Startup Events in Washington

Generative Series: AI, Art & Culture returns to the LINE Hotel DC for AI & Restaurants, a live conversation-and-tasting event on Sunday, October 25th from 2-4pm. We're here to ask what happens when artificial intelligence meets the restaurant industry — from Michelin-level molecular gastronomy and AI-driven recipe creation to how fast-casual kitchens are cutting waste and cost. We're bringing together chefs, technologists, journalists and academics for a live conversation and tasting on how AI is reshaping food, from the kitchen to the table. This isn't just a conversation about operations. We're digging into what these shifts mean for the guest experience itself — how AI is changing the way people discover, order, and even taste food. On stage: Anna Spiegel, Axios D.C.'s food, lifestyle and city reporter and former Washingtonian food editor for a decade bringing her eye for the local restaurant and hospitality scene to the conversation Andy Brown, founder of Andy's Pizza, live-demoing a piece of kitchen hardware he invented himself — a vacuum-based dough-shaping mechanism he 3D-printed and then used generative AI to redesign, growing its working dimensions by 21%. He's bringing the actual hardware and AI software to walk the room through how it works. A food-tech platform voice and an academic/industry voice, rounding out a panel built to cover the technology, the industry, and the culture all at once Expect a curated, conversation-forward crowd, a working demo you won't see anywhere else in DC, and tastings that only come from mixing Michelin-trained chefs with machine learning. Space is limited — RSVP to save your seat.

STATION DC is the home of entrepreneurship in Washington. Washington, DC is home to an ambitious and growing community of entrepreneurs, founders, angel investors, venture capitalists, policymakers, regulators, and corporate leaders building and supporting companies across AI, energy, space, biotech, healthcare, national security, government, real estate, and beyond - creating jobs, solving important problems, and contributing to the public good. DC Entrepreneur & Investor Open House brings that community together for an open day of building, working, and connecting at STATION DC. We’ll kick things off with 1-2 short Builder Highlights, featuring DC entrepreneurs sharing what they’re building, what they’ve learned, what’s next, and how the community can help. No long panels or keynote speeches. Afterward, STATION DC will be open for co-working, conversations, and networking. Bring your laptop, work for a few hours, meet founders and investors, exchange ideas, and make connections. Whether you’re a longtime DC entrepreneur, a new founder, an angel investor, a VC, a policymaker, a corporate leader, or simply building something you think should exist, you’re welcome.

Join the Data Visualization and Data Engineers D.C. Meetups for a spooky evening of tall tales of data horror stories… broken dashboards, data pipelines full of tombstone records, mysterious creatures from the data swamp….. Costumes welcome. AGENDA 5:30 - Doors 5:30 - 6:15: Food & Socializing 6:15 - 6:30: Introductions 6:30 - 7:15: Featured Tale: Alex Gurvich 7:15 - 7:45: Tales from the Community (2-3 stories, 10-15 minutes each) 7:45 - 8:00: Pass the Flashlight (open floor) Abstract: If you've ever stared at a dashboard at 11 p.m. and felt a cold chill run down your spine, this event is for you. Data Viz D.C. and Data Engineering D.C. are joining forces for one night only to swap the stories we usually only tell after a few drinks. Every data professional has one. It's the pipeline that silently stopped loading in March, and nobody noticed until the board meeting in June. These aren't hypotheticals made up by an AI, they're the times we personally cost our actual employers real money, or stood close enough to watch it happen (wink wink). Featured Tale. Alex opens the night with a double feature. The first is a story still unfolding: a spec-driven development vibe-coded data reduction pipeline that was supposedly working fine, and is very much not fine. He's still fighting it. The second is a cautionary tale from the cloud: an unmonitored S3 sync, an EventBridge rule doing exactly what it was told, and the moment ten thousand Step Functions woke up at once. Tales from the Community. A few brave souls take the stage for longer stories of their own: the outages, the bad deploys, the numbers that were wrong for years. Pass the Flashlight. Then we dim the lights and pass the flashlight around. Anyone who wants to share a close call, catastrophe, or slow-motion disaster gets a turn. No slides required, and no judgment allowed. The goal isn't to scare you away from production. It's to remind everyone that we've all been there, and that talking openly about failure, with

