Startup Monday

An Arlington-based startup looks to diagnose and treat flaws in diabetes care

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

When Richard Gurley surveyed the healthcare field for people with diabetes, he noticed several flaws.

Whether they saw primary care physicians and specialists or used virtual platforms, diabetics often lacked support between visits, particularly for nutritional education and behavioral health.

Insurance, meanwhile, rewarded offices for less-effective care.

“The traditional way of treating type 2 diabetes in this country is just not working for the majority of people living with it,” Gurley said in a recent press release, announcing a new partnership with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

He founded Ryse Health in 2020 to change that.

“We started with a blank slate and designed what we believe is the most efficient, effective model for serving people living with type 2 diabetes, helping them manage their care in a way that’s tailored to them,” his statement continued.

Ryse Health pairs patients with an endocrinologist, a diabetes care specialist, a health coach and a behavioral health specialist. Via chat, email, video and in-person visits, they provide regular support, tips for managing diabetes and coaching, while connecting patients with diabetic peers.

These encounters make for efficient and effective visits, and result in fewer visits over time as patients get healthier, according to the company. Ryse also hires additional staff when demand surges, so that patients wait a maximum of two weeks for an appointment. It takes most major insurance.

The company opened its doors in the summer of 2021 and today employs 18 team members and serves more than 500 patients across its offices in Arlington and Baltimore, he tells ARLnow.

Half of Ryse’s 18-person team reports to the Arlington office, but only for half the week, as most of the care it provides is virtual. Providers work from home two days a week.

Ryse Health CEO Richard Gurley speaks at an event hosted by the incubation program run by the investment arm of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (courtesy photo)

Gurley says his company aims to combine the best of primary care, specialty and virtual-only providers, while avoiding their shortcomings.

“Though there are some amazing examples of care in all three of these categories, by and large, they don’t serve people living with chronic disease well,” he said.

He credited primary-care practices for providing support between office visits but said they tend to pass off people with more complex medications or support needs to endocrinologists.

While endocrinologists handle these patients and offer diet education, they rarely provide the between-visit support or address psychological barriers, he said.

Both options have scheduling issues, Gurley says, noting patients wait an average of four months to see an endocrinologist and they see their provider every three to six months. That makes virtual, app-based options attractive but insurance largely does not cover them.

He attributed poor patient outcomes to these issues securing appointments and receiving effective support as well as the “perverse incentives” insurance creates.

For instance, companies will pay offices and hospitals the same for effective visits and those where little progress is made. Also, providers may not offer critical support to patients, such as identifying barriers to getting lab work done and devising a plan to overcome them.

“Most practices don’t have a way to get paid for that work, so they don’t do it,” he said.

As part of the new partnership — a first for Ryse — CareFirst will pair D.C.-area members who have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes with Ryse providers. They will provide in-person and virtual visits through which patients will come to control their hemoglobin and blood pressure levels.

Ryse and CareFirst began conversations in 2021. In 2022, Ryse joined its incubation program run by the investment arm of CareFirst.

“We’re grateful that CareFirst has chosen to partner with us on our shared mission, and we’re excited to see the partnership grow in the coming years,” Gurley said.

He foreshadowed more partnerships and announcements in the next six months as well as expansion plans within and beyond the mid-Atlantic.

The company already has investor interest and has raised $10 million in the last 18 months.

Gurley says the money is being invested in “our team and technology, continuing to refine our model to be the most effective, efficient model for improving cardiometabolic health.”

How two startup founders overcame setbacks with help from Arlington’s business network

By James Jarvis

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

Fear nearly prevented Scott Love from starting his data analytics firm, Arlington-based Lovelytics.

“I always wanted to start a company… There was always an excuse not to do it, like, ‘Oh, I don’t have enough money. I don’t know how to do that,” he shared during a panel hosted by Rosslyn-based tech accelerator Unstuck Labs in August.

While Love admitted these were real challenges, he said navigating them became easier after tapping into Arlington’s business community.

“From the time I was one person… Arlington made me feel like I was going to be a 6,000-person company,” he said.

Anything Love needed, whether it was advice or introductions to investors, he said people made themselves available to help.

Natalia Micheletti, who co-founded Pryze, an app that encourages employees to minimize phone use at work, agrees.

“It just felt like we had a million opportunities,” Micheletti, the CEO of the Arlington-based startup, said during the panel.

Despite starting companies in different fields, both founders faced similar obstacles, including fundraising and managing employees effectively. They said talking through their struggles with startup founders who had been there before helped them persevere.

