03-07-2025
This ecosystem leader wants founders to ‘make time for serendipity'
Entrepreneurship has been at the center of Darius Clair's career, whether by running a business himself or coaching DC-area tech founders.
Clair, a Prince George's County, Maryland native who now lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is the first full-time hire at DC Startup and Tech Week as the director of programs and community— which he describes as 'the South by Southwest of the East Coast.' Through his role there, he launched an autonomous tech-focused meetup, accelerator and lab called LaunchT — and started hosting programming for it earlier this summer.
'There is a community here,' Clair told 'There are folks building here. If you look all around us, even across the country, autonomous technology is taking over. How do we support that from the district?'
His advice for founders in autonomous tech or otherwise? Be strategic, but authentic.
'Obviously, everyone does have an agenda and something that they want to get done, but figure out how you can give and support and be reciprocal in relationships,' he said. 'That goes a long way.'
For the latest installment of How I Got Here, caught up with Clair about LaunchT, his previous roles at major firms like Techstars and WeWork, a passion for venture capital and his love for the DMV.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Where did your career start?
In commercial banking, and then in personal finance.
At one point in time, while running my personal finance career, I was operating three businesses at the same time. One was an event planning business. I also ran a franchise with two other friends, and then I was running my financial practice.
That's where it all started. Nothing was wildly successful, but that was always in the ethos of the work that I did.
But at some point, I realized I wasn't necessarily fulfilled in some of the personal finance work that I was doing, and then life started to happen. I've made some transitions, and that led me to start working more with small businesses and figuring out how I could support them.
Ultimately, that vein for wanting to support small businesses and support entrepreneurs led me to begin working at WeWork, and that's where I got exposure to the venture capital ecosystem.
How I grew up, I didn't have access or awareness of all the different methods of investing, and so I didn't know anything about venture capital. That was where the floodgates started to open up — just being in the atmosphere around more entrepreneurs and startups.
How did working at WeWork propel you forward?
Even if it doesn't yield you anything in the moment, the seeds that you plant can bear fruit in the future.
Darius Clair
WeWork is where I started to really hone my community-building skills, supporting the startups and small businesses locally. I was fortunate enough to start supporting them nationally, and then globally, under WeWork's corporate umbrella.
That introduced me to the folks at DC Startup and Tech Week. Because of the work that I was doing there, it allowed me to start working on the [conference's] early-stage track.
I still had my first business, but because of the exposure with venture capital, I decided to pivot. Deals ultimately became D.E.A.L.S. Venture Group. That's where I wanted to become a venture investor.
You also worked at Techstars. What was that experience like?
I knew that I needed to be in the atmosphere where I could be more closely aligned with venture capital because of the challenges that I was facing with D.E.A.L.S. Venture Group.
To be able to come into Techstars and be a part of a venture capital firm, that was really a strategic opportunity and pivot for me.
I was fortunate enough to support over 60 deals into portfolio companies over 18 months while working there.
What inspired your new project, LaunchT?
LaunchT is an initiative of DC Startup and Tech Week. My transition from Techstars naturally ended up becoming a full circle in joining DC Startup and Tech Week as the director of programs and community.
After doing work with them for four years as their early-stage content lead, I was their first full-time hire. The reason they wanted to bring me on is to support DC Startup and Tech Week more broadly.
But then also, how do we roll out new opportunities and initiatives to engage the DC Startup and Tech Week community more consistently, year-round? Part of that was LaunchT.
What's your day-to-day like?
I wear two hats. All things with DC Startup and Tech Week, right now we're ramping up in preparation for the actual week [this fall]. Solidifying venues, confirming the different tracks and the new tracks that we'll unveil this year. It's the 10-year anniversary.
We want to go bigger and bolder this year and be more intentional about how we support the region and startups, and really providing the impact that we believe they need.
That's one hat, and then the second hat is LaunchT — and building out the infrastructure of that.
We started programming. We've created the Autonomous Tech DMV meetup. That'll be a monthly opportunity just to convene folks in the autonomous tech space, to be able to come together, to be able to connect, to be able to share resources, build relationships.
We're also doing a virtual series every month. The virtual series is to engage a broader audience across the country to attract more talent to the DMV region.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
One really good piece of advice that I've gotten and that I've learned over the years is, before you build something, make sure that there's a need for it.
Without a doubt, you want to build something that you're passionate about, that you're convicted about, or that you have conviction around. But sometimes that doesn't always line up with what people need.
The other thing I would say is: Be willing to build strategic relationships and genuine relationships. Make time for serendipity as you're going out and meeting people.
A lot of times, we see founders are always looking for something or asking for something. But figure out how you can also provide value. Figure out how you can align motives and initiatives and value propositions with some of the different stakeholders that you have to engage with in the ecosystem.
Even if it doesn't yield you anything in the moment, the seeds that you plant can bear fruit in the future.
What's next for you? What are your future goals?
Specifically for DC Startup and Tech Week, now that I'm a part of the team full-time, I want to add value. I want to see how we can really supercharge with the work that we've been doing.
One thing I've been really passionate about is figuring out how we can build a more cohesive ecosystem in our region. Oftentimes, it does feel siloed and fragmented. Folks that come into this ecosystem don't really know where to go, and they've got to bump around until they meet the right people.
There are so many times where we're hosting events, and there're multiple events on the same day. How do we become more efficient with that?
Then, becoming more of an investor in startups. My work with District Angels lends to that as well, and supporting them from an investor relations perspective on the volunteer side. [I want to be] leaning into that so that I can continue to build my investor muscle, to start putting money where my mouth is.
