DC Startup Week

Growth is critical to the future of your business, but doing so strategically and consistently can be one of the greatest challenges that startup founders face. In this workshop, we’ll chat about three critical growth areas: Retention, Viral Growth and Paid Growth. We’ll analyze successful strategies and share tangible, data-driven tools that you can immediately put to use to grow your business.

We hear a lot about “cultural sensitivity”, but what does that really mean? This real-talk panel features some of DC’s leading experts in Diversity & Inclusion to share their insights on how you can increase your cultural awareness at work and in your community. Panelists include: Elizabeth Lindsey, MPAExecutive Director, Byte Back, Inc. Erin Horne McKinneyCEO & Co-founder, KissIntelBlack Female Founders (#BFF)Chris WinkFounder, Technical.lyMatt LozadaAccount Manager and Mentor, WeddingWire Joseph TigheDirector of People and Culture, The Yard: Space to Work Janice OmadekeCEO and Founder, The Mentor Method.

Tue, September 12

 

2:00pm – 3:30pm

BizDevOps: A Business-First Approach to DevOps

DevOps is a cultural shift aimed to streamline inter-group communication and improve operational efficiency for development and operations groups. Over time, inclusion of other IT groups under the DevOps umbrella became the norm for a lot of organizations. But even with broadening the boundaries of the definition, the DevOps conversations has been largely devoid of talk about business units’ place at the table. One of the more common mistakes companies can make while going through the DevOps transformation is to draw a line for cross department inclusion at IT. If that occurs – a bigger, more inclusive, silo within the company is created, operating in an informational vacuum, often causing operational efficiencies and goal misalignment.The goal for any tech-centric group is not to build and/or architect the best technology, but rather to effectively support business. Yet, many technical groups are either not privy, or don’t bother to understanding the business goals and overarching effects of the technical decisions made. This talk draws from decades of my own experience working on both sides of the fence, and covers key areas and feedback points in every DevOps process fit for inclusion of business units in order to align technology decision and business goals. Some of the topics covered will include: – inclusion business units in existing agile processes – benefits of cross-departmental monitoring – business-first approach to technology decisions

4pm – 5pm

Do you sometimes feel like you’re walking on eggshells when it comes to making business decisions? The two top personality traits of entrepreneurs are intuition and perception. We all have them, but don’t always practice them because we’re often so caught up in our daily grind and end up operating on autopilot. Learn how to maximize your intuitive power so that you’re better equipped to make conscious, optimized decisions for yourself, your business, your team and your clients

This workshop is geared toward the gig economy from fiverr freelancers, to independent contractors, LYFT drivers, and all other doers across America that fall in between. We will be focusing on taking your side hustle from part time to full time and the pros and cons of incorporating your side hustle as a business. Hear from experts liked lawyers, co-op Development consultants, and business coaches from the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development.

Let’s Tackle Tech Inclusion!

Let’s face it, the news lately has been a bit grim on the tech front. From Uber, GitHub, and even Google, tech inclusion is all over the news. It’s about time we stopped talking about tech inclusion and do something about it. After years of creating more inclusive and diverse communities, Wetogethr has developed an immersive, hands-on workshop that lays out several steps for improving inclusion within organizations and startups. In our workshop, we will tackle: -How job descriptions determine the “types” of candidates who apply – Why your company team page says way more than you think – How to organically build pipelines to your organization to attract the best and the brightest talent – How to retain and develop diverse talent in your organization This is going to be the most ‘realest’ workshop you can take part in.

8am – 10am

There is an obvious lack of diversity in the startup ecosystem. If you think of all the major unicorns, very few of them have been founded by female entrepreneurs. The question we must continue to ask is why. Lucey Fund is opening up a panel discussion with local investors and local startup community organizers in DC to shine a light on the issue and discuss possible solutions for the future. Come along and join the discussion! Event Schedule: 8:00AM — 8:30AM Gathering & Chit chat 8:30 AM — 9:30AM Panel Discussion Q&A 9:30 AM — 10:00 AM Networking

12:00pm – 1:30pm

The Most Important GrowthHack: Why and How Mission-focused Businesses Rise to the Top

Leah Nurik, CEO of Gabriel Marketing Group, one of the tech industry’s fastest growing marketing/PR agencies, will speak on how some of the world’s most innovative and mission-focused tech companies are unleashing the power of digital marketing and PR to drive growth and rise to the top. Leah will also share noteworthy tricks for building out your team’s knowledge base to put your brand on the hyper growth track.