Northern Virginia has plenty of examples of home-grown tech startups, but Arlington is hungry for more and has created a competition to tempt young tech startups from elsewhere to move in. Arlington Economic Development has launched a new contest called Startup Arlington to lure a young startup with a lot of potential to the area with three free months of office and residential space and a bunch of helpful services from local groups to help it settle and start to grow.
"We want to show that Arlington is really tech startup friendly," said Darren Stauffer, a business development manager at AED working on the Startup Arlington program. "It's not just about government contracting here."
The startup team that wins will get three months of space at one of the Carr Workplace co-working spaces while staying at Residence Inn. The contest launched last week and has already gotten a couple of dozen applicants, Stauffer said, despite being limited to small teams of no more than four. Companies already based in the greater D.C. area aren't allowed to compete, but startups from further south in Virginia, along with others from North Carolina, Texas and other parts of the country have all sent in applications. The startup applicants have included non-profits, healthcare IT, cybersecurity and other industries, Stauffer said.
"There's some interest in not just the space but some of the introductions we are offering," Stauffer said. "If they are a transportation company they can meet our transportation group, or our environmental services group if that's the area they are in. We want to actively engage these companies and work with them."
Things will happen fast once applications close on Oct. 17. Stauffer said the goal is to have the panel of judges make their decision by Oct. 21, with discussion with the winning company coming after that to work out the details of when they will move to the area.
"We picked out a panel of five judges," Stauffer said. "It's a mix of AED and venture capital and startup experts."
AED isn't the only group trying to boost the tech scene in Virginia. Governor Terry McAuliffe has made a point of encouraging tech companies in the area, coming to events like the opening of Cvent's new office and the announcement of 1776 acquiring Disruption Corporation to make that point. The Northern Virginia Technology Council also runs events and programs to boost the area's tech profile. AED sees the Startup Arlington competition as a way to bring in new successful tech startups and generally make Arlington a bigger part of the startup world map, Stauffer said, especially with younger founders willing to take the risk that moving to a city carries.
"We figure a lot of folks that are going to apply to this are millennials," Stauffer said. "They can then really get the word out about Arlington. They'll come here and succeed because of what this area offers. We're just making that possible."
