Startup Monday

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

Arlington-based startup Boolean Girl is on a mission — to fill the female deficit in the technology industry.

“The original idea was to teach kids (including my own) to code and work with electronics by creating a website with kid-friendly programming and engineering projects,” co-founder Brian Moran said. “This was not something they were learning in elementary and middle school and I think these are critical future job skills.”

When Moran started talking to other people about the idea, he heard from scores of women about the challenges they faced in the tech industry. “When I saw that the number of women in computer science was actually declining from 36 percent in the mid 1980s to 12 percent today, I knew it was time to pivot,” he said.

Boolean Girl launched on May 30, 2014 — around the same time that is was revealed that Google had issues with diversity in the workforce.

“Google’s admission brought a lot of attention to the issues we were trying to address. The timing was great,” Moran said, adding, “We were totally unknown but ahead of the curve on addressing this issue.

“By engaging girls at a young age, we could inspire the girls to pursue computer science and help dispel some misconceptions that middle schoolers have about computer science.”

Boolean Girl offers camps, classes and classroom kits to get kids started. “We wanted to make this easy for the school/PTA so they have everything the girls need: computer, monitor, keyboard, battery etc. We don’t need to be in the school computer room, we don’t need internet access, we don’t even need electricity,” Moran said of the kits available through the program.

Moran said the program has also seen high demand for its classes and summer camps.

The program targets girls ages eight to 13, but Moran said it is open to older girls (and boys), as well. But the major advantage is to the girls.

“In elementary school, 66 percent of girls like science as much as boys do, but only 24 percent of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is women and only 12 percent of the computer science graduates are women,” Moran said. “There are many reasons this happens: Girls think coding is not interesting, it does not require creativity, that you work in isolation, that coding is for boys only. Sometimes they are discouraged from taking classes by parents and teachers. When they do, they feel alienated or isolated because they are the only girl in a class.”

Boolean Girl flips this cycle by creating a welcoming environment for young girls, where they are working with their peers. “We want girls to know that computer science includes working side-by-side with their best friend all day. We want them to realize they can apply their creativity to solve difficult and important real-world problems through computer programming,” Moran said.

Ultimately, Moran hopes the program will drive more girls to develop a passion for technology, resulting in more women in computer science careers.

“Most studies show the demand for these skills is growing rapidly,” he said. “Aside from providing a stable income, we think computer science careers are interesting and exciting, offering unlimited possibilities for women.”

And Boolean Girl has big plans for the future. This summer, the program plans to develop two new advanced classes: one on engineering and another on Minecraft coding in Python, a coding language that Moran said is in high demand in the tech industry.

In addition, Boolean Girl will launch a Kickstarter campaign this summer to productize the classroom kits so that girls can take the same equipment home that they use in class.

“With the kit, the girls no longer need to borrow their parent’s computer … [and] can also do the online engineering projects,” Moran said. “Maybe most importantly, it is safe and easy: they don’t even need to be connected to the internet and everything is contained in the kit.”

Moran said the only factor limiting Boolean Girl’s growth is the availability of qualified instructors. “We try to recruit college women pursuing computer science or teaching degrees or young professionals with teaching or computer science backgrounds,” he said, adding, “Since the root issue is that the computer science field has so few women, finding instructors is always a challenge.”

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

When Arlington resident Hillary Leo left her nine-to-five job last March, inspiration struck.

Inspired by a travel blog she had been writing, Leo launched a new online store called Swoon For. The store incorporates her expertise from both her time as a New York City fashion editor and as a photo editor National Geographic Society.

“The biggest inspiration for the store has been my travels, experience as a fashion editor, as well as working as a photo editor for the National Geographic Society,” Leo said. “The store really is a culmination of my professional journey and personal travel adventures. I have an insatiable appetite for travel and when you combine that with my passion for design and style you have Swoon For as the result.”

Swoon For focuses on products that trigger conversations and evoke a sense of adventure.

“Each items has to offer a style that speaks to something you would purchase while traveling to a far off place,” Leo said. “The items that are from various countries in our boutique really speak to the crafts that are highly valued there. For example, our handmade baskets from Rwanda, handwoven palm bags from Bali, silk sari necklaces from India, Moroccan rugs and blankets just to name a few.”

