Eastern Foundry, the veteran-owned startup hub and accelerator program, is known for its array of co-working spaces and resources for local gov tech startups. But its next move brings the company beyond the D.C. metro area and out of a physical place.
Rosslyn-based Eastern Foundry launched a new virtual education arm for federal contractors in early June, called Federal Foundry, which provides a series of training videos and hands-on courses for federal contractors on how to secure the best contracts and pursue their ideas.
"Federal Foundry is a part of our overarching plan. We talk about ourselves as an incubator and a co-working space quite a bit, but, in my heart, what we’re here to do is transform the government markets," said Geoff Orazem, Eastern Foundry chief strategy officer. "We’re here to make it easier for the government market to engage with the startup communities, and of course startups don’t just exist in metro D.C."
Eastern Foundry members can access a series of online training videos for free with their membership; the online curriculum takes students through lessons on things like how to pitch your idea to the federal government and how to find the right government official to talk to about your services. Non-members can purchase each video individually, and also enjoy a select few free items.
Federal Foundry also offers what they're calling an online cohort, but it's more in line with an online classroom. A group of 10-11 people can enroll in the cohort to go through the curriculum together—allowing them to have an online buddy to depend on to keep them on track with their lessons.
"Federal Foundry draws out of our experience for the same support tools as Eastern Foundry," Orazem said. "Because we’ve worked side-by-side with 130 government contractors over the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve really been able to watch how they grow."
In short, adding an online component just made sense for Eastern Foundry's overall goals, Orazem said. While he recognizes that there's no substitute for in-person learning, Orazem still wants to make sure that everyone that wants to learn about federal contracting can.
"I don’t think that we’ll have the density to open a physical location (in another city) for a while," Orazem said. "By going online we’re able to support any government contractor anywhere in the world."
And, of course, a co-working space and incubator is going to be concerned about how exactly they build an online product. It took about a year-and-a-half of planning, editing and revising to put together Federal Foundry's program.
Instead of presenting the Eastern Foundry idea through a tour of the space and in-person meeting, communications director Dan Bowman said he had to spend a lot of time trying to think like an out-of-town customer. "We’ve been good at taking people on tours," Bowman said. "But I've really had to get into the head of someone who is coming to our site for the first time."
But a new online education arm isn't the end of Eastern Foundry's work for the near future. In addition to further developing the online education software, Orazem said they've got their eyes on a few new co-working spaces in the D.C. metro area and on a possible new federal contracting media arm. Think of it like Bloomberg but just for federal contractors.
"It’s been really wonderful to actually receive phone calls from government innovation teams and the teams that are tasked with coming to task non-government activities," he said. "They’re so receptive to new ideas and what we disseminate."
