Ben Hatten

Co-Founder of Dupont Circle Solutions, oddly tall, and a die hard Notre Dame fan

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@BasileGSenesi Ha - needless to say, different DCS......

[Haley Bryant 💛 @haleymbryant]

“You’re the 3rd DC based VC we’ve talked to this week!”

DC isn’t top of mind when people think about startup ecosystems, but that’s changing.

DMV startups raised $5bn in 2021 and $6bn in 2022. And we’re a lot more than govtech and cybersecurity. 👩🏾‍⚖️🔐

@cava went public with a top decile market cap of all IPOs YTD ($4.8B), joining notable DC based food & ecomm startups 🥗 @sweetgreen, 🍕@andpizza and 💐@urbanstems.

The VC in DC community is over 150 investors strong representing billions in AUM. And we all want to see more success stories like @Mapbox, @optoroinc, @churnzero, @arcadia, @EVERFI and @FiscalNote come out of our ecosystem.

Since joining @HustleFundVC a year ago, @Anthonyobijr at Virginia Venture Partners has been a constant drumbeat 🥁 sharing the great work that entrepreneurs in our area are doing.

Many of the key startup ecosystem ingredients are here with:

🎓 Leading universities like @Georgetown, @JohnsHopkins, @UVA (wahoowa!) and @HowardU
👩🏿‍🔬 @TJHSST_Official in Fairfax bringing together some of the brightest young minds in the country
🏃🏻‍♂️ Accelerators and foundries including @HalcyonIncubate, @DataTribe, @1863ventures, multiple @Techstars programs & more
🏕️ Top outdoor spaces and activities for inspiration and collaboration (what’s up @LetsGetOuterly!)

@DCstartupweek is around the corner with 100s of events meticulously curated by the incomparable @SeemaAlexander 💛

I’ll be speaking with other folks at the following events:
🧠 10.16: 3:20P-4P Inside the Mind of an Investor w/ @NasirQadree, Managing Partner of Zeal Capital Partners and @dahnag, Managing Partner of Halcyon
🌱 10.17 4P-4:45P Investor Take: Emerging Tech & Funding (AI, Web3, AR/VR) w/ Abid Siddiqui, EIR at @AI_Fund, JP Minetos Investor at @hartmanncap, @marlon_avery of AImpact
🫱🏾‍🫲🏿 10.18 1P-5P Founder and Investor Speed Dating w/ @ShulmanRogers
💰 10.20 1P-1:45P No More Bootstrapping: We’re Ready to Raise w/ Jade Garrett founder of @PositiveDVNC @FrankVTaylor investor at VVP Scotty L. investor at @lasolasvc and @mrsmincey founder of @drinkktwinery and investor

Hope to see you there! If you’re a local or visiting founder/funder and want to grab coffee or go for a walk that week, please get in touch: [email protected]

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@shannonrwatts @TennisChannel I don’t understand how they failed like that

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

As a big fan of the @industrydive team, strongly recommend this thread. @myfirstmilpod definitely made it sound like anyone could have done what the team built over the last 10 years....

[Ryan Willumson @ryanwillumson]

I just listened to the 8/11 episode of My First Million with @thesamparr and @shaanvp in which they “broke down” B2B media and Industry Dive. Put simply, it was an uninformed and shitty take. The entire episode is littered with factual inaccuracies as well as strategic ones.

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

Congrats to the axios team!!!

[Sara Fischer @sarafischer]

#BREAKING: @Axios agrees to sell to Cox Enterprises
— Cash deal values Axios at $525M
— Cox will put new money into company to grow biz
— Axios will spin off its software services arm @AxiosHQ
— Deal structure incentivizes management/employees to stay on
https://t.co/hvdDZ4QkFZ

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

Great win for #dctech - congrats to the whole @industrydive team!!!

[Sara Fischer @sarafischer]

Scoop: @industrydive to sell to U.K.-based events firm Informa https://t.co/e0adps0vZa

[Mark Suster @msuster]

1/ Starting a company is hard. It's way more stressful & lonely than most admit. Industry has been a cheerleader for years. But failures will go up exponentially now. I urge temperance in your urge to dunk on founders or funders who struggle. Humiliation + depression is dangerous

[Ethan Lynne @ethanclynne]

Glenn Youngkin is now mobilizing Virginia legislators to craft anti-abortion legislation, and the only standing in the way of that, is democrats one-seat majority in the state senate. Register to vote.

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@jlogic As someone who went through that same accelerator with you…..I definitely attribute a ton of the success on round 2 of company building to the failures of round 1. Losing Launch Box for DCTech still bums me out. I feel accelerators are great for training people for startups

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@danberger 5-10/month

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@steveressler @tylertringas I’ll echo Steve - we have a great community here from investors to builders

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@laura_reisert Awesome!!

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@AugustNoble @ShaanVP @friedberg I got one too and convinced colleagues to listen and get one - sounds so cool

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@Austen Thanks @pessala - would be happy to chat @Austen. We can hit those scenarios and @cynthiamcgillis can probably vouch for us too (worked with her at her last spot)
Email is Ben @ https://t.co/rA97yg78uB

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@ramrparimi Boys are older now (5 & 8), so been a bit. But 1) never miss a weekend workout - my routine was 100% going during the afternoon nap on both weekend days. 2) for during the week, would work out in the evening 2x a week post dinner.

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@evancharles Everfi

[Ben Hatten @benhatten]

@auren Welcome to the dmv! I’m in Arlington - happy to grab a coffee once you get settled

[Douglas Emhoff Archived @SecondGent46]

From our family to yours, Happy Hanukkah.