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This article was written by Arlington Economic Development.
In early December, Arlington Economic Development honored the winners of its fastest growing companies competition — known as the Arlington Fast Four. The winners were formally announced and recognized at a small reception at Ballston Local. County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti presented the award to the four winning companies.
Award nominees were privately held companies that showcased sound revenue growth from 2018-2020. Applicants were required to provide income statements to show proof of growth and revenue. The competition recognized the leading companies within four levels of revenue, spanning from $500,000 to $25 million and above per year.
Congratulations to the 2021 Fast Four winners:
- $500k-$1.5M: Eminent Future (Rosslyn) is a digital product and innovation company that focuses on helping organizations and government agencies revamp business processes and technologies. Eminent Future began operations in Crystal City in 2009 and has since expanded and moved to Rosslyn, with a client roster that includes the Department of Defense, Air Force as well as nonprofits such as Global Village. This is the second Fast Four win for Eminent Future. See what CEO Jose Risi says was key to Eminent Future’s growth.
- $1.5M-$5M: GoTab (Ballston) empowers consumers with contactless technology that puts them in control. GoTab operators run lean, profitable hospitality operations like contactless ordering, contactless payment and a QR-based Point of Sale system. It’s a favorite tool of a number of Arlington restaurants. Find out what CEO Tim McLaughlin says contributed to GoTab’s growth.
- $5M-$25M: Quantitative Scientific Solutions (Ballston) is a scientific and technical consulting and data analytics firm that supports Federal, State, local and commercial clients with science and technology needs. Clients include the Office of Naval Research in Ballston, NASA and the U.S. Army to name a few. Hear Founding Partner Dr. David Guarrera’s thoughts on business in Arlington.
- $25M and above: Fors Marsh Group (Ballston) combines the power of research and strategy to solve social, commercial, and health-related challenges. In business since 2002, it has applied science and strategy to create positive behavior changes in people and program improvements in government. As a B Corporation, FMG governs from a unique set of values that compound the positive impact achieved for employees, clients and partners. See what CEO Ben Garthwaite says about growing his business.
Arlington is fortunate to have companies like these that drive growth and innovation in our region while solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.
This article was written by Arlington Economic Development.
Arlington Economic Development is proud to announce its seventh annual Fast Four Awards. The award program honors the fastest growing companies in the Arlington business community and recognizes their success, creativity, and in this year’s edition, resiliency in the face of the global pandemic.
The Fast Four Awards honor Arlington companies that are exhibiting significant revenue growth in the following four annual revenue categories:
- $500,000 to $1.5M
- $1.5M to $5M
- $5M to $25M
- $25M and above
To be eligible, companies must be privately held, non-retail, headquartered in Arlington and show continuous revenue growth between 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Interested companies must submit a simple online application and provide income statements to show proof of growth and revenue. The company with the fastest growth rate in each revenue category will be honored as one of Arlington’s fastest growing businesses. Applications are due by midnight on Friday, November 12, 2021.
The winners from the previous edition of the Fast Four Award winners were:
- Deft Consulting:$500,000 to $1.5M
- Hungry: $1.5M to $5M
- Capitol Bridge: $5M to $25M
- Higher Logic: $25M and above
(Awards were not held in 2020 due to the pandemic)
The 2021 Arlington Fast Four winners will be announced virtually during the week of December 6. Please follow Arlington Economic Development on LinkedIn to see which companies take home the prize.
Arlington companies may apply for the 2021 Fast Four Awards here.
This article was written by Sindy Yeh, Senior Business Ambassador for Arlington Economic Development.
For the fifth year in a row, Arlington is celebrating its fastest growing companies.
The Fast Four Award honors Arlington companies that are growing quickly in a variety of revenue categories. Whether a technology-based or retail business, the Fast Four Award aims to recognize thriving companies across industry sectors. The award is also an opportunity for local companies to showcase their growth while demonstrating Arlington’s business-friendly environment.