Unstuck Labs CEO Wa’il Ashshowwaf (left) speaks to local startup founders Natalia Micheletti and Scott Love during a panel discussion in Rosslyn (staff photo by James Jarvis)

For instance, Love and Micheletti noted securing investors was a “draining” process. Micheletti said she heard “No” from 100 people before finally getting that “Yes.”

“And being able to take feedback from all these people who are in the industry, or you think no more than you, without losing your essence, without losing, like what’s making you special and what made you like be crazy in the first place to start this one thing… is hard,” she said.

But Micheletti said she and co-founder Tim Hylton were able to push through that wall with support from their peers in the start world and Unstuck Labs, which gives founders like Micheletti mentorship, office space and investment.

“I think what’s keeping us here, other than Unstuck Labs… I think it is the roots that we’re planning in the community as well,” she said.

Love said pitching to investors was hard work but another challenged he faced, as his company grew, was refining his leadership skills.

“I think one of the weirdest things for me when I started, it was like, you change your title, and all of a sudden people care a little bit more about what you say and trust you… It’s a completely uncomfortable position,” he said.

Love, who oversees a team of 82, said talking with other Arlington founders made him realize the difference between delegating and leading.

“And I thought I was delegating. But in reality, I was just having them do all the work and come back to me and ask for approval. And that gets me nowhere,” Love said.

Instead, Love said he needed to learn to step back and trust his employees to handle tasks independently.

The mentorship the two founders received from Arlington’s business community appears to be paying off.

Pryze hired its third employee and plans to expand its services after raising nearly $1 million in venture capital, Micheletti previously told ARLnow.

Meanwhile, venture capital firms Databricks Venture and Interlock Equity made “strategic investments” in Lovelytics this June. These investments, for undisclosed amounts, will help the company deepen its expertise healthcare, media, financial services, retail, and manufacturing, Love said in a blog post.

“This investment will accelerate the growth of Lovelytics’ team and expand its technical offerings related to enterprise data environment creation, AI and [language learning models], business intelligence, data science, and cloud infrastructure,” a press release said.

Arlington startup raises nearly $1 million with help of local tech accelerator

By James Jarvis

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

Arlington-based Pryze is expanding after raising nearly $1 million in venture capital.

The startup is focused on boosting productivity and retention for “deskless” workers through material incentives. Co-founders Natalia Micheletti and Tim Hylton said the funding success was only possible with the mentorship and guidance they received from a local tech accelerator, Unstuck Labs.

One night in 2017, while working as a store manager for the retail chain Great American Cookies, Micheletti watched through the security camera as smoke began to billow from one of the seven cookie store’s ovens.

Micheletti quickly called the store to alert a distracted employee, who was engrossed in his phone. By the time he answered, it was already too late: two dozen cookies had burned to a crisp.

Realizing the financial consequences of such mishaps, store owner Tim Hylton quickly did the math with Micheletti. He found that if each of his seven stores lost a single tray of 24 cookies per week — each cookie costing $1.79 — the annual hit to the company could exceed $180,000.

With this realization — and the smell of burnt cookies still lingering — Micheletti started working to find a solution.

Micheletti presented Hylton with a simple napkin sketch outlining a concept for an app designed to keep tabs on employee phone usage during work hours. The app aims to incentivize hourly workers to focus on their tasks by offering points that could be redeemed for prizes ranging from gift cards to airline tickets and gaming consoles.

“And that’s where she started to create the idea of Pryze,” Hylton said. “It kind of moved from just this drawing that she created on a napkin to, ‘Well, let’s see if we could take some of the things that you’ve talked about and some of the things that you started to put down and see if they actually really work.’”

Excited about the idea, Hylton and Micheletti began surveying local business owners around Northern Virginia. Micheletti says most reported that phone usage negatively impacted their businesses and expressed a willingness to invest in a solution if one were available.

Co-founders Natalia Micheletti and Tim Hylton of the Pryze app at the Unstuck Labs office in Rosslyn (staff photo by James Jarvis)

In 2018, Hylton sold his cookie business so that he and Micheletti could turn their full attention toward making Micheletti’s napkin doodle a reality. After sinking about $90,000 of their own money into website development and consulting that first year, however, Micheletti and Hylton started to get discouraged.

“Coming from the restaurant world was so different coming into the tech world. I was just like, ‘How do people do this? If you’re not a millionaire… how do you even launch? How do you learn everything you need to learn quickly,” Micheletti said.

After doing some research, Micheletti came across a tech accelerator program based in Arlington called Unstuck Labs.

