Startup Monday

Published May 16, 2022 at 1:00PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

Cybercriminals are not the stereotypical teen in their mom’s basement wearing a hoodie.

Cyber crime has become a highly organized business, with people specialized in different parts of the process, nonprofit Cyber Threat Alliance President and CEO Michael Daniel said. And cyber threats, such as ransomware, have exploded as people are more connected to the internet and can move money more easily.

“We’ve entered a stage where cyber crime poses a very significant threat to the global economy and the global system, equivalent to what normally would only be associated with nation-states,” Daniel said. “And so that’s a big challenge and a big change.”

Based in Clarendon, Cyber Threat Alliance enables cybersecurity companies to share threat information with each other quickly to prevent and respond to these attacks.

“No individual company has a complete view of what’s going on in cyberspace, so in order to be able to protect your customers, or work with the government, law enforcement agencies or others to help disrupt the bad guys, you need more information,” Daniel said.

People who work in cybersecurity policy talk about information sharing a lot, but there wasn’t anyone dedicated to it for the industry until the nonprofit was formed five years ago with its six founding members — Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point, Cisco, McAfee and Symantec.

“The leaders of those companies really understood that talking about information sharing in cybersecurity, well, everybody talks about it, but it’s hard to do,” said Daniel, who worked in federal government for 20 years, including as former President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity adviser.

As for locating in Arlington, where Daniel and his wife had settled, the decision was simple.

“This is a great place for getting started and working in the cybersecurity industry because the Washington, D.C. area is the hub for policy and other kinds of development,” he said. “And this is really home for us. It’s not really more complex than that.”

Now, CTA has 34 member companies, which are required to share a minimum amount of threat intelligence each week, and employs seven people. Its members are headquartered in 11 countries around the world and run the gamut of household company names, like Cisco, to relatively smaller cybersecurity companies.

There’s a list of companies in the pipeline to become members, which opens up possibilities for hiring additional staff and offering more services, Daniel said.

In the upcoming year, CTA hopes to add technological capability to its sharing platform and is involved in projects, including one with the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Cybersecurity to understand the criminal ecosystem so it can support government action against cybercriminals.

“Ransomware is a huge problem, cyber crime is a big problem, and it’s something we need to really tackle if we want people to be able to use the digital world in the way that we want,” he said. “Cyber threats are not a problem that we’re going to solve but it’s a problem that we’re going to have to manage. We are building for the long term.”

Ballston startup HUNGRY acquires healthy snacks company NatureBox

Published May 9, 2022 at 3:30PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

HUNGRY still has an appetite for growth.

The Ballston-based food tech startup acquired its third company in as many years.

HUNGRY offers an online catering marketplace connecting companies with local chefs. Last week, it announced the acquisition of California-based healthy snacks company NatureBox, which delivers its products to homes and offices, and has its own private-label bulk snacks.

“NatureBox’s healthy snacks will be an outstanding complement to HUNGRY’s business-catering solutions, creating a game-changing combination of exceptional quality and service,” HUNGRY co-founder and CEO Jeff Grass said in a statement. “Companies right now are looking for one partner to handle all of their in-office food, snacking, and beverage needs, and now more than ever, HUNGRY is that complete partner for them.”

Hungry founders Eman Pahlavani, Shy Pahlevani and Jeff Grass (courtesy photo)

NatureBox, which has served over 3.5 million consumers and thousands of corporate clients, previously raised nearly $60 million in funding, a press release said.

“We’re proud to join forces with HUNGRY, and we’re excited that now even more people will be able to enjoy our amazing, healthy snacks all over the country,” NatureBox CEO John Occhipinti said in a statement. “We’re grateful to Jeff and the whole HUNGRY team for believing in what we’ve built and taking it to the next level.”

The acquisition furthers HUNGRY’s national reach and increases its healthy options.

The startup launched in late 2016, and has since expanded to more than 10 markets across the U.S., and acquired companies LocalStove in Philadelphia and Ripe Catering in New York City.

