyone in the comments…
Previous1 / 10Next
tab-unique-0tab-unique-1tab-unique-2tab-unique-3tab-unique-4tab-unique-5tab-unique-6tab-unique-7tab-unique-8tab-unique-9
Why this startup will breakout: “Unique product/market fit, a rock solid UX, and an amazing team. It could be easily argued thatTrackMaven is already ‘breaking out’ but I think 2014 will be a massive year for them. Under the leadership of Allen Gannett, they launched quietly in 2013 (on purpose) and have been heads-down growing a strong customer base, and continuing to build on the product. If you haven’t heard about them yet, you will soon.”
Biggest obstacle: “Potential competition from big players — but I think they’ve got a nice head start and some solid traction. That, and a weird obsession with corgis that might distract them from getting work done.”
– DJ Saul, CMO at iStrategyLabs
Why this startup will breakout: “Because they are already competing for business against much bigger players with deeper pockets and they've only just started. I'd expect them to land clients and really build revenue in the next 12-18 months.”
Biggest obstacle: “Just a guess, but I'd say talent. I think capitalization is always a challenge, but I'd bet that they have strong enough internal numbers to pull together another round of funding if they deemed it necessary. But talent? In this area? It is hard for almost everybody.”
– David Sandrowitz, VP, Client Services at Optoro
Why this startup will breakout: “Brazen has a talented team with a healthy mix of young aggressive and seasoned, exited entrepreneurs. Their sales and revenue numbers are higher than just about any startup in the DC Tech region and they are quietly building a large and loyal customer base for their live online event platform. Customers include Fortune 500 companies as well as Colleges and Universities. Some of the region's smartest angel money is backing Brazen.”
Biggest obstacle: “Brazen is planning a large Series B raise in 2014. Series As and Bs are tougher than ever to raise and fund raising is always a distraction from the day-to-day job of building a business.”
– Glen Hellman, Chief Entrepreneureator at Driven Forward
Why this startup will breakout: “Reinventing how we do conference call has been a long-time coming and the focus on the URL over the dial-in and pin is small example of a huge leap forward. They are doing everything right in a space that has traditionally been doing everything wrong. It's also backed by a strong leadership team with a tremendously successful track record. The world of business is going more and more remote, between remote offices and remote workers … however, the need for collaboration has never been greater and voice is still one of the best ways to keep that collaboration personal when an email thread isn't efficient and management tool isn't appropriate.”
Biggest obstacle: “The ‘telephone” is quickly becoming synonymous with archaic communication tools and the world is constantly on the lookout for anything and everything beyond the traditional … it'll be difficult to convince those looking for an excuse to leave the telephone behind to get behind a conference calling service provider, despite it's advanced technology and diverse communication system. Reinventing the old can be problematic in an industry devoted to replacing the old.”
– Martin Ringlein, cofounder at nvite
Why this startup will breakout: “Silica Labs, a start-up that builds revolutionary software for Google Glass and other wearable technology, spent 2013 building their team and their product offerings while Google Glass found its way into the hands of more and more people. As Google Glass and other wearables become more common in 2014 Silica labs is poised to be the go-to company in the region for companies wanting to extend their products or services to wearable devices. Wearable tech is hot and so is Silica Labs.”
Biggest obstacle: “The wearable market, especially Google Glass, is still in a nascent stage and needs to build up its adoption and Silica Labs can't be successful until Google Glass or other wearables are successful.”
– Michael Chasen, founder and CEO at SocialRadar
Why this startup will breakout: “ID.me has a great team lead by Blake Hall and they additional funding (seed and grant) so they have the cash to work towards reaching the next level.”
Biggest obstacle: “I think that like most startups ID.me will be challenged with the growing competition for Series A funding. This ‘Series A' crunch has been well documented. The number of seed funding startups has grown exponentially, and will continue to grow in 2014. This makes for increasingly fierce competition for a fixed number of Series A deals.”
– Danny Boice, founder and CTO at Speek
Why this startup will breakout: “Already dominating local specialty diet market in DC Received funding to roll-out in new markets to prove the model.”
Biggest obstacle: “Will the systems scale?”
– Glen Hellman, Chief Entrepreneureator at Driven Forward
Why this startup will breakout: “Like Snapchat, SnapDash is capitalizing on the popularity of having fun with the camera on your phone. Marketed as the “cure to boring photos” the SnapDash app officially launched in late 2013 – capturing your poses to its random and hilarious prompts. With unique marketing through Instagram and popularity in the all-important young teen market, I expect to see downloads increase rapidly in 2014.”
Biggest obstacle: “There are many camera apps vying for attention, so they will need to continue to evolve their marketing practices to break out.”
– Michael Chasen, founder and CEO at SocialRadar
Why this startup will breakout: “Well funded, amazingly talented team and they are aggressively building out a sales operation. Once they get that going, I don't think there is much stopping them from being an absolute monster of an enterprise tech company.”
Biggest obstacle: “Well, sales talent will matter. I also think that they've always had higher technical risk than probably any other startup in the region given the complexity of the solution they have been working on. They have been building “deeper” tech, a product that has high value at the core of many operations, but that could run into more difficulties as they put it in customer hands. Table stakes in their market are high and their list of prospects might be on the shorter side, but if they crack it…well, you get the idea.”
– David Sandrowitz, VP, Client Services at Optoro
Why this startup will breakout: “High technical barrier to entry founded by senior R&D exec from the 1000 pound gorilla, Micros. The hospitality point of sale market is ripe for disruption. Product is built.”
Biggest obstacle: “Building a national sales and support footprint.”
– Glen Hellman, Chief Entrepreneureator at Driven Forward