To be eligible, companies must be privately held, be based in Arlington, and show continuous revenue growth between 2016 and 2018. To apply, companies must submit an online application and provide income statements to show proof of growth and revenue. The company with the fastest growth rate in each revenue category will be honored as one of Arlington’s fastest growing businesses.
The 2018 award winners were Arlington companies, AM LLC, LiveSafe, Eminent IT, and Mind, Body, Health.
The 2019 Arlington Fast Four winners will be formally announced on December 5 at the Arlington Premiere event to be held at Ballston Quarter. Arlington Premiere is an exclusive event where Arlington’s newest business owners have the opportunity to meet key community and government leaders while learning about the many resources available to them within the County.
We encourage fast-growing companies to apply for the 2019 Fast Four Awards.
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.
(Updated at 12:05 p.m.) John Kaufhold had been working at NIH doing deep learning research, but realized he’d be better off working on his own.
So he quit his job in May of 2013 and began Deep Learning Analytics, which is currently based in Rosslyn, just a month later.
Deep learning finds patterns in data. Some examples of deep learning and artificial intelligence are Siri, when the technology learns a user’s voice and transcribes his or her words, and self-driving cars that learn roads and driving patterns over time.
At Deep Learning Analytics, data scientists specifically focus on the content of images, Kaufhold said. In other words, they find things in images and say what they are.
“You can do that in medical, supply chain management, you can do that in biology, you can do that in defense applications. So there are plenty of applications where you can get a lot of economic value from you have an image and then you have to say what’s in it,” Kaufhold said.
Some of the first projects Deep Learning Analytics worked on included analyzing combat casualty care and predicting school dropouts for Arlington Public Schools.
One of the biggest and most surprising projects the startup won was a government program by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on analyzing radar images. DARPA was having a problem looking at radar images and could not get past a longstanding benchmark. Research into the problem had been abandoned for years. But then Kaufhold approached the project manager at DARPA proposing that deep learning could help.
So Deep Learning Analytics sent a proposal and within six weeks they were significantly outperforming the state of the art. As a result, they were awarded $6 million for the project and had beat out major government contractors such as Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin and only two people including Kaufhold worked on the proposal.
“It was really unusual that two people could write a proposal for a $6 million program and win it,” Kaufhold said. “It’s also crazy that not only did we win that we then won the next phase while competing the companies that should have been able to outperform us.”
In July 2017, Deep Learning Analytics was awarded another $6 million for the second phase of the project. Now the startup has gone from 2 employees in 2014 to 12 today.
In November, for the third year in a row, the startup was named the one of the county’s “Fast Four” fastest growing companies by Arlington Economic Development.
“It’s great to be recognized for our growth and it also speaks to Arlington as a place to grow a small business like ours especially in a space that’s really hard to recruit in, it’s really hard to find good data scientists and talent that can do things like deep learning and artificial intelligence,” Kaufhold said.
While Kaufhold said he’s honored by the recognition, he said there isn’t enough credit given to Deep Learning Analytics for its diversity. The startup currently has six men and six women on its team.
“That’s something I wish were recognized more in the Washington, D.C. area. I think we could be a better public beacon of that kind of leadership of women in this region,” he said.
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza.
Four Arlington-based startups have made it onto Deloitte’s 2023 North America Technology Fast 500 Rankings list, released last week.
- 29. GoTab, with 6,080% growth
- 372. Brazen, with 342% growth
- 423. Interos, with 287% growth
- 525. Govini, with 212% growth
Awardees were selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, which ranged anywhere from 201% to 222,189% but had an average growth rate of 1,934% and a median growth rate of 497%, per a press release.
“Each year, we look forward to reviewing the progress and innovations of our Technology Fast 500 winners,” said Paul Silverglate, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader, in a statement. “This year is especially celebratory as we expand the number of winners to better represent just how many companies are developing new ideas to progress our society and the world, especially during a slow economy.”
All four Arlington companies have seen big changes recently. For most, the challenges Covid presented became fuel for their achievements.
