Innovation & Job News

In "60 Seconds With…" we get to know the people behind the companies that make D.C. such a happening place. Today, we're talking with Donna Harris, who left her position as managing director with the Startup America Partnership to cofound 1776 in January 2013. 

 

Donna Harris: I assume you mean “real” job (my first actual job was working at a roller skating rink!). I started my career as a Systems Engineer at EDS Electronic Data Systems]. I worked there for five years and had the opportunity to lead major projects like helping General Motors figure out how to comply with the North American Free Trade Agreement, working to automate the vehicle registration process for the Dealer network, and implementing the Oracle Applications at Focus: HOPE, a major nonprofit organization.

 

As an entrepreneur, it’s incredibly rewarding to see your thesis become reality. We opened less than a year ago, and now we have over 200 companies as members, our Challenge Cup competition is winding down after running successful events in 16 cities around the world, we’re seeing companies we work with growing, and we’ve had about 6,000 visitors a month to 1776 since we opened. To see thought leaders, well-connected influencers and VIPs coming to 1776, meeting with startups and asking “what can I do to help you grow?” is very exciting. 

 

I’d honestly manufacture more time in the day. I’ve been thrilled with how the D.C. region has embraced the vision of 1776, and I also have a four-year-old son. So if I just had about eight more hours in a day, it would be perfect!

 

Many of my “a-ha’s” have been about “personal mastery” — finding ways to be productive and balance competing priorities, motivating myself when times are tough, figuring out how to not doubt myself especially when my ideas conflict with what is the “norm” around me. Realizing that much of what makes someone a success in life is not what happens to them, but what they do with what happens to them.

 

I read the Bible every day and that is the book that has the single greatest influence on my life. We live in a crazy world where it’s often hard to know what to do, and it helps me keep my focus and priorities straight.  

 

That’s a hard one to answer concisely. With cloud computing, the shift to smart phones, the advent of the App Store, the proliferation of social sharing, we’ve entered a completely new era of startups. [The] first generation of that era was focused on the consumer and industries like music, travel and photo sharing. And now, young companies have moved from making consumer apps to thinking about how they can bring similar disruption to every single industry. Overlay the “Lean Startup” movement, which takes the mystery out of the process, and we live in a tremendously exciting time that is turning our historical assumptions about startups (who does them and where?) on their heads. 

 

Locally, I think everyone should be paying attention to ID.me [formerly TroopID]. It’s an exciting product with many areas of potential, but beyond that, the team is incredible. They epitomize the ability to execute well. I also think oPower is very interesting. They are the exact kind of company that can and should thrive in the D.C. region.  

 

Coffee. Lots. Of. Coffee.  

 

Netflix. I can go for months without watching anything, but when I watch I’m a total binge watcher. I’ve been experiencing a bit of withdrawal, waiting for House of Cards and the final season of Breaking Bad…. 

 

Well, I have a four-year-old son and he’s really into reptiles and sports, so most of my app downloads are things like Killer Snake and Madden NFL. Personally, I recently downloaded RefreshMe, which helps me take notes related to my various calls and meetings and attach them to specific calls.

 

I was going to say traffic because that really does stink. But what I really loathe are arrogant drivers who think the rules don’t apply to them. D.C. seems chock full of people who think they are too important to wait in traffic like the rest of us.  

 

There is so much to love. The diversity and the depth of the people that live here [are] amazing. Where else can you live in the same neighborhood as a Nobel Prize winner, a former governor, a startup executive, and a think tank head? I also love the outdoor life--trails and parks, plus we’re a short drive to mountains and the ocean. It’s a great place to raise kids with so much to do.