1776 cofounders Donna Harris and Evan Burfield, and Paul Singh, founder of Disruption and now managing director of 1776 have recorded and posted a
podcast, which is apparently the first in a new series about the global incubator and seed fund.
After announcing the acquisition of both
Disruption Corp in Arlington and
Hattery in San Francisco in the past two weeks,
1776 faced a lot of questions from the #DCtech community. The first episode of the podcast answers a few of those questions and explains some of the reasons behind the acquisitions.
In it, Harris talks about acquiring Disruption's Crystal City space as a strategic move to capitalize on the government presence in the area. "Having a campus in Crystal City unlocks many powerful networks [for startups]...government contractors and major corporations and associations who understand how government operates who, frankly, have never been asked to help startups grow," Harris says, in the podcast.
As for acquiring Hattery, she says, "You can't build a global incubator without having a presence on the west coast."
Singh addresses questions in the community about a possible "loss of options" with two tech incubators becoming one. "No one is losing any options," he says. "The access to capital and to workspace is still there. 1776 is in a position to become an API of venture capital and an API of functional expertise."