DC Inno's 50 on Fire honors the hottest companies, organizations and people from across a number of categories, each one operating within or around the city's innovation economy.
You might be looking at this list and think "Huh, this is a different timeline than I remember." And you aren't wrong. In subsequent years, we would first announce the 150 finalists and then wait until our end-of-year celebration to reveal the 50 winners. This year, we're not waiting.
Last week, we unveiled our 200+ finalists, showcasing all of the nominations we received this year — plus a handful from our internal team here at DC Inno. As a way of putting more of a spotlight on the D.C. area's top 50 innovators, we're announcing the winners today, and we'll celebrate all of them at our annual 50 on Fire celebration on Nov. 1. Over the next few weeks, you'll see profiles, stories and more about some of our top innovators to celebrate their accomplishments in 2017.
The competition was red hot this year, and it's not over yet. At our event in November, we'll unveil the 10 Inno Blazers, picked by a panel of judges to honor the trailblazers in the District's innovation scene. The Blazers, like in year's past, will be introduced via an action-packed video. So, we invite all 50 winners, nominees, and anyone that's involved, interested or invested in DC innovation and startups to attend. (You can register here).
Got it? Good. Here are your 2017 50 on Fire. Congrats to all.
Community
Rebecca Yarbourgh - Vinetta Project, The Offline Society
Penny Lee - 1776
Jessica Bell - The Washington Post
Melissa Bradley - Project 500
Brian Park - Startup Grind DC & Fishbowl Labs
Leslie Tita - I/O SPACES
Design
David Shove-Brown - //3877
Gavin Daniels - Wingate Hughes
Education
Elizabeth Lindsey - ByteBack
Monica Kang - InnovatorsBox
Shanaz Chowdhery - General Assembly
Vadim Polikov - Legends of Learning
Government & Advocacy
Ximena Hartsock - Phone2Action
Archana Vemulapalli - Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia
Healthcare & Medicine
Shawn Dolley - Cloudera
Investment
Todd Klein - Revolution
Lisa Cuesta - NextGen Venture Partners
Julia Taxin - Grotech Ventures
Lifestyle
Pia Carusone and Rachel Gardner, Republic Restoratives
Ariel Pasternak - pineapple DC
Alisha Ramos - Girl’s Night In
Jason Fudin - WhyHotel
Febin Bellamy - Unsung Heroes
Marketing & Advertising
Allen Gannett - TrackMaven
Erik Requidan - Intermarkets
Technology
Emily Dresner - Upside Travel
Ryan Croft - TransitScreen
Bill Cronin - Xometry
Amelia Friedman and Param Jaggi - Hatch Apps
Marla Blow - FS Card
(Note: Finalists for the wild card "Inno Picks" category were categorized into the appropriate category for judging by DC Inno.)