🎃 Civic Tech DC’s Halloween + Birthday Celebration 👻 Civic Tech DC is turning 13! Come celebrate another year of bringing people together around technology, civic life, and making DC a little better. And also - Halloweeeeeen! Join us UPSTAIRS at Sudhouse for a night of costumes, drinks, snacks, friends, and civic-tech nerdiness. Whether you’ve been coming to Civic Tech DC events for years or this is your first one, you’re invited. (Note - this will replace our usual Project Night) 👻 Costume Contest Come dressed up! Techy, nerdy, civic-tech-inspired, and delightfully weird costumes are especially encouraged. There will be eternal glory for the costume contest. 🎂 And, of course, a birthday celebration with cake! (Please note: there is a cash bar with drinks and food) Civic Tech DC has been connecting technologists, designers, data nerds, organizers, public servants, journalists, and generally curious people in DC for 13 years. Come help us celebrate the community that makes it all happen. Come raise a glass to another year of Civic Tech DC! 🎃🏛️💻

Join us two days before Halloween for the great Ghost in the Machine Debate... Earlier this year, FAI's Samuel Hammond wrote that he can no longer rule out that today's AI systems have some form of subjective experience. In a rather different spirit, the Free Beacon's Aaron Sibarium recently reported rather critically on AI engineers who warn of AI "enslavement" and apologize to their chatbot for its suffering, worrying about the costs of machine-compassion... Time to argue then about the most haunted questions—Is there anyone home inside these systems? If there is, should we be afraid that it could hurt us or that we could be hurting it? And if AI has interests, who speaks for them? This debate will be moderated by Aspen's Samuel Kimbriel and co-hosted by the Philosophy and Society Initiative at Aspen Institute and the Foundation for American Innovation. Registration is by approval, no philosophy degree required. Doors - 6:30pm Debate - 7:15 - 8:15pm Party until late

You are cordially invited to our 2026 Health Innovation Spotlight, an evening bringing together healthcare leaders, social impact investors, and entrepreneurs working in health equity and innovation. Join us as we feature solutions from our newest cohort of health entrepreneurs and engage in a panel discussion on the future of health innovation. Agenda 5:30 PM: Doors Open – Networking & Refreshments 6:00 PM: Opening Remarks – Welcome from Halcyon & Kaiser Permanente Leadership 6:15 PM – 6:45 PM: Panel Discussion – Insights from Industry Leaders on Health Equity & Innovation 6:45 PM – 7:00 PM: Fellow Pitches – Pitches from Featured Health Cohort Startups 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Networking & Closing – Connect with Founders, Leaders, and Fellow Attendees Featured Cohort & Fellows: Below are the featured ventures in this year's 2026 US Health Accelerator Cohort. Conceivable (Kirsten Karchmer) – Conceivable is an operating system for women's reproductive health delivering AI-powered clinical care through a 24/7 team of specialized agents at a fraction of the cost of conventional IVF, designed to support women conventional fertility medicine never reaches across nine reproductive life stages. Cove (McCall Brinskele) – Cove is a medical device company developing a standardized at-home menstrual fluid collection system for diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Their platform enables researchers and clinicians to access a previously untapped biological sample type with consistent, research-grade quality. Freyya, Inc. (Gabriele G. Niederauer) – Freyya, Inc. is a wearable biofeedback platform that provides real-time monitoring during everyday activities, enabling clinicians to remotely guide therapy, improve adherence, expand access to care, and deliver objective data that supports better treatment outcomes for women suffering from pelvic floor disorders. Gisens Biotech (Luis Pierpauli) – Gisens Biotech is replacing periodic lab snapshots with real-time, non-invasive biomarker mo