Micheletti said Unstuck had “a good track record” so they decided to give it a shot.

“So, the first meeting we went to… we had this napkin with this idea scribbled on it, and we’re like, ‘This is it. We sell cookies. How can we be millionaires,” Micheletti said, recalling a conversation with Untuck’s co-founder and CEO, Wa’il Ashshowwaf.

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An Arlington-based startup accelerator has moved into new digs in Rosslyn, with room to grow

By James Jarvis

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

An Arlington-based company that helps startup founders turn their ideas into viable ventures has a new permanent home in Rosslyn.

Founded in 2017, Unstuck Labs is a small venture capital and consultancy firm that provides founders of small tech startups with mentorship, office space and, sometimes, investment.

Until recently, Unstuck operated from various co-working spaces across Arlington. With the help of Arlington Economic Development, the Rosslyn Business Improvement District and the county’s Innovation Fund grant, Unstuck moved to an office in Rosslyn, where Co-founder and CEO Wa’il Ashshowwaf says he hopes to add more programming.

Ashshowwaf says Unstuck is not a typical accelerator program.

Whereas most accelerator programs provide founders with a “curriculum” on how to set up their company, Ashshowwaf says Unstuck treats the program more like an apprenticeship.

“Think about sitting in a classroom versus doing an apprenticeship. Like someone can tell you, ‘This is how you fix a car,’ but our apprenticeship is going to be like, ‘Okay, let’s open the hood and fix it,’” he told ARLnow.

The program lasts 12 weeks, during which Ashshowwaf says the company assists founders in everything from designing a logo to pitching to potential investors — including Unstuck.

Although Unstuck does not guarantee it will invest in participating startups, Ashshowwaf noted that “86% of the founders got some kind of seed funding… within three months of the program.”

“The goal is you come in on day one, and no one really cares about you. You have your idea. By week 12, people care about you. You have an idea. You have a customer. You have revenue, and you’re invested in,” he said.

Unstuck Labs Co-founder and CEO Wa’il Ashshowwaf waves to attendees following a ribbon-cutting event in Rosslyn this September (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Even if the product “doesn’t work,” Ashshowwaf says it is not the end of the world. For Unstuck, a failed product launch is less a setback and more a learning opportunity that can lead to a more successful venture down the line.

“If the idea doesn’t work, that’s not a failure because in 12 weeks, you would learn, ‘Okay, that didn’t work.’ You didn’t spend two years of your life doing that. And then you can move on to the next thing,” Ashshowwaf said.

In addition to its accelerator program, Unstuck offers free workshops, such as “Startup Patent Survival Skills, and weekly meetups where entrepreneurs can discuss their current projects. Ashshowwaf says he hopes to host 50-100 free workshops and weekly meetups a year now that Unstuck has its own office.

Ashshowwaf says the free workshops cultivate an “ecosystem” where entrepreneurs can collaborate and help each other get “unstuck,” instead of navigating the often daunting process alone, he said.

“Someone has an idea. Says, ‘Okay, I want to build a startup. I want to build a business.’ So they’ll ask friends and their family, then they usually jump to a company and say, ‘Hey, can you build the app? How much? Oh, $100,000? How do I find the money?’ And it’s a very disjointed process,” he said.

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This Arlington company is using a $120 million acquisition to make high-tech advances on the battlefield

By Jo DeVoe
One of AeroVironment's small unmanned aircraft, the Puma VTOL Kit, in flight (courtesy AeroVironment)

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

An Arlington-based company that builds unmanned expeditionary vehicles for war is seeking to continue its growth with the acquisition of a robotics startup from Florida.

AeroVironment said in a press release that its $120 million acquisition of Tomahawk Robotics was finalized last week.

“We’re confident that the combined experience and expertise of our two teams will result in a variety of unmatched unmanned expeditionary vehicles that meet our customers’ emerging needs and exacting standards,” said AeroVironment’s Senior Vice President of Unmanned Systems Trace Stevenson in a statement.

AeroVironment, which works with more than 55 allied nations, plans to hire on the entire Tomahawk Robotics team and retain its facilities in Florida, CEO and Chairman Wahid Nawabi said in a statement last week.

“We’re thrilled for Tomahawk Robotics’ employees to join AeroVironment and we look forward to welcoming them into our expanding team,” he said. “Tomahawk employees will contribute to the growth of our already talented workforce and are joining AeroVironment’s culture of innovation and exploration in which they can continue to develop in their careers.”

