MEDIA RELEASE
September 22, 2015
CONTACT
Lucas Czarnecki, Marketing Manager
Tom Tom Founders Festival
e: marketing@tomtomfest.com
p: 239 297 6297
Technology Mixer at Tom Tom Gathers Region’s Fastest Growing Firms
PsiKick, GovSmart, WillowTree, SNL, & UVA’s i.Lab join 50+ firms at
Tom Tom’s Fall Block Party at the IX Art Park on Friday 9/25
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (September 22, 2015) – Tom Tom’s 4th Annual Fall Block Party hosted with GovSmart will include a Technology Mixer that assembles some of the top technology firms and entrepreneurially-minded students from across the state. The event is intended to build the Tech Community, connect knowledge workers in the region, and offer recruitment opportunities. The Tech Mixer takes place this Friday, September 25, at the IX Art Park, from 5pm – 8pm.
The Tech Mixer, hosted by PsiKick, will include more than 50 of Charlottesville’s hottest tech firms, including Borrowed & Blue, SNL Financial, and WillowTree Apps. PsiKick is an example of the types of successes in the region. Emerging from University of Virginia research, PsiKick’s ultra-low power wireless sensor platforms can run on energy in the environment–such as body heat or indoor light–with potential sector-wide impacts. This past year marked a significant milestone when PsiKick received funding from NEA, one of the world’s premier venture capital firms.
Brendan Richardson, co-founder and CEO of PsiKick described why his company is getting involved with the Tech Mixer: “Being a founder of a startup in Charlottesville and knowing a number of other founders, we talk about the need to bring the technology community closer together and foster more interaction among entrepreneurs, inventors and investors. Founders in Charlottesville deal with a lot of similar issues that face startups everywhere, and we want to extend that circle of support to a broader entrepreneurial community in Charlottesville.”
The Mixer assembles companies of all stages and industries. Twelve recent start-ups from the i.Lab at U.Va. incubator program located at the Darden School of Business will be exhibiting alongside successfully funded firms such as Borrowed & Blue, ArcheMedx, and WillowTree. Some of the region’s biggest successes will also be present, including GovSmart, which is Charlottesville’s fastest growing firm, making the INC500 two years running and posting $69 Million in revenue in only its fourth year, and notable successes such as Charlottesville based SNL Financial, which announced this month its $2.2 billion acquisition by McGraw Hill Financial.
Students from seven universities across Virginia will participate in the Tech Mixer as part of HackCville’s Startup Trip. Undergraduates from George Mason, James Madison, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Richmond, and the University of Virginia will tour CVille’s most innovative workplaces, then connect at the Tech Mixer for an opportunity to network with some of the region’s most promising firms. U.Va. is one of the nation’s top-ranked universities, and programs such as the i.Lab at UVA and HackCville’s Startup Trip bring together world-class ideas and entrepreneurs at all stages of venture creation.
Regional boosters will also be present, including the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Charlottesville CBIC, the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, and the Charlottesville Office of Economic Development.
According to Jason Ness, Business Development Manager at Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development, over 5,300 citizens work in professional, scientific, and technical services, with an additional 2,100 in information services. These tech-related jobs combine to make up roughly 10% of the region’s jobs. Ness points to a Bay Area Council Research study shows that “for each job created in the high-tech sector, approximately 4.3 jobs are created (multiplier effect) in other local goods and services sectors across all income groups.”
Tech Mixer Hosts:
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PsiKick GovSmart The Batten Institute, U.Va.’s Darden School of Business HackCville Borrowed & Blue Relay Foods Charlottesville Office of Economic Development Ting WillowTree The McIntire School of Commerce Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce |
i.Lab at U.Va. SNL Financial Social Entrepreneurship at U.Va. CCRI U.Va. Career Center Charlottesville Tomorrow Charlottesville Business Innovation Council White Beckert & Associates Center for Innovative Technologies StoryWare Indoor Biotechnologies Virginia Diodes Scitent |
Tech Participants:
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Alloy Apprenticeship Connections Archemedx Caribe Juice CaseNex Dojo Research and Consulting DreamPower Foodio GigDog In A Flash Laser Lighthouse Studio Modatrova Newswise Private Practice |
Pure Hibi rADical RouteMine Sam Hill Entertainment Scivera Sensibility Care Silverchair Springbok StockLife Tech Dynamism Telehealth UpHex |
ABOUT THE FALL BLOCK PARTY
Tom Tom’s 4th annual Fall Block Party hosted with GovSmart returns to Charlottesville this weekend for a two-day event with nearly one hundred art, craft, food, and drink vendors, set against a musical backdrop of indie rock, reggae, psychedelic funk, and electronic jam. The 4th annual event celebrates the local founders in Tom Tom’s “Founding Cville” program, assembles the creative and entrepreneurial organizations in the region, and inspires Charlottesville for the Spring Founders Festival. The event takes place Friday, September 25 (5pm – 11pm) and Saturday, September 26 (12pm – 7pm) at the IX Art Park, 963 2nd Street SE, Charlottesville Va., 22902.
ABOUT TOM TOM FOUNDERS FESTIVAL
Tom Tom Founders Festival is a 501c3 nonprofit that hosts nearly one hundred free events every year in Charlottesville, VA. Its mission is to catalyze the formation of new creative, civic, and entrepreneurial ventures. In Spring 2015, Tom Tom had attendance of over 26,000 and showcased 381 community organizations.
ABOUT PSIKICK
PsiKick is one of Charlottesville’s most innovative companies. Formed with technologies developed at the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan, PsiKick creates next generation Ultra-Low-Power wireless sensing devices – the lowest-power sensing devices in the world. By enabling sensor nodes to power themselves from the ambient environment and no longer being reliant on batteries, PsiKick is poised to lay the foundation for the future trillion sensor vision being promoted by the world’s leading technology firms. Their chips are being recognized by EE Times, MIT, and Forbes as the key technology for the Internet of Things (IoT).
ABOUT GOVSMART
GovSmart is Charlottesville’s fastest-growing firm, and was recently profiled by Forbes as #20 on their Most Promising American Companies List. Govsmart provides IT products and services to the government and institutions such as the Smithsonian Institute, the World Bank, and the Department of Education, among others. In their 4th year of business, they posted $69 million in revenue and employ 28 Charlottesville residents.