Outside of the D.C. area, HUNGRY is available in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville and San Francisco.

It has added food truck options and Virtual Xperiences, where groups can purchase online cooking classes with name-brand chefs and supplies sent directly to participants’ homes.

During the pandemic, it brought Nationals Park fan favorites to customers’ doors when the stadium was closed. It has since ended that partnership as fans are able to return to cheer the baseball team on in person.

HUNGRY has grown quickly over the last two years, earning a spot on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and debuting at No. 434 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in 2021. It also was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and Best Workplaces for Innovators.

Last year, it raised $21 million in a star-studded funding round, bringing on board actress Issa Rae, “America’s Got Talent” host Terry Crews, NFL player DeAndre Hopkins, NBA player Lonzo Ball and boxer Deontay Wilder.

Previous HUNGRY investors include Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, Kevin Hart, Usher, Todd Gurley, Bobby Wagner, Ndamukong Suh, and celebrity chefs Tom Colicchio and Ming Tsai.

Happyly helps companies bring fulfillment, joy to employees outside of work

Published May 2, 2022 at 11:30AM | Updated May 2, 2022 at 12:48PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

Caitlin Iseler had great benefits in her executive search job, but nothing that supported her as a working parent.

She loved working at consulting firm Korn Ferry and wanted to be exceptional in her career but also wanted to do the best she could as a mom.

“I was like these (benefits) are great but this isn’t really solving my challenge of wanting to be a great mom and really wanting to be present and having those health wins outside of work,” she said. “I became really passionate about this concept of how do you support people in their time outside of work so they can be great at work.”

Happyly Founder Caitlin Iseler and her family (courtesy of Caitlin Iseler)

So, in 2019, she and co-founders Liz Regard and Randi Banks started Happyly, a platform companies can offer employees that provides activity plans and ways to give back to the community. Twenty corporations, including Navy Federal, her former employer Korn Ferry and Appian, offer Happyly’s service to their employees.

“It shouldn’t take a lot of time or money to do great things with your family and to really live your best life outside of work,” Iseler said. “So our platform is designed to support those experiences for real connection and again it all ties back to, for employers to ‘take care of people and they’ll take care of your company.'”

Last week, the Arlington-based company launched a new website and this week will roll out a new version of its app.

“There’s a lot coming down the pike in terms of our product evolution and around this give back component,” Iseler said.

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation is a Happyly investor, and the company recently received a grant from the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund. The startup also participated in the 757 Accelerate program and has several other investors from Virginia and the University of Virginia, Iseler’s alma mater.

“So for us, it’s just such a good place to be, and that has a lot to do with how we’ve been embraced by the state in terms of trying to bring this idea to life,” she said. “And I was in the D.C. area for 15 years after college… it’s home in so many ways.”

Over the next year, Happyly looks to add 30 to 50 more corporate clients and to double its roster of eight full-time employees and 120 ambassadors, which create content across the U.S. They’re hiring across many different categories, Iseler said.

“At the end of the day, building a business and being an entrepreneur is challenging and humbling because I get to live my purpose,” Iseler said. “I’m really proud of the team that we built and being able to bring together people who have such different experiences but are united by this purpose.”

Happyly cofounders — Happyly co-founders Randi Banks, Caitlin Iseler and Liz Regard (courtesy of Caitlin Iseler)

But it is difficult to create a new category.

“You have to find the right companies at the right stage to introduce something so different,” she said, noting after launch only about a quarter of the companies really “got it.”

“But those are the ones we need to focus on, right, because we don’t need every single company in the world, we need the ones that really care and get it,” she said. “And we hope that in a couple years that this new category will be something that every company is thinking about.”

Arlington startup rides health care data, cost-control waves

Published April 25, 2022 at 1:00PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

There are two “waves” one Arlington analytics company is riding: the health care industry’s inefficient use of data and the need for the U.S. to get a handle on health care costs.