GoTab’s streamlined ordering platform tailored to customers and restaurant staff rocketed into the public eye during Covid, when venues had to adapt to contact-less interactions. It has since launched new platforms, raised millions and expanded into Canada.
The fintech company Interos was founded in 2005 but its mission — using artificial intelligence-powered software to help businesses identify disruptions to their supply chain — became especially relevant during Covid, which caused trade restrictions and product shortages.
In 2021, Interos became Arlington’s first private startup to reach “unicorn” status, or a $1 billion valuation. Between 2019 and 2021, the company grew by 303% and has had its platform used by NASA, the U.S Department of Defense and several Fortune 500 companies.
Brazen provides virtual and in-person recruiting solutions to speed up the hiring process and works with some of the top brands in the world, including 15% of the Fortune 100. It has been expanding since it raised $3 million in 2019, but saw a marked increase in interest during Covid, when virtual events became the norm.
It was recently acquired by the cloud-based talent acquisition software provider Radancy.
Govini uses data and machine learning to advance U.S. competitiveness and combat eroding military dominance. Its claims to fame include a $400 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, 5-year contract for data and analytics with the Pentagon, which it landed in 2019.
This year, it launched Ark.ai, which uses AI and machine learning to scan commercially available data for information to address “challenges in supply chain, nuclear modernization, acquisition, procurement, science and technology and foreign influence,” per a press release.
The company tied its recent growth not to Covid but with other current events: China’s rise to power and Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“In the face of these threats, national security leaders have realized that maximizing the Defense Acquisition Process is the first step to building an enduring military advantage,” Govini CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty said in another press release.
“This shift is evident in our growth and the widespread adoption of our flagship product, Ark.ai, across the Department of Defense,” she continued. “Govini remains deeply committed to equipping the defense community with a platform that answers the growing call for rapid, data-informed acquisition.”
This article was sponsored by Arlington Economic Development‘s Business Investment Group.
For the fifth year in a row, Arlington Economic Development honored the winners of its fastest-growing companies competition — known as the Arlington Fast Four.
The winners were formally announced and recognized at the Arlington Premiere event held on December 5 at the Ballston Quarter. The Arlington Premiere is a biannual event welcoming new businesses to Arlington. Close to 200 business leaders attended the December reception along with County officials, partner organizations, like the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and the Ballston Business Improvement District.
Award nominees were privately-held companies that showcased sound revenue growth in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Applicants were required to provide income statements to show proof of growth and revenue. The competition recognized companies within four categories of revenue, spanning from $500,000 to $25 million and above per year.
The 2019 Fast Four Winners are:
$500k-$1.5M: Deft Consulting (Clarendon)
Deft Consulting is a software services firm specializing in Appian low-code implementations. Deft was founded in 2016 by a former Appian Corporation employee, Scott Frantz, and the company has become a highly regarded official partner of Appian Corporation. Founders say that Arlington County’s resources, specifically those of AED, and the Arlington Chamber of Commerce have been extremely helpful in facilitating the business’s learning and growth as a small business.
$1.5M-$5M: Hungry Marketplace (Rosslyn)
Hungry Marketplace is a food-tech catering company that offers a mobile and online food platform connecting professional chefs to customers. The company will also deliver the fresh food from these chefs to customers. Started in 2016, Hungry expanded rapidly from the Washington area to Philadelphia, Atlanta and recently to Boston.
Hungry has deep roots in Arlington. Some of the founders live here and have founded several other Arlington-based companies such as Buysafe and Livesafe.
$5M-$25M: Capitol Bridge (Columbia Pike)
Founded in 2012, Capitol Bridge is an Arlington, Virginia-based SBA 8(a) business providing data and record management services, independent medical reviews, medical coding and administrative staffing. With offices in Arlington; Pittsford, New York; and Indianapolis, Indiana, Capitol Bridge has strategically developed its geographic footprint allowing it to be near its customers.