Tomahawk Robotics, a 5-year-old startup, developed a way to embed sensors and software into a single pane of glass. When applied to unmanned vehicles, the glass provides the humans controlling these machines from afar with situational awareness and helps them launch precise attacks.

“Our motto has always been ‘warfighter first,’” Tomahawk Robotics CEO Brad Truesdell said in a statement. “Everything we’ve designed or made has been optimized to better equip and prepare soldiers on the battlefield.”

AeroVironment had already been using Tomahawk solutions for about a year when it announced the acquisition, which Stevenson says will pair “the best common controller technology with the most ubiquitous unmanned systems on the market today.”

Merging the two technologies, AeroVironment says it envisions a future where warfighters can use one controller to operate several robotic solutions in the battlefield.

One of AeroVironment’s small unmanned aircraft, the Puma VTOL Kit, in flight (courtesy AeroVironment)

A national software company acquired this homegrown Arlington business

By Caroline Gage
Founder and CEO of Dalton Digital, Justin Gooderham (courtesy of Justin Gooderham)

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

An Arlington small business owner had his marketing firm acquired by a national software company last month.

The story is a case study of finding success by breaking into a niche industry.

Six years ago, Justin Gooderham founded a marketing company to help clients expand their reach with mobile-friendly websites, blog content and social media pages.

At the suggestion of a friend, however, the entrepreneur tailored his fledgling company, Dalton Digital, to a sector with little competition for his services: title insurance.

“There are tons of agencies that help lawyers, that help dental practices, that help plumbers, but the title industry was relatively untapped, so there were lots of companies that needed the help of the service that I provide, so it was just a good match,” Gooderham told ARLnow.

He leaned on resources from Arlington Economic Development’s BizLaunch to establish connections and grow the business.

“I’m an Arlington native, so I started kind of close to home, reaching out to local businesses to kind of get my name out there, introduce myself,” Gooderham said.

During the early years, the local entrepreneur oversaw quick growth. By 2019, the company won the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Home-Based Business of the Year Award.

More recently, however, the founder said his small team at Dalton Digital was reaching an upper limit — until an offer from Jenesis Software came along. The health insurance management company was started by an insurance agent who, like Gooderham, recognized small agencies needed help establishing an online presence.

The acquisition, announced in late August for an undisclosed amount, will give Dalton Digital “access to a broader range of resources, technologies, and expertise,” according to a press release.

Gooderham says that this is a win for clients.

“It just made sense,” Gooderham said. “I felt like I was a bit maxed out in terms of what I could do myself and my small contracting team, but [Jenesis] has a bigger company with more resources.”

The founder will stay involved with the company after the acquisition, but is looking to explore other areas beyond Dalton Digital.

He says that one of his biggest takeaways after starting and growing his business has been getting to know his customers and their needs.

“Getting to know the business, asking the right questions and uncovering those layers is really instrumental in understanding a business and ultimately doing business with them,” Gooderham said.

Justin Gooderham, Founder of Dalton Digital (courtesy of Justin Gooderham)

Ballston cybersecurity company patents a chip that can secure commonplace items from hackers

By Caroline Gage
An engineer works on Fend's data diodes (courtesy of Bryant Cox)

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

As more modern conveniences and critical infrastructure connect to the internet, increasingly commonplace objects — like electric vehicles — can be hit with cyberattacks.

In this ever-changing landscape, Ballston-based cybersecurity company Fend has put forward a new piece of technology to protect large systems and small devices alike from offenses launched by alleged thieves, cybercriminals and nation state actors.

It recently patented a microchip that allows Fend to protect a wider variety of goods. Any manufacturer can embed the chip into small-scale products, such as medical devices and delivery drones, to keep them secure.

“We’re talking about cars, power plants, and other machines that keep the economy going,” CEO and founder Colin Dunn said in a press release. “Our users will be able to feed data into next-generation AI tools while permanently keeping attackers out.”

Like its first product — a “data diode” that looks like an internet modem — the new chip dictates how devices “talk” to the internet, such that hackers cannot find a way to wrest control.

“Because we maintain that physically applied, one-way data flow, that means nobody from the outside can ever hack in, and that’s a bold claim but it’s the sort of thing that our infrastructure needs,” Dunn told ARLnow.

Amid reports of continued attacks on national infrastructure, he said, governments also have to protect their older systems, such as energy plants, which have been retrofitted for internet connectivity.

“These are folks that have big, important equipment that makes modern life possible, whether it’s making the goods in our homes or bringing clean water to our neighborhoods,” Dunn said. “And they also have a big target on their back as well from those who would like to disrupt their operations.”