Leo aims to help artisans all over the world continue their traditions while sharing those traditions with the people of Arlington and the rest of the United States.

“One designer I work with for example has started her own small business in Jaipur, India,” Leo said. “The items she designs are made in partnership ikat fabric makers and hand-block printing artisans whom she has worked with personally for years.

“So not only are we helping her, but also aiming to help keep the arts of (and jobs of) ikat making and hand-block printing in the hands of the artists and not the machines that are able to replicate and mass produce these special items.”

Leo, who lives in Arlington’s Old Glebe neighborhood, said her personal touch also sets Swoon For’s swag apart.

“The collections are curated by me personally and are representative of my taste when it comes to fashion, home décor, jewelry and children’s goods,” Leo said. “The merchandise is international inspiration for the home and closet where.”

In addition, Leo said the online store offers a chance to give back. The majority of Swoon For’s items are sold in partnership with not-for-profit organizations or are ordered directly from artisans.

“I believe we are seeing a steady shift in shoppers’ philanthropic interests,” said said, adding,”And while there are other stores offering this, I feel that many of the items I have found are not available elsewhere.”

But Leo doesn’t plan to just exist in cyberspace.

“The dream has always been to open a brick and mortar store, but financially I’m not there yet and feel that by launching the store online it is a way to get my feet wet and learn many of the lessons necessary to run a successful retail business while gaining a loyal customer following,” she said.

For now, Leo said her next step is to hire summer interns focused on communications and design.

And she will never forget her store’s roots in the blog world.

“I regularly update the blog, which can be accessed from the store, and will be including interviews with our artisans, more about my inspiration and trips to find merchandise around the globe.”

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

Companies offering music, software, movies and even food increasingly are moving toward subscription models. And many of those businesses harbor one lofty goal: zero churn.

Churn happens when a customer decides to no longer subscribe to a product or service. The customer must then be replaced with a new one. Due to the costs of customer acquisition, high churn can kill an otherwise promising young business.

“Fighting churn is especially important for subscription businesses because they have to continuously keep the customer happy or else they will simply cancel and move on,” said You Mon Tsang, co-founder of Arlington-based ChurnZero.

As an entrepreneur and early pioneer in software-as-a-service (SaaS), Tsang has first-hand experience with the financial impact of churn on a subscription-based business.

“In the past, software would be bought all for one price, paid at once, and owned forever,” he said, adding, “Moving to the subscription meant less money upfront and more consistent revenue over time, but only if the customer is happy and stays with you.

“Churn was a critical business imperative in every business I’ve been a part of, but — surprisingly — there was little technology to help companies understand the health of their customer base.”

That’s where ChurnZero comes in.

Tsang and co-founder Mark Heys built a software prototype and got feedback from more than a dozen companies that were potential customers.

“We got great feedback on the prototype. But, more importantly, they all said this was a real and unsolved problem,” Tsang said. “That gave us the confidence to risk our time, energy and money on creating a business.”

Unlike other companies in this new field, Tsang said ChurnZero does more than just collecting data and creating reports on customers.

“At ChurnZero, we feel that data is important but not enough. Our solution combines data, task automation and communication and is one of the most comprehensive platforms in the industry,” Tsang said.

ChurnZero’s software enables businesses to understand how customers use a product, assess customers’ likelihood to renew, and personalize the customer experience.

Using ChurnZero’s services, businesses can better engage with their customers, sell more subscriptions and fight churn. The company offers analytics, personalized and automated customer interfaces, and timely alerts about customers–including those who are “power users” and those who are disengaged.

In addition to ChurnZero’s main services, the company’s blog, “Fighting Churn,” cranks out advice and resources to help account managers and executives retain customers. The site recently was named one of the Top 50 Customer Churn Resources by NGData.

Tsang and Heys chose Arlington as ChurnZero’s headquarters because of its attractive location to the nation’s top talent.

“It’s proximity to [Washington, D.C.] and public transportation, as well as the reasonable commute from the towns outside the beltway, means we have access to people fresh-out-of-college or with decades of experience,” Tsang said.