Virginia Square-based CareJourney was founded in 2014 and uses data analytics to help organizations understand their customers and efficiently grow as the industry focuses more on keeping people healthy rather than just treating ailments.

CareJourney started as a service advisory business, so it was providing management consulting to the first few customers, CEO Dan Ross said.

“Pretty soon we figured out that we were sending some of the same things to each customer and so it was kind of a hint that we were on to something that could be repeatable software,” he said. “And so one of the first things we did, you know, in about three, two years in, was to start to pivot into a software business.”

CareJourney Team Photo — The CareJourney team (courtesy of CareJourney)

CareJourney has about 120 customers, including health care organizations and providers. Ross said the company’s growth has been fast, adding about 10 to 15 customers every quarter since it began focusing on software in 2017.

And last year, CareJourney began partnering with other companies as well. It recently announced a new partnership with Credo Health, which automates digital medical record retrieval. The partnership allows clients to grow more efficiently and manage care for an increasing number of patients.

“When you put the two pieces of technology together, in our case, our data with their software, it just allows their end customers to do more than they would have been able to do just with the Credo software,” Ross said.

CareJourney has about five partners similarly incorporating the CareJourney data into their services.

Ross attributes the company’s success to its hyper-focus on solving customers’ problems, and its hiring, developing and coaching employees, as well as building a good culture. He said it has about 100 full-time employees, mostly in the D.C. area.

When CareJourney was started, its founders — Ross, Aneesh Chopra and Sanju Bansal — lived locally and had already started other businesses in the area, so Arlington was a natural choice to locate the new company.

“We expected to be hiring a lot of tech-oriented people… Arlington is like one of the hotbeds locally of places to start and have a tech business,” Ross said. “So it’s kind of an easy choice, nearby and sensible.”

Ross said to start a high growth business, a company needs to be in an important and large space and “riding some waves.”

“The adoption of analytics, technology in health care, and also this like screaming need for more efficiency are two big waves that we ride,” he said.

As the health care industry increasingly transitions to focus on incentivizing health systems to keep people healthy — called value-based care — versus treating them for illness and ailments, the need for data analytics is also growing.

“The whole point of value-based care is not to pay for when someone’s sick, whatever that is, but instead to flip the incentives around and incent the health care delivery system to take care of patients, whether or not they are sick,” Ross said.

One example is when using CareJourney’s data, one of its clients noticed a high number of hospital admissions over a month or two stemming from a similar condition.

“And so using our data, they were able to go back and look and say ‘oh, well, people who hadn’t seen a urologist — as this is in the senior population — had this, like, unusually high rate of hospital admissions from UTIs,'” Ross said.

So the client implemented a urologist screening, and the data showed that it prevented hospital admissions.

“When you keep somebody out of the hospital, that’s just a huge win in health care,” Ross said. “That’s probably the number one thing we can do, is just, in general, keep people out of the hospital.”

Crystal City event tech company Bear Analytics brings insight to organizers

Published April 18, 2022 at 12:30PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

Relying on survey feedback after an event was not enough for the co-founders of Bear Analytics.

While surveys were the standard for evaluating trade show performance, Joe Colangelo and Eric Misic saw an opportunity in all the data event organizers were already gathering from their customers but weren’t using very well.

Arlington-based Bear Analytics collects registration information, exhibitor sales and more from across various platforms to increase attendance and encourage people to return the following year.

Colangelo and Misic started in the large trade show space, where they saw challenges to reporting how well events were being marketed. In 2013, they started asking around to see if others were struggling with the same thing and most answered yes.

“So we quit our jobs that summer and started Bear,” Colangelo said.

Now, their clients range from the National Association of Home Builders, Global Pet Expo and National Confectioners Association.

Virginia Venture Partners recently announced an investment in Bear Analytics so it could ramp up hiring for technical roles.

While Bear Analytics works with people all over the world, its core team is based out of the Crystal City office. Colangelo grew up in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area but moved to Arlington to work in a trade organization in D.C.

“I love Arlington,” he said. “Arlington has a lot to offer.”