This is Fend’s fifth year in Arlington. The company is in the midst of fundraising, with the goal of expanding further.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity here to — really from almost the very beginning — do this in Arlington, and make a contribution to the security of our country and around the world right here from home,” Dunn said.

An engineer works on Fend’s data diodes (courtesy of Bryant Cox)

Green Valley nonprofit MySecureKid provides opportunities in IT and cybersecurity

By Caroline Gage
Co-founders Quiana Gainey (left) and JaLisa Johnson (right) (courtesy of Quiana Gainey)

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

A Green Valley-based nonprofit is encouraging kids to dream about working in tech the same way they dream of being a doctor or lawyer one day.

To help launch them into those career paths, MySecureKid — which also educates families about internet safety — connects children and teens with programming, apprenticeships and mentors.

Since founding the organization in 2018, Quiana Gainey and JaLisa Johnson have focused on supporting children from underrepresented backgrounds. While cybersecurity and technology are projected to grow more than 13%, they say a “knowledge gap” is holding back Black and Hispanic people, as well as people with disabilities, from riding that job growth wave.

“We were the first IT apprenticeship in D.C., and we were servicing a population that was what they consider disenfranchised. We just said that they’re undiscovered,” Gainey said.

Gainey and Johnson have both founded for-profit companies in cybersecurity and healthcare tech, respectively. Using that experience, plus their backgrounds in government contracting and military service, the duo say they created curricula for students to bridge that knowledge gap.

“We want them to see that there’s a shortage in cybersecurity [and that] our infrastructure, our country needs this,” Gainey said. “So let’s start with building that into the curriculum, building partnerships with community, with nonprofits like ourselves, so that we can help the next generation realize their dreams and also help them not go into all traditional [careers].”

Co-founders Quiana Gainey (left) and JaLisa Johnson (right) (courtesy of Quiana Gainey)

MySecureKid offers apprenticeship programs for teens as well as summer cyber camps and after-school programs for younger children. They pair high school students with mentors and provide scholarships to those pursuing education in IT, emerging technologies, healthcare, cybersecurity and entrepreneurship.

It also has worked with Arlington Public Schools for three years and has plans to partner with their apprenticeship program in the fall.

With these programs, Johnson says she hopes that students gain hands-on skills over time — similar to a trade school.

“We make things fun but challenging,” Johnson said.

She and Gainey also make sure parents have opportunities to learn about tech issues, such as internet safety.

“I always tell parents, when you give your childhood phone, it’s like leaving them in the middle of the intersection, and telling them to find themselves their way home,” Gainey said. “Now, you wouldn’t do that, right. So when you give them that cell phone, it’s time to have that conversation.”

Their space in Green Valley, which they call the “360XP Zone,” is self-sufficient, powered with renewable energy and connected to its own water supply. It features learning, retail and event spaces and is equipped with a full-service kitchen and bar. Small businesses can even rent these spaces and benefit MySecureKid in the process.

Calling on her healthcare background, Johnson designed the space to include clinics that she says meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards.

“We always say, ‘I don’t wait for someone else to do something. You can be the change you want to see,” Gainey said.

Inside one of the learning pods at MySecureKid’s facility in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Local hospitality startup GoTab raises $18 million

By Caroline Gage

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

The Courthouse-based hospitality commerce startup GoTab raised $18 million earlier this month.

Truist Ventures led the Series A funding round, per a press release. This milestone marks the startup’s first fundraising round after nabbing smaller seed investments a few years ago.

Founded by Tim McLaughlin in 2016, GoTab makes it possible for guests at restaurants, hotels, resorts and stadiums to order and pay from kiosks or phones — without needing to download an app — while streamlining order fulfillment.

“We have been incredibly intentional with the solutions we develop for our customers, and this latest capital injection will help us further enhance our existing solutions, while also helping us continue to scale the business across sectors and geographies,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

That includes going outside the U.S. and breaking into other industries. Last year, the startup announced its plans to expand into Canada and equip hotels with its solutions.

Already, GoTab says, hotels and resorts that use its platform see an average increase in sales of 28% and a 14% decrease in costs.

It attributes greater profits and deeper savings to its platform, which makes it easier to split checks, place multiple orders and communicate with the back of house. Participating vendors can combine GoTab with  other services, such as the reservation platform OpenTable.

GoTab Founder and CEO Tim McLaughlin (courtesy of GoTab)

Meanwhile, the company is focused on making its platform easy to use for people who are colorblind or have other impairments, per a recent interview McLaughlin gave to Forbes.