Capitol Bridge has served a wide variety of customers, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Arlington National Cemetery, the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies at both a federal and state level.
$25M+: Higher Logic (Rosslyn)
Higher Logic is an industry leader in cloud-based engagement platforms. Its data-driven approach gives organizations an expanded suite of engagement capabilities, including online community and marketing automation. Organizations worldwide use Higher Logic’s software platform to bring people together by giving their community a home to interact, share ideas, answer questions and stay connected.
Higher Logic also has strong connections to Arlington. The company started out in a small office on Lee Highway, then moved to the Rosslyn/Courthouse area and are now located in a large office on N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn with beautiful views of the river.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.
Several Arlington startups have made an appearance on Deloitte’s top 500 fastest growing technology companies in 2018.
The annual “Fast 500” list looks at companies developing everything from entertainment to biotech nationwide. Overall, the survey found that the fastest growing industry sector was software, accounting for 64 percent of the total tech company growth over the last year. On the list were four Arlington software companies: Distil Networks, Mobile Posse, Fonteva, and Higher Logic.
The highest on the list was Distil Networks, ranked at number 131.
Distil Networks is a bot mitigation network that scans incoming data to filter out “bad bot” traffic hiding among the human and “good bot” information streams. The aim is to protect websites from data mining, spam and fraud.
“Founded in 2011, Distil was at the forefront of the bot problem before bots were part of everyday discourse, particularly surrounding social media and election meddling,” said Tiffany Olson Kleemann, CEO of Distil Networks. “We’re the experts at protecting websites, mobile apps, and APIs from automated attacks. We’re honored to be listed among so many esteemed and innovative companies solving some of today’s most challenging security and business problems.”
Over the last year, the company saw 872 percent growth. The company is located in Ballston at 4501 N. Fairfax Drive.
The next highest was Mobile Posse Inc. at number 237. Mobile Posse develops non-intrusive advertising on mobile devices, which delivers messages to locked screens and home screens. The company works with major North American phone carriers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
“Our experts at Mobile Posse are dedicated to creating new and innovative solutions to put the content people love at their fingertips,” said Jon Jackson, Founder and CEO of Mobile Posse, via email. “The ‘Fast 500’ is an award that punctuates our belief that we are moving into a new era of mobile content discovery, one where innovative solutions make it simple and easy for smartphone users to thrive and win.”
Jackson said one of the biggest events for the company over the last year was the launch of Firstly Mobile, a new platform that allows advertising content to be placed on the home screen and be accessible by swiping. The new product aimed at making advertising as “frictionless” as possible.
Jackson said soon after launch, Mobile Posse topped 7 million active daily users. Overall, Deloitte said the company saw 387 percent growth over the last year. The company is located in Ballston at 1010 N. Glebe Road.
At 286th on the list is Fonteva, a company that sets up membership software for associations and organizations.
“It is an honor to be recognized among so many talented companies,” said Jerry Huskins, Fonteva CEO and co-founder, in a press release. “Our past, present and future is a testament to the passion and engagement of our employees, customers, and partners. This combination is a force to be reckoned with and has resulted in a business with products that make us incredibly proud.”
Over the last year, Fonteva saw 291 percent growth. The company is located in Ballston at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive.
Higher Logic, a cloud-based engagement platform, sits at 348 on the list. The company offers organizations new ways to set up online communities and automate marketing.
The company, located in Rosslyn at 1919 N. Lynn Street, saw 228 percent growth over the last year.
This spring, drivers may notice the county testing out a new road treatment to reduce speeding through left turns.
In the next month or two, the county will start installing small raised bumps called hardened centerlines along the yellow centerline at five local intersections. That’s according to Christine Baker, who coordinates Arlington’s Vision Zero efforts, which aim to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
Hardened centerlines are designed to make intersections safer for pedestrians by encouraging drivers to make wider, “safer and more predictable” left turns at slower speeds, without reducing traffic capacity, per an explainer for the pilot. Another goal is to increase the visibility of pedestrians in crosswalks.
