Sequoia Apps LLC will make a decision by this summer whether to change its investment strategy for startups.
Launched in 2013, the Reston, Va.-based, employee-owned accelerator provides seed money and mentoring to cybersecurity and analytic startups from its staff. But “if our own staff is not producing investment ideas, we are considering expanding to non-employee startups with similar backgrounds,” says CEO Richard Stroupe, Jr.
Stroupe declined to specify how many and what startups are currently in Sequoia Apps. He did say that the company has “a few” employee projects in the works. But due to the economy, he continues, “there are few working cybersecurity startups in the District of Columbia area.”
Sequoia Apps is part of Sequoia, founded in 2012 to provide high-end software development and engineering services to government contractors and the U.S. intelligence community.
Its clients include small government contractors in defense, classified, cybersecurity and project management. It also serves as a contractor to large companies like SAIC and Leidos that work in the intelligence community.
“We take care of our contractors,” says Lucia Simmons, Sequoia director.
Stroupe says Sequoia is in “expansion mode,” aiming to break into the commercial area. “We see a lot of interest in enrichment of data,” he says, specifically “how to improve efficiencies in collecting, sharing and managing data primarily in the analytics and cybersecurity areas.”
A 14-year industry veteran, Stroupe says Sequoia Apps was formed to fill a need he saw. “There were talented software engineers who felt they were being left behind because they weren’t in California or Boston,” he says of two technology hubs.
Sequoia Apps is intended to help them devise a business plan, build a prototype and introduce them to the local venture capital community.
“Then they can expand marketing and sales, and at that point raise money,” he says.