A mission statement for the summit The DMV Executive Business Leadership Summit exists to connect entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and small business owners with executives, government leaders, funding organizations, and strategic partners who can help them access capital, grow their organizations, secure business space, and strengthen the regional economy. Building Relationships. Creating Opportunities. Strengthening Communities. Join us for an afternoon of leadership, networking, and collaboration at the Inaugural DMV Executive & Business Leadership Summit . This premier networking event will bring together 80 executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, elected officials, government representatives, investors, and community leaders from across the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Whether you're looking to grow your business, expand your professional network, explore partnerships, or connect with decision-makers, this summit is designed to create meaningful opportunities in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

The results of the 2026 midterm elections will shape the policy, funding, and regulatory landscape for years to come. Join DLA Piper for an exclusive discussion examining what the election outcomes mean for venture-backed companies, founders, and investors seeking to grow their businesses through government opportunities. The panel will provide practical insights into the shifting political environment and the implications for companies pursuing federal contracts, government-funded initiatives, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. Topics will include: Key election results and key changes in congressional leadership The outlook for federal spending, appropriations, and budget priorities Government contracting opportunities and risks under a new Congress Emerging policy developments affecting innovation, technology, defense, and other growth sectors What founders, executives, and investors should be monitoring as Washington sets its agenda for 2027 Whether you are a founder exploring the government marketplace, an investor evaluating portfolio company exposure, or an executive focused on growth through public sector opportunities, this briefing will provide actionable insights on what lies ahead and how to position your business for success. A networking reception will follow the program.

Hosted by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology and STATION DC. Reception hosted by With Honor. The Commission's authority ends December 31. What it built is the beginning. Carrying it forward takes Congress, industry and capital. In April 2025 the Commission called for $15 billion over five years to secure American leadership in biotechnology. Join Commission leadership, members of Congress, founders and investors for an afternoon on who carries that work into 2027. Agenda to be released soon! Tuesday, November 17, 2:00 to 6:00 PM STATION DC, 1323 4th St NE, Suite 200, Washington, DC 4:30 to 6:00 PM, Reception hosted by With Honor. Registration is approved on a rolling basis. Open to press. Questions: bobbyejogreen@stationdc.org About With Honor: With Honor is a cross-partisan organization working to strengthen our democracy by advancing bipartisan legislation and principled veteran leadership in Congress.

Data Visualization DC + Data Science DC joint meetup. Agenda: 5:30 - Doors 5:30 - 6:15: Food & Socializing 6:15 - 6:30: Introductions 6:30 - 8:00: Mapping Knowledge Across Time, Seven Books that Visualized the World - Paul Kahn If you're interested in the intersection of Data Science, Visual Design, UI/UX, Art, Psychology, and Business Intelligence, this event is for you! Talk: What patterns do we see when we place books that visualize the world side by side? Information Design author Paul Kahn answers this question with an informative and entertaining tour of seven extraordinary masterpieces, dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries. These Arabic, Catalan, Latin, German, Chinese, French, and English books present design systems that we can learn from. The conversation between their maps, diagrams and illustrations destabilizes the boundaries of art history and graphic design, shining a new light on the visualization patterns we use in the digital world today. Speaker Bio: Paul Kahn’s engagement with visualization of large knowledge structures began with hypertext research projects in the 1980s and continued with the development of diagram techniques for describing information architecture. He taught Information Design History at Northeastern University’s Information Design & Data Visualization program. He currently teaches at L'Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique and co-hosts the Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop in Vienna. Paul created the first agency in France focused on information architecture, preceded by a decade leading Dynamic Diagrams in Providence RI, and led UX projects as Experience Design Director at Mad*Pow. During and after the pandemic, he developed and wrote about the Covid-19 Online Visualization Collection (COVIC). His essays about information design and data visualization appear in Nightingale and EYE Magazine. See his Timeline for details. --- Data Viz DC is a program of Data Community DC. Learn more at www.dc2.org