This commitment to improving the experiences of customers and staff is one reason Truist Ventures said it led the startup’s fundraising round.

“Truist Ventures seeks out companies that drive innovation, deliver impactful solutions, and support their communities; this investment in GoTab is a testament to these values,” Truist said in a statement.

This local nonprofit offers free STEM education and professional development to young Latinas

By Hallie LeTendre

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza.

An organization founded by Wakefield High School alumna is returning to its stomping grounds this September to give back.

Founded in 2004 by Latina students and Wakefield school counselor Madeline LaSalle, Latinas Leading Tomorrow (LLT) offers young women in the D.C. area free camps and programs focused on STEM as well as professional and leadership development.

Fresh from running a STEM summer camp that targeted first-generation Latina middle-schoolers in July, LLT will next offer an after-school program for girls at Yorktown High School, Wakefield and the Arlington Career Center.

“This program focuses on leadership development, mentorship, community service and creating a safe space for the girls that breaks down barriers many of them are facing,” board chair of LLT Rebecca Singhavong said.

Likewise, the summer camp last month also showed Latina girls what they are capable of, dispelling stereotypes about who can pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, Singhavong said. About 70% of campers were first-generation and Hispanic students.

“It was pretty amazing,” said Singhavong. “At LLT, one of the main things we strive to do is break down barriers and stereotypes that Latina girls often grow up hearing, including the idea that STEM fields are only for men.”

Every day, campers participated in activities such as painting flowers, coding and 3D printing. They also met with women who have careers in STEM.

“All our programs are big on having role models, so the girls can see people who they can aspire to be,” Singhavong said.

Singhavong credited Marymount University professor Diane Murphy for her help ensuring this year’s camp was in-person, after it was held virtually for a few years during Covid. The camp was also made possible by a grant from a NASA program, NASA Inspires Futures for Tomorrow’s Youth.

A group of Latinas Leading Tomorrow participants and mentors (courtesy LLT)

In addition to camps and after-school activities, LLT offers a virtual professional development program that teaches personal branding and provides LinkedIn profile training and resume help, Singhavong said. Every LLT program is completely free.

“We are often dealing with families who would normally not have access to programs like ours because of funding concerns or accessibility,” Singhavong said. “Many of our campers came from fairly far distances each day to get to Marymount because their communities do not have any type of program like this.”

Singhavong — who is first-generation herself — said she has only been with LLT for a year, however, the organization has been running multiple programs for young Latina women for over 10 years.

Its mission, she says, is to combat a common stereotype that she has seen and faced herself: one that Hispanic women are meant to be caregivers and not dream of having professional careers.

“We focus on just girls because many Latina women are taught to be caregivers from a young age, but we want them to focus on themselves and what they want to do in their future,” Singhavong said.

A group of Latinas Leading Tomorrow participants (courtesy LLT)

Local startup provides students personalized tools to succeed during online learning

By Hallie LeTendre

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ALRnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

When Covid hit, online learning became the new normal for students across the globe.

Not everyone fared well, however, and some students struggled to stay focused and understand the material, says Arya Rashidian, the CEO of a local online tutoring company, TutorDudes.

The company was founded to combat these downsides to online learning. It offers tools and tutors tailored to individual student needs, such as adding closed captioning and visual cues to lectures for visual learners.

“With this platform, I wanted to create something that isn’t a quick fix, but something that is going to promote real change for online learning,” Rashidian said.

TutorDudes can be used by any type of learner and some students with disabilities, including those with mild autism, Rashidian said. He added that tutors are trained to accommodate different learning styles and in how to improve the online learning experience.

“The company was made so that everyone, regardless of the type of learners that they are can be accommodated by our virtual platform,” he said.

Part of the TutorDudes team, including CEO Arya Rashidian, center (via TutorDudes.com)

Rashidian, who graduated from George Mason University this past May, took on TutorDudes from its original founders.

After taking charge of the startup, he revised the company’s mission, services and structure to improve and expand the brand. Rashidian said that without the help of his team none of their success today would have been possible.

The startup has expanded and now offers enhanced tutoring services through TDULTRA.com, which can be accessed through a TutorDudes account.

Rashidian said he hopes to continue this growth so that universities and schools can also adopt the services TutorDudes provides. To do this, Rashidian said he and his team are looking for investors to fund this brand and technology expansion.

“We want to make this company the best it can be,” Rashidian said.

TutorDudes CEO Arya Rashidian (courtesy photo)
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