The DC Advantage
This event is part of DC Startup & Tech Week (DCSTW), the DMV’s largest Startup & Tech Conference and Community. Think SXSW, but for DC — five days, 9,000+ attendees, and
Overview
Why the Nation's Capital Is Becoming Life Sciences' Best-Kept Secret
Everyone knows Boston and the Bay Area built biotech's past. DC is building what's next.
This region has something no other life sciences hub can claim: a front-row seat to the institutions, agencies, and capital that decide what gets built, funded, and approved in American healthcare. Children's National is turning pediatric research into breakthrough companies. SOAR Bio is proving a new model for what biotech in DC can look like. A growing CEO fellowship pipeline is putting first-time founders in the seat next to operators who've done it before. And unlike anywhere else in the country, the people writing the rules — FDA, Capitol Hill, NIH — are a Metro ride away, not a plane ride.
The DC Advantage is the session built to make that case. This is where you'll hear directly from the founders, institutions, and operators proving that the smartest place to build a life sciences company isn't necessarily where biotech has always lived — it's where the science, the capital, and the policy all sit in the same zip code.
If you've ever wondered why DC's life sciences scene is quietly becoming one of the most interesting stories in American healthcare, this is where you find out.
Agenda
1:00 PM — Doors Open + Networking
2:00 PM — Welcome + Opening Remarks
Chris Frew, CEO, BioBuzz Networks
2:05 PM — The DMV Bioeconomy: What's Being Built and Why It Matters
A landscape view of the region's life sciences momentum — from Children's National's research pipeline to the companies, institutions, and capital putting DC on the map. This panel makes the case for why the DMV's bioeconomy deserves a bigger seat at the national table.
3:00 PM — The SOAR Bio Story: A Capital-Efficient Model for Building Biotech in DC [Fireside]
A firsthand look at what it takes to build a biotech company in the nation's capital — told by the team proving it can be done. This fireside goes inside SOAR Bio's model, including the CEO fellowship approach behind it, to show what capital-efficient company-building actually looks like when you build leaner, smarter, and with the operating experience founders need from day one.
4:00 PM — Policy + Innovation: The DC Opportunity
Why proximity to FDA, NIH, and Capitol Hill isn't just convenient — it's a structural advantage for founders navigating regulatory and policy-dependent markets. This panel unpacks how DC's policy ecosystem is becoming a genuine competitive edge for life sciences founders.
Venue
Children's National Research & Innovation Campus
Children’s National Hospital has created a one-of-a-kind research and innovation hub that drives discoveries that save and improve the lives of children.
On a nearly 12-acre portion of the former, historic Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington, D.C., Children’s National has combined its strengths with those of public and private partners, including industry, universities, federal agencies, start-up companies and academic medical centers. Together, we have created an ecosystem that nurtures innovation from discovery to commercialization.
Find out more at research.childrensnational.org/.
About
Children's National
For 155 years, Children’s National has delivered expert pediatric care at every milestone. As the Washington, D.C., region’s only standalone children’s hospital, we provide comprehensive care for more than 250,000 kids each year. We are ranked one of the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. We're also tied for #1 children's hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region. This recognition of our commitment to bringing health and well-being to all children continues to inspire our teams.
As home to the Children’s National Research Institute and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children’s National receives more than 70% of its research funding from federal agencies, including 60% from the National Institutes of Health.
In 2019, the HSC Health Care System became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Children's National. The system serves people with complex healthcare needs and eliminates barriers to health services. In 2024, its specialty hospital and therapy centers were renamed Children’s National Rehabilitation & Specialized Care. The health plan continues under the name Healthcare Services for Children with Special Needs.
We’re recognized as committed advocates for children on local, state and federal health policy. In fact, we’re often the first at the table when pediatric healthcare legislation is being developed.
Children and their families who come to Children’s National also get to experience our partnership with Disney. Disney uses the best of its storytelling, beloved characters and creativity to create a more personal and comforting experience for children. See how this initiative comes to life at Children's National.
Cancer Research Center — D.C.
The Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C., brings together basic, translational, and computational researchers of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in the nation’s capital to focus on the shared aim of engineering cancer solutions. Current research efforts involve diverse teams and national and international collaborations, and are motivated by the opportunity to apply world-leading scientific innovation and ingenuity to make measurable progress on the hardest problems.
The center is led by Chris Hourigan DM, DPhil., FRCP, an oncologist focusing on precision cancer medicine.
SOAR Bio
Washington, D.C.'s First Life Science Venture Studio
U.S. life science is bloated. Life science innovation in the U.S. is slow and expensive. We've lost our way.
In contrast, life science innovation in China is fast, inexpensive, and here now.
To stay competitive, we need to go back to our entrepreneurial roots and train the next generation of life science leaders to do more with less. But scrappy life science founder/CEOs can't be trained in classrooms, just like a new doctor can't learn to do heart surgery from books alone. What's required is hands-on skill transfer through daily mentorship: a life science apprenticeship.
And there's no better place to do that than the Greater Washington area, home to storied institutions that produce abundant technology and talent. Greater Washington has the ingredients to become the national model for a scrappy life science startup ecosystem.
At SOAR Bio, we build great companies from scratch by pairing seasoned entrepreneurs with technically-gifted entrepreneurial fellows. Our mission is to translate the region's most promising discoveries into commercial life science products. We do that by cultivating the region's most promising talent into life science leaders who can do more with less.
DCSTW
Now in its 11th year, DC Startup & Tech Week is the DMV's flagship startup and tech conference, running October 19–23, 2026. What started as a single week has grown into a genuine engine for the region's founders — bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators from across the DMV and beyond.
The event draws founders from dozens of countries — 27 in 2025 alone — with 2026 attendance expected to reach 10,000 to 12,000, making it one of the largest gatherings of its kind on the East Coast. Across the week, attendees get access to investor connections, hands-on workshops, founder resources, and the kind of dense, high-signal networking that's hard to find anywhere else in the region.
DC Startup & Tech Week exists to prove what founders here already know: that the nation's capital isn't just where policy gets made — it's where the next generation of great companies is being built.