***TO ATTEND BUT RSVP MUST*** This is the largest networking event for Entrepreneurs , Startups and Business Professionals in Washington DC . Calling All: Tech Startups! Entrepreneurs ! Artists ! Professionals ! Free-lancers, Thinkers, Game-Changers, and Heroes! Are you looking for co-founders, partners, coaches or core team members for your start-up? Please join us for an evening of creativity, inspiration and passionate conversations. Hosted By - Washington DC Entrepreneurs, Startup & Business Coalition. Please use @TechWebTalks to share your comments/pics for this event. Ambiance: - Name Tags will be provided to everyone who attends. We request you put your name and industry on your name tag. - Make sure you bring enough business cards. - The dress code is Business Casual. Timings: - Event is from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. ***Arriving on time recommended. Admission: Must RSVP. Connect With Us. Meetup Group Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn FACEBOOK Support The Space: Since the venue is lets us use the space for the event, please support them buy ordering (one mandatory) beverages and food. ***As alcoholic drinks are served at this venue, all attendees must be 21+. For Sponsorship & Business Queries Email FORWARDYOURCAREER@gmail.com Highlights From Previous Events www.professionalunite.com Connect With Us. Instagra m Tiktok LinkedIn FACEBOOK RSVP JUNE 1 First Name Last Name Miles Bryant Alexandra Armstrong Ifedolapo Ogunjubee Deepak Shrestha Najeeb Hatami Charles Ongele Megan (MJ) Sheckles Jeffrey Fogel Mohammed Mohammed Miyuki Fogel Mahesh Ramachandra Anh Nguyen Khadije Azimi Andre Boone Orest Schur Charles Herman Az Ela Perawit Boonsomchua Claire Lee Alisha Pasco Syed Sobhan Jehoshua Otuya Nazish Atta Mary Reinstadtler Chris Semonsen Chandra Char Joel McGill Siddhu McLeod Jihad Abdur-Rahman Fahad Hasan Ovi Pat J Amir Townsend Ruby Melton Puja Ankitha Ivaturi Natalia Reyes Asserias Tori Vestal Robert Kinnell Elli Stephanede John Fonville Andrew Fischer Adaku N

Join the French-American Chamber of Commerce for an extraordinary evening celebrating 50 years of strengthening business relationships between France and the United States . This black-tie Anniversary Gala will bring together CEOs, entrepreneurs, diplomats, government officials, and distinguished members of the French-American business community to celebrate the organizations and individuals whose leadership, innovation, and vision continue to strengthen transatlantic ties. Guests will enjoy an elegant Champagne Reception, a gourmet three-course dinner, exceptional networking opportunities, and the presentation of the 2026 Excellence Awards , recognizing outstanding achievements across the French-American business community. As we honor five decades of impact, we also look ahead to the Chamber's next chapter—celebrating the partnerships, leadership, and shared ambition that continue to shape the future of French-American business. Evening Program 6:00 PM | Champagne Reception Begin the evening with an elegant Champagne Reception featuring premium Champagne, fine wines, signature cocktails, and an exquisite selection of passed hors d'oeuvres. Reconnect with friends, welcome new members of the French-American business community, and enjoy an hour of exceptional networking before the Gala begins. 7:00 PM | Gala Dinner & Excellence Awards Guests are invited to take their seats as the French-American Chamber of Commerce officially opens its 50th Anniversary Gala. An Embassy Dining Experience Enjoy an elegant three-course dinner prepared by Daniel Labonne, Executive Chef of the Embassy of France , accompanied by French wines and served in one of Washington's most iconic diplomatic settings. The Gala Program Throughout the evening, guests will enjoy: A gourmet three-course dinner Presentation of the 2026 Excellence Awards Recognition of outstanding leaders and organizations A special tribute recognizing President Jean-Marc Gaultier's leadership and his lasting contrib