This article was originally written by Joseph Guinto. The full article can be found on The Washingtonian website, here.
Washington’s tech industry hasn’t been immune to the pandemic. Companies such as the IT giant DXC and the event-organizing platform Cvent cut jobs amid the slowdown. But some, including the hot cloud-computing company Appian, committed to hundreds of new hires.
Indeed, plenty of other good business news came from Washingtonian’s Tech Titans during the past year. Our 2021 winners—who were selected through both reporting and an informal process of nominations from their peers—managed to start up new and innovative companies, close on huge funding rounds, ink massive contracts, and announce initial public offerings.
Some of this year’s Tech Titans expanded their companies not only in spite of the pandemic but because of it. Michael Chasen, founder of the “edtech” firm Blackboard, leveraged the demand for at-home education to launch Class, a company that creates virtual classrooms using Zoom. Class has already raised more than $40 million. Blake Hall, founder of ID.me, which offers digital identity-verification tools, saw a surge in demand from state unemployment agencies that suddenly had to process millions of applicants.
Other companies executed nimble pivots. Tobin Moore and Adam Vitarello, founders of Optoro—which offers technology to help retailers process, manage, and resell returned and overstock inventory—created a nationwide contactless-return network in 2020. Shy Pahlevani, founder of Hungry, an Uber-like app that connects independent chefs with the corporate catering industry, retooled to connect chefs directly to individuals.
Venture capitalists had a big year, raising plenty of cash while the economy teetered. The government has been buzzing, too: The Biden administration brought in new officials to serve in influential cybersecurity roles. Some will be charged with safeguarding against another SolarWinds-style attack.
Those are just a few of the more than 170 people who make up the 2021 class of Tech Titans—a group of power players, innovators, networkers, lobbyists, and government officials who proved resilient in these uncertain times.
The Networkers, Nonprofits, and Incubators
Melissa Bradley
Managing partner, 1863 Ventures, and professor, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business
Bradley’s venture fund is wants to create $100 billion in new wealth for minority entrepreneurs by helping them found, fund, and expand their companies.
Harry Glazer
Founder and CEO, Sprockit
Glazer’s “innovation marketplace” brings together more than two dozen companies looking to solve corporate challenges using startups. Glazer also founded Mindshare, a yearlong training program that fosters collaboration between startups.
Dawn Myers
Regional director, Vinetta Project
Myers, a Howard law-school graduate, took over as director of the Vinetta Project’s Washington chapter in January 2020. Vinetta organizes forums and other events that connect investors with female-led tech companies. Myers also runs her own company, the Most, which makes tools for styling textured hair.
Deborah Page
Managing principal, Technology Practice leader, McCormick Group; membership programs co-chair, International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals
At Arlington’s McCormick Group, Page, an executive recruiter, helps clients find top tech talent. Meanwhile, she works to expand the tech talent pool with her work at the New York–based nonprofit Consortium, which aims to increase the number of minority students pursuing cybersecurity careers. Members—whom Page recruits—offer leadership training, mentoring, scholarships, and career placement.
Jules Polonetsky
CEO, Future of Privacy Forum
In 2020, this group expanded in-ternationally and started to serve as an incubator to fledg-ling groups pushing for ethical handling of personal and professional data. Polonetsky is a former AOL chief privacy officer and a onetime consumer-affairs commissioner for New York City.
Krista Smith
Emerging Growth Company Practice leader for Greater Washington, Deloitte
In February, Smith was named to this role, which aims to help entrepreneurial companies—a lot of them tech firms—as they expand. It’ll be familiar ground: Smith has spent many years working with Deloitte’s Greater Washington Technology Venture Center and has served with the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association and Northern Virginia Technology Council.
Julia Spicer
Executive director, Mid-Atlantic Venture Association
The Surge, MAVA’s main annual event, which puts early-stage companies in front of investors, had to operate digitally in February. Still, Spicer, who has run the organization since 2002, was able to draw a number of other Tech Titans to give presentations.
Jennifer Taylor
President and CEO, Northern Virginia Technology Council
Taylor took over in Sep-tember from Bobbie Kil-berg, who spent 22 years leading this trade group, which has nearly 500 local members. Taylor is a Washington-area native who previously was a vice president at the Consumer Technology Association.
Tien Wong
Chairman and CEO, Opus8; founder, Connectpreneur
Even in a pandemic, Wong’s Connectpreneur Forum, which boasts 25,000 members, pulled off monthly pitch-and-networking meetings—virtually—connecting company founders and investors who may not have met otherwise.
Deborah Page, Managing Principal of our tech practice, can be reached at (703) 312-6749 or dpage@tmg-dc.com for consultations concerning recruiting and talent acquisitions in the technology and government contracting industries.