Colangelo said marketing traditionally had been very reactive, like in the ’60s and ’70s with door-to-door sales focused on selling goods and then surveying to discover what could improve.

“But now, as information moves faster than ever, we’re in a position where we can actually change the future outcomes,” he said.

The Bear Analytics team (courtesy of Bear Analytics)

The days leading up to a trade show is when the data can be the most impactful but is also when organizers are already in “show mode” and have the least amount of time to use that data, Colangelo said. Without Bear, organizers may not look at it until after the event is over.

“And then you’re only in a scenario that you can get it right the following year, if you even do something with it,” he said.

But using the information, Bear can make predictions ahead of the show — something the company has doubled down on since the pandemic.

Bear Analytics’ most productive quarter was right before the pandemic, the first quarter of 2020, and then many factors changed for live events, Colangelo said. People weren’t attending in person, and if they were, they wouldn’t commit to a show until a few weeks out, closer to the event than before the pandemic.

“Your window for reaching (customers) with the right message and the right offer to get them to attend is narrower than it’s ever been,” he said. “We use data to let you know who is more likely to convert at the right time.”

The pandemic was a turning point for Bear Analytics. Colangelo said they had to change everything to reimagine the way Bear worked, going from a boutique consultancy agency to technology first.

GoTab expands into Canada, unveils new way to speed up online ordering

Published April 11, 2022 at 12:30PM

A GoTab user scans a QR code to order (courtesy of GoTab)

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

It has been a newsy two months for Ballston-based restaurant commerce platform GoTab.

The company, located at 901 N. Stuart Street above the Ballston Metro station, is crossing international borders into the land of hockey and maple syrup, bringing its contactless ordering and payment platform to Canada.

Meanwhile, 2022 is looking to be a big year for sales, as it aims to process more than $1 billion in sales at restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment venues. To facilitate all those sales, it has added a new feature to eliminate one hassle of smartphone ordering — punching in payment details — and is working to establish itself in the hotel industry.

The northward expansion, announced last week, has already yielded fruit for the six-year-old startup. GoTab has a new partnership with a Canadian company called Baseline Payments, which sees the technology as a way to help restaurant operators and front-of-house staff.

“We are excited for GoTab to enter the Canadian market and see tremendous opportunity for its innovative technology,” said Marc Weber, business development vice-president for Baseline Payments, in a statement. “Our mission aligns perfectly with GoTab’s vision: to make life simpler for operators and allow them to provide a superior level of service.”

Canada is not the only new frontier for GoTab. The company is also working with Mastercard to get rid of the need to punch in credit and debit card details or remember passwords.

Mastercard customers can choose to have their information saved to the credit card company’s platform called Click to Pay. When checking out with retailers, restaurants and venues — online or in-person — that accepts Mastercard, they can use the Click to Pay icon to checkout without pulling out their card.

“We strive to help our operators enhance the guest experience,” GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin said in a statement. “Mastercard Click to Pay is the perfect solution to simplify and make the checkout process easier, faster, and completely seamless.”

A GoTab user scans a QR code to order (courtesy of GoTab)

The new option first launched at the Stone Brewing taproom in Richmond late last month.

“We’ve had a very successful run with GoTab and Mastercard Click to Pay across all of our taprooms and bistros,” said Gregg Frazer, VP of Hospitality for Stone Brewing. “Our guests were already big fans of GoTab, but the convenience and security of Click to Pay made the payment experience even better.”

This year, GoTab is looking to expand beyond restaurants and bars entirely and get into — and strengthen its presence within — the hotel industry.

That comes as the hotel business, hit hard by the pandemic, is trying to embrace new technologies to streamline processes like check-in. But the industry is projected to see more growth this year, driven by an uptick in domestic leisure travel, less restricted international travel and a return to the office.

“There are so many opportunities to modernize systems within the hospitality industry and utilize GoTab’s technology for guest amenity programs, in-room dining, common indoor and outdoor spaces [and] rooftop bars,” said Deborah Tappan, GoTab’s new Director of Hospitality Management, in a statement. “The options are endless.”

