It's clear from the latest venture capital numbers that, despite sequestration and bumps in the economy, Maryland and Virginia are filling the early stage funding gap with checks to tech startups. We talked to some they've invested in recently. After hearing about the money, we made them pay for lunch, obviously. (We're kidding.)
Ben Hastings and Jon Malpass (the two on the left) knew something was broken in how companies handle employee engagement and performance. So last year they created an enterprise platform that unites core HR and performance data to track achievement and feedback. Employees can input accomplishments, and it organizes the review process for managers. The Arlington, Va., startup has customers in several industries, including a number of growing DC tech firms. The company received an undisclosed amount from Virginia's CIT GAP fund for product enhancements and is poised for rapid growth in '14.
An Estuary co-founder Shelly Blake-Plock, on the right with co-founders Margaret Roth and Rose Burt, says the startup will use recent Maryland TEDCO money to build out its flagship product, Sanderling. The mobile social platform for professional development has been used at educator conferences, and there are plans to integrate it into 15 professional development conferences, including some in London and Saigon, through April. The Baltimore startup, launched last April, also provides the platform that runs an online professional development program in education entrepreneurship for the Education Industry Association. Shelly says the company was launched because of the lack of technologies that help train and prepare teachers to use technology in the classroom.
Lots of technology has changed the way buildings are constructed. But one thing that's lagged is how site surveys are done--think pen, pad, and a smartphone camera. So Chris Dail and Ryan Sears launched SurveySnap a year ago and developed a site survey platform for construction projects that creates PDFs and web reports. The iPad app, released last November, can also bring in geodata and directional data. It can all be shared with coworkers and stakeholders. The four-person company raised money from Maryland's TEDCO fund and has plans to increase its user base.
