For ten years, DCSTW has stood behind tens of thousands of founders building and scaling something out of nothing. That’s the real magic of the week – not just the 5 days of impact but everything that grows out of them in the months and years after. A founder walks in with just an idea and walks out with the credibility, capital, and recognition to actually build it. Someone on the fence about quitting their job finally decides to go all in. A person who wasn’t sure they belonged in a startup finds the room where they do.
Every year, in ways no one can predict, this is where opportunity gets its start.
It’s the kind of moment DC Startup & Tech Week (DCSTW) is built to create. Few entrepreneurs can predict which conversation will change the course of their business: a chance introduction, an unexpected piece of advice, or a relationship formed at the right moment can alter what happens next. Across Maryland and the broader Mid-Atlantic region, those moments are helping transform ideas into ventures and ambition into opportunity.
Before the first customer arrives or the first investment is secured, most entrepreneurs spend their time searching for something less visible: people they can learn from and trust. Among the organisations helping create those connections, DCSTW has positioned itself as the leading connector in the ecosystem supporting founders and startups; a community-driven initiative that has become one of the region’s most recognised gathering places for entrepreneurs, startups, investors, technologists, educators, and innovation leaders. Ask successful entrepreneurs how they overcame their biggest challenges, and few will point to a single breakthrough moment. More often, progress arrives through conversations, introductions, lessons learned, and people willing to share their experience.
Rachel Koretsky, Founder & Director of DC Startup & Tech Week, understands that reality firsthand. “As a young female founder in tech, my goal was to forge connections and immerse myself in a community,” she explains. “Through this process, I discovered the invaluable role of community in entrepreneurship.”
What began as an annual event has grown into something much larger. Today, DCSTW serves as a connector across startups of all stages, investors, disciplines, and communities, creating opportunities for people to learn from one another, exchange experiences, and build relationships that often influence the direction of a business long after the conference has ended.
Connecting Entrepreneurs to Opportunity
Thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and ecosystem partners now cross paths through DC Startup & Tech Week each year. For the DC Startup & Tech Week team, the value of the event has always been found in the relationships people build.
Anyone who has built a business understands how quickly entrepreneurship can become isolating. Building a company means making hard decisions, learning through failure, and leading a team through the ups and downs of a startup. Determination and expertise matter, but access to people who have faced similar situations can make a meaningful difference.
Some participants arrive hoping to meet an investor. Others are searching for practical advice, potential partners, future customers, or introductions that may help unlock the next stage of growth. Along the way, many discover something they were not actively seeking: a community of people navigating similar experiences.
More than 300 sessions and hundreds of speakers annually provide access to hard-earned lessons on fundraising, growth, emerging technologies, market expansion, sustainability, and the realities of scaling a venture. For entrepreneurs facing unfamiliar decisions, learning directly from those who have travelled the path before them can shorten the distance between concept and execution.
Learning rarely stops when a session ends. Conversations continue in hallways, over coffee, during networking events, and through relationships that develop months or even years later. The most valuable takeaway is not always found on a stage, sometimes it emerges through an unexpected introduction or a conversation that continues long after the conference has concluded.
Built by a Team
The scale DCSTW has reached did not happen through a single founder’s effort alone. DCSTW is only possible through our dedicated team who pour their hearts into this week or as we call it “a labor of love”.
Eleven years ago, Chida Sadayappan, Co-founder of DC Startup Week, had the idea to bring the region’s startup and developer communities together for a single week, an idea shaped by his close work with DMV’s developer community. At the same time, Rachel Koretsky was building Upace as a solo female founder in tech, searching for the community and knowledge that she needed to grow. They came together to start DC Startup Week (now DC Startup & Tech week) where in that first year engaged over 1,000 entrepreneurs and over 100 events!
Over the years, the team grew with people who joined the mission to create impact for entrepreneurs. To highlight a few of our leaders who created so much impact: Seema Alexander, serving as speaker to track lead to head of growth, Co-Chair & AI and Business Track Lead across seven years; her leadership and dedication to founders supported the week to reach new heights. Cory Lawrence served as Co-Organizer and Director of Marketing, who built the organisation’s marketing and social engagement from scratch. Stephanie Ortiz, known around the team as “our glue”, served as Head of Operations, building the automations and processes that let DCSTW put on a week at scale. There are no words that fully capture the impact each of them has had on the organisation and its growth over the years.
Now, we have grown our dedicated team including Darius Clair, Director of Programs & Community, joined the team as an early stage track lead and partner and now, today, he works full-time building out the DCSTW community. Airen Washington joined the team three years ago and jumped right in, she now leads marketing efforts and engaging the community beyond the week long conference as our Communications Director.
To the dedicated team working tirelessly behind the scenes, the track leads, event coordinators, marketing team, and volunteers, this week is not possible without them.
The Power of Community
Behind almost every successful venture stands a network of supporters, mentors, collaborators, advisors, customers, investors, and peers who help navigate the inevitable highs and lows of building something new.