Local ‘ghost kitchen’ MOLTN Cookies wants to satisfy your late-night cravings

Published April 4, 2022 at 12:45PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

There is a new takeout- and delivery-only bakery in Arlington, and it is open until 2 a.m. on weekends — just when a cookie craving may strike.

The ghost kitchen, called MOLTN Cookies, celebrated its opening on Saturday with free cookies. It operates from within the Allspice Catering storefront (6017 Wilson Blvd) in the Dominion Hills neighborhood, near the county border with the City of Falls Church. Allspice and MOLTN have separate ownership and are otherwise unaffiliated, save the agreement to share a kitchen.

The company offers 10 cookie options — including s’mores, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and white chocolate macadamia nut — as well as several ice cream flavors for shakes and sundaes, all of which is made to order. Cookies are available in packs of six, 12 and 24. The ghost kitchen also offers corporate and event catering packages.

“Anyone in the area with a sweet tooth knows how difficult it can be to find a quality selection of desserts late at night,” co-owner Neal Miglani said in a statement. “As we watched the ghost kitchen concept take hold in the DMV, we realized we could use the model to fill this need, providing a variety of options when people need them the most.”

MOLTN Cookies promotional graphic (courtesy photo)

Miglani grew up helping out in his family’s restaurant, mopping floors and working in the kitchen, and eventually began consulting for restaurants and food tech startups in D.C.

Compared to places like New York City, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, Miglani says the Washington region was “definitely a little late to the party” when it came to the food-tech scene.

“Delivery just wasn’t as much a priority for restaurant owners before the pandemic here, but the market is responding quickly,” he tells ARLnow. “I think we are going to start seeing a lot of restaurants experimenting with virtual brands and delivery-focused menus.”

He says the food-tech scene has changed in the last two years primarily because the pandemic whetted people’s appetites for the convenience of pickup and delivery. That has in turn birthed a number of startups that specialize in building online ordering platforms for restaurants.

“We’ve also seen new food tech companies come into popularity recently such as LunchBox, BBot, and many more that have made the process much smoother,” he observed. “After witnessing this transformative shift in dining first-hand, we knew that when we started our own cookie business, we would utilize a takeout- and delivery-based business model.”

Miglani tested out his cookie concept in Gaithersburg, Maryland last year. The success of the location ultimately led him and his cofounders to open the Arlington location, he said.

He tells ARLnow that the location near the Arlington-Falls Church border is “perfect” because MOLTN can serve both areas.

International startup accelerator to open its doors in Crystal City next week

Published March 28, 2022 at 12:30PM | Updated March 29, 2022 at 9:18AM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

(Updated at 9:15 a.m. on 03/29/22) International startup accelerator ZEBOX is gearing up to open its U.S. headquarters in Crystal City in April.

Construction has been underway at 1550 Crystal Drive since Gov. Ralph Northam heralded the arrival of France-based accelerator in February 2021.

The company is slated to inaugurate the space — with sweeping views of Crystal City, Reagan National Airport and the Potomac River — on April 26.

ZEBOX will be bringing together promising startups with concepts that could solve the world’s supply-chain issues and giving them the physical space and mentorship they need to succeed.

The accelerator will also be connecting these startups with large shipping and transportation companies, such as BNSF Railway and the Port of Virginia, that need these smaller companies’ ideas and products to keep their goods moving quickly and secure their data.

“These big companies pay a service fee for us to come in and teach them how to innovate,” says ZEBOX America Vice President Charley Dehoney. “Then, we find startups that can help their business grow and we play matchmaker.”

ZEBOX is choosing companies that have already demonstrated some success and are in various early fundraising stages, from a pre-seed round to Series B. Nine startups will be relocating to Crystal City next month as part of ZEBOX’s first cohort.

