The hottest startup co-working space in D.C., 1776, has plans to launch a new for-profit incubator-of-sorts early next year to assist young firms looking to grow in highly regulated governmental industries, the Washington Post reported. At the helm will be David Zipper, who has announced he will step down as D.C.'s director of business development and strategy to be managing director of the program, 1776 Ventures.
In this position with 1776 Ventures, Zipper will use his expertise from the public sector to tailor new companies to the needs and requirements of different regulated industries like health, education and energy, and help them with integral players and resources on the other side of the governmental divide. He told the Post he will “help them think about how their services may or may not be relevant to the public sector,” something he's already been doing for companies like NewBrandAnalytics and HelloWallet.
"Right now, what I'm going to be focused on is developing a curriculum and a program for those entrepreneurs...and figuring out the best way to have a program for them that helps them scale revenue as quickly as possible," Zipper told the Washington Business Journal.
The name might suggest that the new arm of the 1776 campus is a platform for companies to attract investment. 1776 Co-founder Donna Harris, however, said it is not. “There’s a lot that’s changing in the venture capital landscape right now,” Harris said. “We’re being really thoughtful about what the right vehicle” for that would be.
As of recent, 1776 seems to be spotlighting these regulated areas of the startup world. Just this week, the campus held the first ever Challenge Cup D.C. regional competition, naming one company in each of the fields of education, health care, energy and smart cities as finalists to compete in a global Challenge Cup. 1776 Ventures is just another push in that direction.
While Zipper as the leader of this venture is very fitting given his background, it's a bit suspect at first glance. As director of business development and strategy, Zipper was an integral part of affording 1776 the $200,000 city grant it received in February to get it's start. However, WaPo reports that at the time that initial deal was struck, neither Zipper nor Harris imagined that he'd be taking on a role at the startup hub eight months later. Allegedly, Harris approached him about the job less than two weeks ago and on Oct. 21, he recused himself from all city matters related to 1776 in a letter to deputy mayor Victor Hoskins.
All sketchiness aside, 1776 Ventures will be a key bridge closing the gap between untapped, brilliant innovators and the obnoxiously closed-off federal government which needs all the help it can get. If any startup hub in the nation is fitting to host a program like 1776 Ventures, it's the District of Columbia.
