In DC’s Startup Scene, Growing Companies Face The Next Obstacle: Moving Offices
At Austin’s annual South by Southwest festival this year, DC's startup leaders descended to sell the city as the country's next center for innovation. KPMG's 2017 technology innovation hub survey placed the nation's capital among the top 10 American cities with a growing startup ecosystem.
Suddath Workplace Solutions has worked with a number of DC startups relocating to private offices, leveraging its local knowledge to help make the transition from co-working spaces to private offices easier. The mover has seen more teams consider making the jump from shared spaces in order to grow their brands.
Co-working offers startups the amenities of a Class-A office without high rents and long-term leases. Small teams can take advantage of luxuries like rooftop decks, lounges and free snacks.
The caveat is they have to share.
In Chicago, another city poised to become a tech hub, fitness platform startup Matchup experienced those growing pains in its 250 SF office at the Catapult co-working space. Provided with the bare basics in furniture, the team of nine was packed into a small room with little space for anything else.
Matchup will be moving to a 1,700 SF office in early October, complete with color-coordinated furniture and custom whiteboard walls.
While the DC tech scene has no core neighborhood, new entrepreneurs tend to head downtown, attracted to the protective umbrella of 1776's first campus. The accelerator has developed 250 startups across an eclectic collection of industries, from education to city planning.
The incubator offers DC startups an office, funding and connections to policymakers on Capitol Hill. The campus is also steps from the White House, in the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. Startups can keep growing teams happy with access to bars, restaurants and shopping.
When it comes time to move on, finding a dedicated office in the metro area can be financially challenging. Outside of 1776, companies not only have to compete for expensive physical space, but must also navigate DC’s strict investment policies. This often dictates where companies can set up shop as they look for more investors.
DC has the highest capital gains tax, at 9%, relative to nearby Maryland and Virginia, at 5.8%, according to the tax foundation.
Time will tell if the Trump administration will follow through on its tax reform plans. Until then, successful companies have made the transition to nearby neighborhoods supporting tech development, like the Ballston Business Improvement District in Arlington, Virginia.
Whether moving downtown or across the Potomac, the process of relocating can be daunting for any business. Suddath Workplace Solutions, the office division of global moving company Suddath, helps make the process easier.
Suddath maintains full-service facilities in Baltimore, Forestville, Maryland, and Dulles, Virginia, with additional expansion scheduled for the third quarter of 2017. A recent addition of local expertise to the workforce strengthened the mover’s already prominent footprint in the DC area.
After local companies Kane Co. and Office Movers declared bankruptcy, Suddath added the companies’ former employees to its team. Headed by James Durfee, a former Kane Co. senior executive with 40 years of industry experience, Suddath provides the knowledge and reach of a homegrown DC operation.
Suddath Workplace Solutions offers a comprehensive plan to help furnish and relocate businesses, from designing office and furniture floor plans to strategies for moving employees across departments and varying schedules. Technology-oriented companies will also appreciate the movers’ commitment to modernization: Clients can monitor every aspect of the process directly on Suddath’s web-based system.
For startups making the first big move to a dedicated office, Suddath is the experienced moving partner on which DC teams can depend.
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