That understanding shapes how DCSTW approaches community-building. Rather than focusing solely on presentations and educational programming, the event places significant emphasis on creating opportunities for meaningful interaction.
Experience has shown that information alone rarely changes a business. People help turn information into action. Many entrepreneurs arrive looking for answers to immediate challenges: seeking investment, exploring hiring strategies, looking for product-development guidance, or trying to solve operational challenges. Yet some of the most important outcomes emerge unexpectedly. A conversation after a panel discussion may become a mentorship relationship.
Sometimes a chance meeting opens the door to an entirely new opportunity. Founders are able to find the investors they need to close their round of funding. Founders who are unsure of their next step forward, find the footing they need to keep going.
Those moments of serendipity cannot be planned, but environments can be designed to make them more likely. Over time, the cumulative effect of these interactions strengthens not only individual ventures but the broader innovation community as well.
A Community Shaped by Diverse Perspectives
DC Startup & Tech Week focuses to support startups and founders of all stages across industries. We find this to be one of the most important parts of the week to bring people together who may not get into the same room otherwise.
Engineers, healthcare innovators, researchers, first-time entrepreneurs, investors, public-sector leaders, and experienced business builders often find themselves in the same room at DC Startup & Tech Week. Conversations move easily between industries, disciplines, and perspectives.
A healthcare entrepreneur approaching patient-care challenges may view a problem very differently from a cybersecurity specialist or software developer. Bringing those viewpoints together often creates possibilities for ideas, partnerships, and solutions that might never emerge within a single sector.
Conversations taking place throughout the event rarely stay confined to a single discipline. Researchers exchange ideas with entrepreneurs. Investors hear directly from first-time business builders. Industry specialists encounter perspectives they may never have considered within their own sectors.
An entrepreneur launching a venture from university research may find themselves learning alongside a seasoned founder preparing for acquisition. An investor may encounter ideas they would never have discovered through traditional channels. Researchers gain exposure to commercial pathways, while innovators from different industries exchange perspectives that spark entirely new possibilities. Bringing those perspectives into the same room often becomes the starting point for partnerships, investments, and collaborations.
Strengthening a Regional Innovation Ecosystem
The region’s innovation economy is often described through institutions, investment figures, and research output. Yet the most important connections usually happen at a much smaller scale. A researcher shares an idea with an entrepreneur. An investor spots potential in a founder’s vision. A conversation reveals a partnership that neither side had anticipated. Universities, research institutions, government agencies, and private-sector organisations all play important roles, but people remain at the center of the process.
That pull now extends well beyond the region. Investors arriving from other states and entrepreneurs travelling in from overseas have become increasingly familiar faces at DCSTW.
“Our mission is to build the DMV into a globally renowned innovation tech hub known for its impact and the startups that call it home. Every year, we’re seeing more founders travel here specifically to meet the people building this ecosystem and to plant their own roots in it. Last year alone, we welcomed attendees from 22 countries and 27 cities across the United States, all drawn by the same pull: this is where the next chapter of their company gets written.” — Rachel Koretsky, Founder & Director DC Startup & Tech Week
What began as a regional gathering now attracts participants from far beyond the Mid-Atlantic. Growing interest from outside the region reflects a broader shift in perception: increasingly, innovators view the DC, Maryland and Virginia area as a place where research, entrepreneurship, investment, and collaboration intersect in meaningful ways. By encouraging interaction across sectors and geographies, DCSTW helps create pathways that extend beyond individual organisations and industries; where entrepreneurs gain access to resources, investors gain visibility into emerging opportunities, and researchers discover routes to commercialisation.
Looking Beyond the Conference
Hosting a conference was never intended to be the end goal. The organisers often speak less about growing an event and more about expanding the opportunities available to the people who participate in it.
Entrepreneurs benefit most when support can be found in more than one place. New technologies, changing markets, and shifting economic conditions continue reshaping the challenges business builders face. Access to trusted communities helps innovators adapt, learn, and move forward with greater confidence.
As innovation evolves, so too does the need for spaces where people can exchange ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another. The community Rachel was searching for when she began her own entrepreneurial journey has since become something she helps create for others and it’s why DCSTW sees itself not just as an annual event, but as the leading organization behind the region’s ecosystem for founders and startups, year-round.
Building the Future Through Connection
The DC Startup & Tech Week team has watched seemingly ordinary introductions change the course of an entrepreneur’s journey. A conversation opens a door that did not previously exist. A new relationship creates an unexpected opportunity. Momentum begins to build from there.
No single conversation changes an ecosystem overnight
Yet thousands of conversations, introductions, and shared lessons can gradually reshape what becomes possible. Every entrepreneur arrives carrying different experiences, ambitions, and questions about what comes next. Some are building their first venture. Others are scaling established businesses. All are looking for ways to move forward.
Across Maryland and the broader Mid-Atlantic region, those moments happen every day. Most never make headlines. Many begin with nothing more than two people meeting for the first time. Years later, they may look back and realise the future of a business began with a conversation that, at the time, seemed entirely ordinary that happened at DC Startup & Tech Week.
