Why You Should Launch a Startup in Washington DC

We've graduated over 100 companies in the DC area, and the vast majority of those are still in business. A large number of them have multiple employees. You know, we don't have a billion-dollar company yet that we put through FI. I think that would be just absolutely stellar and amazing and wonderful, but we do have a number of people who have taken what they learned at FI and gone and helped build multi-hundred-million-dollar companies. But I'd love to be able to say, you know, we've got a critical mass. So let's just say that with the next 5 years, we graduate another few hundred companies. You know, I'd like to have 10, 20, 30% of those that are in the multi-million-dollar revenue range and names that people on the street have heard of and are buying their products or buying their services. I think people sometimes trivialize DC because, oh, it's a government town. You can make a lot, you can build a lot of really good businesses selling to the government. You can make a lot of really good businesses selling to government contractors who sell to the government. And I think we have to quit torturing ourselves around here about, you know, is it lifestyle or not? Is it fundable or not? Is it going to be a $500 million company or is it going to be a $5 million company? Oh, is it to the government? Oh, that's not as good. Just lay off. We have some of the best engineers in the world. We have the best educated workforce in the entire country in the DC metro area. And so, you know, we have some critical mass and capabilities here. We just have to quit trying to compete and say, well, we wish we were like so-and-so or that region of the country. Who cares? Let's just build some success here that makes You know, makes it good for the local economy and hopefully for the national economy, and it potentially has produced a few that have international impact as well.