RealLIST Connectors 2025: Meet 20 innovation trailblazers helping DC thrive

Technical.ly

May 5, 2025


 
 
These meetup hosts, accelerator managers and conference organizers fuel the engine behind the region’s tech and startup scene.

If you’re trying to make your way in the DMV’s entrepreneurial and tech worlds, you’re in luck.

DC and its surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia overflow with movers and shakers eager to make introductions or connect people with resources. Each year, Technical.ly spotlights at least 20 of these leaders making a difference in the region, whether by hosting a meetup, running an accelerator or creating opportunities for others to thrive.
 
 

Marcelo Homrich

• Primary role: Vice President of Programs, Halcyon
• Role model or mentor? Dan Barker, CEO at Halcyon
• Local shoutout to: Kim Johnson Roberts, Helen Manich, Kate Goodall
• Favorite quote: “Utopia is on the horizon. I take two steps, it moves two steps away. So what’s the point? So that we never stop walking.”
• Best thing about your ecosystem? Collaboration. Working together to build a better future.

As the vice president of programs at the global accelerator for early-stage, impact-driven startups Halcyon, Homrich expanded the organization’s global footprint to regions in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. He also helped lead the reimagination of programming at Halcyon to the verticals (health, climate, and “EquityTech”) and launched a climate fellowship specifically for DMV companies.

 
 

Kobby Osei-Kusi

• Primary role: Founder and CEO, Pirl Technology, Inc.
• Additional roles: Energy Entrepreneur in Residence, Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator
• Volunteering: Executive Director, Osei-Kusi Foundation; Board member, DMV Contractors Association; Advisor, Maryland Clean Energy Center
• Role model or mentor? Helen Manich
• Favorite quote: “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it.”
• Best thing about your ecosystem? The potential waiting to be unlocked is tremendous.

Osei-Kusi wants to be the “connective tissue” between silos in the region’s business and tech worlds. He co-created the entrepreneurial support organization and founder community Threshold, where he coordinates events and lectures for people in the ecosystem to learn from one another.

 

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