Drivers will find the centerlines at five intersections that were chosen through crash hot spot reviews and other crash analyses showing these locations experience noticeable left-turn crash patterns, the county says.
The intersections — and the number of serious and fatal crashes they have seen between 2013-2023 — are:
- Clarendon Blvd at N. Rhodes Street, between Courthouse and Rosslyn (three four severe-injury crashes, including three involving pedestrians)
- Fairfax Drive at N. Randolph Street, in Ballston (six severe-injury crashes, equally split among pedestrian and angle crashes)
- Columbia Pike at S. Dinwiddie Street, near Arlington Mill (26 severe-injury crashes and one fatal crash, including 10 pedestrian crashes and nine angle crashes)
- Columbia Pike at S. Four Mile Run Drive, near Barcroft (a fatal pedestrian crash in 2019)
- S. Kenmore Street at 24th Street S., in Green Valley (no data on critical and fatal crashes in the last decade)
“We are excited to be piloting new in-street centerline hardening devices in Arlington later this spring,” said a February Vision Zero newsletter announcing the pilot. “Hardened centerlines are a proven safety tool used to reduce turning speeds and increase visibility of pedestrians for turning motorists at intersections.”
Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services will install the devices and collect data over the course of spring. This summer, the county will monitor how road users take to the new devices and collect feedback from the community before evaluating next steps in the fall.
Similar devices have been installed at numerous intersections in D.C.
A new report on crash “hot spots” in Arlington, published this month, says centerline hardening is also coming to Langston Blvd and Fort Myer Drive, in Rosslyn.
The man who struck and killed a woman near the Thomas Jefferson Community Center in the fall of 2022 will spend four years in prison.
Julio David Villazon received his 10-year sentence, of which six years were suspended, on Friday, according to Arlington County Circuit Court records. After his release, he will have five years of supervised probation. The court also suspended his driver’s license indefinitely.
Villazon blew through a stop sign in his truck and struck Viviana Oxlaj Pérez, 52, while she was walking toward a nearby 7-Eleven one August evening, family members told ARLnow after the crash. Oxlaj Pérez, a married mother of six, later died at the hospital.
Shortly after, Arlington County police arrested Villazon, who was 62 at the time.
He was charged in Arlington County Circuit Court with two felony involuntary manslaughter charges — one of which specified the crash involved alcohol — as well as a felony charge for failing to stop after an injury-causing crash and a misdemeanor charge for his second driving-while-intoxicated offense.
This time last year, a grand jury indicted him on all but the felony involuntary manslaughter charge attributing the crash to alcohol. In October, days before a 10-day jury trial was set to begin, Villazon pleaded guilty to the three remaining charges.
During his sentencing hearing last week, his DWI and failure to stop charges were dismissed. The alcohol-involved involuntary manslaughter charge, for which he was not indicted, is listed as “nolle prosequi,” meaning the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney opted not to prosecute this charge.
State guidelines say involuntary manslaughter charges come with either a prison term between 1-10 years or a fine of up to $2,500, or sometimes both. The felony failure-to-stop charge is also punishable as involuntary manslaughter.
As Villazon pled guilty to the top charge, dropping or keeping the others would not have changed his sentence, a local defense attorney told ARLnow on background.
Over the last decade, Arlington saw on average 154 alcohol-involved crashes per year. The number peaked at 203 in 2017 before falling to a 10-year low of 96 in 2020. Post-pandemic, the number of such crashes has since risen steadily, erasing the four-year decline.
Following the fatal hit-and-run, county officials focused on drunk-driving education. After another fatal crash occurred a few weeks later, however, the Arlington County Board pressed for faster progress on the investigation into Oxlaj Pérez’s death as well as other Vision Zero initiatives, including securing speeding cameras, which were still stuck in procurement as of last fall.
Relief is coming for a crash-prone intersection in front of the Lubber Run Community Center.
Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services says it is working on an expedited design and construction timeline to install a traffic signal at the intersection of N. Park Drive and N. George Mason Drive, near Barrett Elementary School, by the end of 2024.
Last month, the county told ARLnow it was working to get a signal installed within the next three years. The decision to shorten the timeline responds to an uptick in crashes there this year, DES told the Arlington Forest Civic Association in a meeting yesterday (Wednesday).
“The signal project is on target for completion by the end of next year,” Vision Zero Coordinator Christine Baker tells ARLnow. “We must procure all materials and finalize construction plans.”
With the installation date a year away, the county evaluated a trio of interim solutions while removing and trimming overgrown trees and shrubs in the median to improve sight distances.
At this troubled intersection, drivers on N. Park Drive have a two-way stop sign before traversing the four lanes of traffic on N. George Mason Drive.
Left turns and through traffic on N. Park Drive are the primary causes of crashes, says Baker.
After evaluating temporary stop signs, traffic signals or barriers to restrict certain traffic patterns, DES decided to keep exploring how to add barriers.
“We are also assessing the potential impacts to nearby intersections, such as Henderson, to ensure safe alternative routing,” Baker said.
In its presentation last night, DES said turn restrictions are easy to install and effective. Crashes dropped at the intersection of Old Dominion Drive and Little Falls Road when similar turn restrictions were introduced there.
The restrictions on turning and going straight on N. Park Drive are set to be installed before the end of 2023. They will be removed when the traffic signals go in at the end of next year.
The updates are good news for residents, who have been asking for a solution soon, predicting pedestrians could get hurt. So far this year, the county has lowered speeds on the road near Barrett, repaved and restriped intersection — adding a “SLOW SCHOOL XING” message.
“Arlington Forest residents have been very concerned about safety at the intersection of George Mason Drive and North Park Drive for several years,” Arlington Forest Citizens Association President Esther Bowring said in a statement.
“That is why we are appreciative that Arlington County has now committed to not only expediting installation of a traffic signal at that location, but also to installing interim measures to improve pedestrian and traffic safety until the signal is installed,” she continued.
A traffic signal was recommended back in 2017, when traffic near the site was studied as part of plans for the new Lubber Run Community Center. Ultimately, the county moved forward with a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon and pedestrian refuge.
Staff did pledge to conduct a traffic signal analysis after the community center was finished and new travel patterns settled.
The deadline is fast approaching for solving ALL your T’giving feast home delivery needs from RSVP Catering. The turkeys are flying!
RSVP Catering, the region’s premier catering service, wants you to know orders are filling up fast for their Thanksgiving all-in-one home delivered holiday feast.
And why not? RSVP is offering to simplify Thanksgiving dinner by delivering it to your door in an elegant package complete with a choice of turkey, four side dishes, plus all the trimmings: turkey gravy, cranberry-orange relish, homemade mini brioche rolls, and sweet potato biscuits.
You can relax after you place your order: Your Turkey Day feast is as easy as your next phone call. And it’s up to you to decide if you confess to your guests that you prepared this awesome meal yourself.
But get moving! Orders are accepted until Monday, November 20 if they don’t sell out by then; call soon to make sure your order makes it. See the RSVP Catering Thanksgiving 2023 menu.
This year, RSVP Catering is offering herb roasted turnkey or honey-citrus glazed turkey as the showcase centerpiece of all-in-one packages for $195 and $390, depending on how many guests you expect to impress and, perhaps, overwhelm (in a good way!).
Turkeys come with a choice of four sides, including creamy mashed potatoes, sage and turkey sausage cornbread stuffing, sauteed green beans, pomegranate roasted root vegetables, and fall harvest salad. Many of the options are gluten free.
Optional dessert offerings, which feed six to eight guests, bring to the table Dutch apple pie, bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin chiffon pie, and pear and pistachio tart.
The full RSPV Catering menu is available for home delivery ala carte. Email RSPV Catering at [email protected], or call 703-573-8700.