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

In the financial advisory industry, the old-school referral model is no longer cutting it. So Arlington’s Advisor Portable is bringing the industry and its clients into the 21st century.

“The client experience is archaic and consequently how financial advisors grow their business through referrals is broken,” said Garari Mikel, co-founder of Advisor Portable.

“You can order a pizza and track its progress digitally, but with most financial advisors you can not do the same with your money,” Mikel said, adding, “As a result, the amount of discussions clients engage in about achieving money milestones is muted and resulting referrals, limited.”

Mikel saw a problem that needed solving. And as the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

At first, Mikel and his partner, Aaron St. Germain, met daily to discuss the issue from every angle and find the best way to boost financial advisors’ business growth while improving clients’ experience. It wasn’t an easy task.

“We are at the nascent stage of a seismic shift within the financial advice industry. Digital-only platforms have begun to arise that offer investment management to consumers, without the ability to talk to a human, all online, at a significantly reduced price,” Mikel said. “However, financial advice is complex and individually dynamic and I’m not sure if the majority of consumers are ready to hand that process entirely to a computer.

“In our view, financial advisors will either transcend the client experience to match their digital-only competitors, or they will be displaced by financial advisors who do.”

Hailed as “Uber for financial advisors,” Advisor Portable is a mobile application branded for clients that uses a proprietary system to automate marketing. The creators then take a percent share of new business brought in through the app.

Security is also a major concern for the company. Encryption scrambles messages sent through the app to ensure no data is compromised – a level of protection that the company says is “equal to or better than the level of encryption used by most major financial institutions for their online and mobile banking services.”

“While there are other technology firms that will offer to upgrade a financial advisory firm’s digital experience, Advisor Portable is the only one that focuses on client specific-goals and educating the client on their money, encouraging money discussions and ultimately, more referrals,” Mikel said.

Mikel — who also is the CEO and co-founder of SAM Phinancial, another Arlington business — said he was excited to bring another business to the Arlington area.

“I love the people and the culture that makes this city unique, characteristics that I wanted to be a part of the culture here at Advisor Portable.”

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

When technology firms are looking for fresh talent, they often turn to recruiters to find the best and the brightest. A growing IT recruiting firm in town is taking on that challenge.

In true startup fashion, Hatch IT started in a garage in Leesburg, Va. And that humble start was key to their success.

Tim Winkler, CEO of Hatch IT, said, “Given our roots as a bootstrapped startup ourselves, and growing out of a garage, we are able to relate first-hand to many of the key cultural attributes our startup clients are targeting,” adding, “Being able to really understand our clients’ equity plan and communicating those details accordingly can be a make-or-break factor when selling the opportunity to candidates.”

Formerly known as TRW Consulting Services, the company was founded in 2011 based on three main principles. First, that recruiting is underrated and often is overlooked as a key element of a healthy business plan in early-stage startups and small businesses. Second, that recruiting can be outsourced to a true partner. And finally, that recruiting does not have to be overly costly for the startup community.

Winkler said the company’s name and logo — which depicts an egg hatching — are “symbolic of helping startups break out of their shell, and for engineers it sets the stage for fresh new beginnings in an innovative tech startup.”

Hatch is unique from other technology recruiting firms in the area, Winkler said, because of its focus on the technology startup industry.

“Hatch is on a mission to change this preconceived notion of recruiters by only connecting our engineers with opportunities that are 100 percent a fit in terms of tech stack, company culture and career growth,” Winkler said, adding, “What separates Hatch from the hundreds of other recruiting shops in the area is our specialization in the local D.C. tech startup space, specifically in the areas of software development, mobile development and product design.

“When partnering with startups, there is a noticeable difference in understanding the company culture and being able to identify with candidates that will adapt in such a fluid environment.”

When it came to picking a location when they were ready to upgrade their headquarters, Winkler said Arlington was a “no-brainer.”

“We knew Arlington was the perfect location for us given it’s perfectly positioned in the heart of the local startup boom,” Winkler said. “It’s exciting to have our new headquarters in Crystal City, where organizations such as WeWork and 1776, which share a similar vision, are right in your backyard.”

