Re:The DC Startup Community
by caseysoftware on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:50AM
(#2004310)
Careful of the golden handcuffs though.
Like it or not, many of the government contractors are in pretty stable multi-year contracts and are making north of 100-150k. Unless they have their finances in excellent condition, many of them can't afford to join a startup part time.
Though almost everyone is looking for side projects and something interesting to do in their spare time, so recruiting someone for 10-20 hrs/week is relatively easy.
This might be changing... The Secretary of Defense announced a few months ago that he wants to cut contractors by 10 percent a year for 3 years: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/08/th...
Even if that does happen, all it means is that you can hire the bottom 30 percent
You assume the government (and contractors) are good at spotting talent and understanding its value.
3 morons can look more productive than 1 talented techie to someone that doesn't understand what any of them are doing
One of the main advantages DC has is there is a huge supply of engineers and developers working for major defense and government contractors just waiting to be poached by a hot new startup.