The accelerator’s leaders aim to have D.C.-area-based startups comprise up to 40% of the startups located in its offices. The Crystal City location will be ZEBOX’s flagship hub, Dehoney said, because “we have the most robust startup ecosystem in the world.”

The local startup scene’s strength has been mostly in government-related ventures and cybersecurity, but that reputation has evolved as Amazon cements its foothold in the region, he says.

Dehoney points to JBG Smith, which is bringing ubiquitous 5G connectivity to Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard — collectively known as National Landing — to give startups the technological infrastructure they need to innovate.

“Amazon needed this infrastructure because they want robotics, drone delivery and autonomous vehicles,” Dehoney said. “It’s the perfect place for us to have a supply chain-mobility focused accelerator.”

Principals of an accelorater co-working lab Zebox (staff photo by Jay Westcott) — ZEBOX America Vice President Charles Dehoney, left, and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Duffy, right (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

A year ago, the supply chain was not a topic of dinner-table conversation, nor was it a concept that Americans budgeted into how they planned their holiday shopping, for example. But all that changed with the pandemic, says Dehoney.

“These supply chain issues have always existed. They were exacerbated by Covid, then the world shined a light on it,” he said.

This Arlington startup aims to uplift artists with cryptocurrency education

Published March 21, 2022 at 1:45PM

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 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

Cryptocurrency — and the technology underpinning the latest developments within this world, like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — are complex enough to make the average person’s head spin.

Enter OVRT, a new Arlington-based crypto-community that exists to offer locals and D.C.-area artists free education on cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, and how they can dive into this wholly digital financial world and make money in it.

OVRT is co-founded by Scott Parker, who is behind a bevy of businesses throughout Arlington like Don Tito’s restaurant and Bearded Goat Barber, and Northern Virginia local Ryan McNey, who Parker considers a “borderline certified expert” in cryptocurrency.

“We both have a lot of energy, we both love to work on stuff, and we’re both were excited about this space,” Parker tells ARLnow. “It makes sense for me to be able to connect him to local business people, entrepreneurs, artists — anyone I can help with OVRT. I’ve been successful with helping a lot of people come join the OVRT movement, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Their aim is threefold: first, educate locals about cryptocurrency; second, help artists earn a more sustainable living from their art using NFTs; and finally, open up conversations about this wholly digital financial world with lawmakers and regulators.

So what are all these concepts?

Cryptocurrency is a form of encrypted digital currency. It is stored on the blockchain, which is basically a “digital ledger.” People use blockchain technology to make non-fungible tokens, or unique versions of things like digital artwork or sports memorabilia that can be digitized.

And how does all this benefit artists?

NFTs are fundamentally a way of verifying someone owns something digitally. There is a contract attached to that image, McNey notes, and every time an NFT gets bought or traded, the person who issued it can take a cut. That contrasts with physical art that is sold by the artist once, only to appreciate in value without returning any of that value to the original creator.

For artists, NFTs can mean significant income in royalties without cuts to managers and middle men. They can use NFTs to make money on their artwork, which might otherwise circulate the internet via screenshots and illegal downloads, without them seeing a penny, he says.

The co-founders of OVRT say successful artists will make great reference points when they discuss the benefits of cryptocurrency with lawmakers and regulators, who will eventually be drafting policies and regulations governing these transactions.

“As someone who’s been in crypto for eight years, I know that for us to succeed, it’s vital that policymakers and regulators are making informed and educated decisions versus reactive ones,” McNey said.

But the conversation cannot begin with heady jargon like “yields, staking and decentralized banking,” he says. It has to begin somewhere tangible.

“I’m going to talk to them about art,” he said. “We have to meet them where they are.”

OVRT is fully remote right now, but eventually, Parker and McNey would like to open up a space — likely in Arlington, given Parker’s local connections — where they can showcase artists and host events. Next Wednesday (March 30), they are launching OVRT’s first NFT called “HYPEES,” made by Matt Corrado, a prolific D.C. artist who has worked with Nike, Heineken and Converse.

Essential tips for creatives running a business, according to this Ballston digital agency