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

The Haleakala Silversword is a rare plant that grows in the hot, dry climate of a remote crater in Hawaii. The silver-fronded shrub can live up to about 90 years before sprouting an impressive flowering stalk as its final hurrah before spreading seeds across the barren landscape where the plant is found.

Silversword Software and Services — an Arlington-based technology startup also known as 4S — says they chose the name because it fit with their unique position in the market. “It seemed really apt for me for the kind of work we are doing: to kind of grow something beautiful in a very bizarre environment,” 4S President Eli Senter said.

When Senter first began working in the federal IT space, he said he was “a little bit shocked at how far behind the private sector we were in some areas.” 4S aims to fill that gap by developing software tools and technical management practices for federal clients. The company offers services ranging from building system architecture, systems engineering and developing custom software to creating Web-based applications and transitioning programs to cloud computing.

So far, the firm has been focused on the secondary use of health data. 4S is developing an infrastructure for military doctors find insight into their patients’ electronic health records. “There is a treasure trove of information [in EHRs] that could be very valuable in research if looked at anonymously in bulk,” said Dan Bowman, communications associate at Eastern Foundry, a Crystal City-based startup incubator of which 4S is a member. Senter added, “To actually be able to get any big data value, you have to structure it very differently in order to be able to find patients that are similar and compare outcomes for similar patients.”

The company recently was certified as a participant in the 8(a) Business Development Program as a Native Hawaiian Organization-owned firm. That means that in some cases, 4S can “behave a lot more like you would in the private sector” when acquiring contracts for government projects, Senter said. NHO-owned firms participating in the 8(a) program can market directly to potential clients, and those clients then can contract with 4S in a much shorter time frame than the traditional process for government contract awards, according to Senter. In addition, 4S can work collaboratively with clients to design the requirements, price and other aspects of the contracts they work under.

With its new status, Senter said 4S plans to bring modern development techniques and tools to the federal sector. And Arlington was the perfect base for the firm’s mission. “We’re close to all of our defense clients … that we’ve worked with before and would like to work with again,” Senter said.

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

As cyberattack techniques become less costly and more adaptable, organizations will have to up their cybersecurity game. To that end, Clarendon-based Endgame has built a team of domain experts, scientists, software engineers and designers to protect the country’s most critical assets.

Founded in 2008, Endgame is a software firm that helps governments and commercial organizations to detect, contain and evict “bad guys” from their networks to prevent damage and loss of data.

“By 2008, the accelerating pace of technological change and seismic geopolitical shifts began to intersect in unprecedented ways, from the early signs of tech-enabled social movements to increasingly brazen state-sponsored cyberattacks on private companies, and our increasing dependence on digital systems,” said Margot Koehler, senior manager of marketing and communications at Endgame.

“Companies around the world are spending billions of dollars every year on cybersecurity, [but] 90% of them are breached and the average dwell time for these advanced adversaries is 200 days before they’re even detected,” Koehler added. “Beating these threats requires us to rewrite the playbook and see the world as the adversaries see it.”

Endgame was established to “bring a faster and more agile style of software development to early adopters inside the intelligence community and the Department of Defense,” according to Koehler. “We figured that they are on the front lines of information security, and that their cutting-edge challenges would become commonplace more widely over time.”

Arlington was the obvious location choice to best reach Endgame’s clients. The company is expanding its office and was just named to the “Fast 50” list of high-growth cybersecurity and networking firms for the second year in a row.

“We’re thrilled to be based in Arlington. Arlington is a great place for Endgame headquarters — it offers a unique mix of amenities, talented workforce and convenient transportation options,” Koehler said.

Unlike other strategies, she said Endgame “brings offense to the enterprise by actively hunting for adversaries that bypass the traditional security stack,” helping “customers move from being the hunted to the hunter, stopping breaches at the earliest possible moment, before damage and loss can occur.”

Endgame has about 130 employees, who all focus on its five core values — integrity, boldness, speed, openness and responsibility. Aside from its Clarendon headquarters, the company has offices in Baltimore; Melbourne, Fla.; San Antonio; and San Francisco.

And Endgame continues to evolve to meet its customers’ changing needs and adapt to new research and development. “We’re here to take the security industry into the 21st century and beyond, and empower enterprises to hunt within their networks the adversaries of today and tomorrow,” the company’s website states.