Tysons-based startup hatch I.T. recently launched a new service to help other local startups scale up their projects.
Hatch I.T. is a local firm that helps other technology-centered startups find and recruit talent, which may become increasingly difficult locally with Amazon coming to town. Their new product, Scale, aims to help those startups moving beyond that garage-workshop phase figure out how to expand.
According to the product website:
Scaling your engineering team can be a daunting task for any company, especially startups and small businesses. With limited resources & budget constraints paired with a tight job market, many startups find themselves falling behind in the race for talent. The age-old recruiting options that may work for a Fortune 500 do not always carry over to the startup ecosystem. That’s why ‘Scale by hatch I.T.’ is a custom recruiting model… geared for startups and growing small businesses.
A press release from the company said Scale functions as a subscription-based recruiting service, helping companies build their corporate teams faster.
Tim Winkler, CEO of hatch I.T., said the cost of Scale varies based on the size of the engagement, the number of openings, size of the startup and other factors. While Winkler would not quote specific rates, he did say that the company charges a fixed price on a bi-weekly retainer.
“The current recruiting landscape for startups is broken,” Winkler said in the press release. “When clients use Scale, they grow their staff more rapidly and with cost savings because their dedicated recruiting partner from hatch I.T. is with them all the way.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=AzcV0ifvwRM
Photo via hatch I.T.
Despite a large number of vacancies on Maple Avenue and some recent high profile closures, the Town of Vienna’s Finance Department says twice as many businesses are opening in the town compared to those closing.
Last year, 115 businesses opened and 65 closed, the finance department said, in response to an inquiry from Tysons Reporter.
It’s an optimistic note for a town that, economically, could really use a win.
Last year, Vienna’s commercial vacancy rate was 13 percent. Of the town’s 1,095 commercial properties, 138 were vacant and 68 were on Maple Avenue, according to InsideNova.
But it’s businesses off of Maple Avenue that are being hit the hardest by increasing rents and declining sales. Peggy James, executive director of the Vienna Business Association, said a combination of increasing rents and limited parking availability are making it hard for local businesses to stay afloat.
The Town is taking some steps to make commercial businesses in Vienna more viable, including a plan in the town budget to hire a full-time economic development consultant to focus specifically on ways to make life easier for businesses. Vienna is currently the only Northern Virginia locality without staff tasked specifically with economic development.
In the meantime, here’s a look at some of the more recent businesses to open in Vienna:
Tickets are now on sale for the 8th annual Taste of Vienna, a showcase of the town’s dining options hosted by the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department (VVFD).
The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 27, from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at the VVFD (400 Center St. S). The event is planned to be held rain or shine.
Admission to the festival is free, with guests able to purchase food and drink there or via a variety of ticket packages that include tokens for drinks and a commemorative pint glass.
All proceeds from the event go to support the VVFD.
Photo via Facebook
The Town of Vienna is making a push to get locals to “solarize,” converting their homes and businesses to relying on solar energy.
On Tuesday, April 9, the town will host a meeting in partnership with Solarize NOVA, an outreach program founded in 2014 that vets contractors and establishes pre-negotiated contract terms to make the process easier for those looking to solarize.
The meeting’s goal is to help get those curious about solar energy learn more about the costs involved and next steps in the process.
There’s a handful of ways installing solar energy can help residents save money. Those who install solar panels are eligible for a federal tax credit. Fairfax County also offers a real estate tax exemption for five years for those who install solar panels.
In Virginia, residents can also meter excess energy generated by solar systems, receiving a credit on their electric bill at full retail rate for the energy produced by their panels.
This is the fifth year that Vienna has participated in the Solarize NOVA program, voting unanimously in January continue working with the initiative.
According to the program’s website, since 2014, Solarize NOVA has facilitated installation of 263 solar energy systems, saving 1,969 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted and 1,954,180 pounds of coal from being burned.
The program also offers free site assessments for solar power and free inspections for energy use.
Photo via Facebook
After some delays, Virginia Tire and Auto, at 141 Maple Ave in Vienna, is finally open for business.
The shop opened today (Thursday) and while an employee said he wasn’t aware of any grand opening celebrations planned, the store is currently in the middle of a hiring fair.
The employee said the store is looking for people to fill a variety of vacancies, from sales to technicians, and one general service manager position. The fair run until the business closes at 6 p.m. today.
While the store looks to add more people to the crew, the facility is currently operational. The shop has already had a few cars dropped off for repairs and the employee said the first oil checks and tire changes are starting today.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) is looking for some public input on new trail names for the bicycle and pedestrian path along I-66.
No Traily McTrailface, please — FCDOT is seeking a more pleasant, non-gimmicky monicker for the trail, which is currently in planning but set for construction later this year.
“The concern was that I-66 has a negative connotation because everyone hates I-66,” Chris Wells, bicycle and pedestrian program manager for FCDOT, said at an earlier meeting. “But everyone knows where I-66 is and where it’s located. We’re going to be doing sample names and present those at a future meeting.”
The trail — will run from Gallows Road in Vienna to Centreville — has more problems than just the name. Discussion of the I-66 trail at that meeting turned contentious as bicycle advocates prodded Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) staff over issues like separation of the trail from the road and snow removal.
For most of the length of the trail, the bicycle path will be at a separate elevation from the highway or running parallel on side streets.
For a few miles, particularly near Vienna, however, the trail will be running directly alongside the highway. VDOT officials at the meeting noted that it was “not ideal for a pleasant bike-riding experience,” but placing the trail on the other side of the sound barrier would have cut into the back yards of homes along the road.
Upcoming meetings are planned to review the proposed trail and offer an overview of the upcoming construction timeline. The two meetings are scheduled for:
- Vienna: Tuesday, April 9, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Marshall Road Elementary School (730 Marshall Rd SW)
- Centreville: Saturday, April 27, from 1-11:30 a.m. at Centreville Elementary School (14330 Green Trails Blvd)
According to a Department of Transportation post for the meetings:
The meeting will also include an interactive exercise with attendees to explore possible names for the new trail. Attendees will be asked to submit names and weigh in on a sampling of names that have been suggested. FCDOT will than narrow the list of names and host an online survey to vote on the trail names to be presented to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board for consideration and approval.
Image via VDOT
Fairfax County thinks you might need some additional reminders about how quickly you’re driving.
At a Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday, county staff unveiled plans to initiate a pilot program to install new pole-mounted speed display signs.
The signs will track data on cars driving on roads with high levels of speeding, while displaying the speed of passing drivers.
The pilot program will run for one year, with four signs purchased. Two signs will be posted at locations around the county, one facing in each direction, and over the year they will be rotated so each district has the sign at least once.
The signs will be posted at each location for six weeks total, with four weeks of being active with one week dark before and after to collect data on whether the signs have an impact on speeding.
Supervisor Pat Herrity noted that the signs would help the County track data for speed studies. Following inquiries, staff reaffirmed that the signs would not take photos of speeding cars or track license plates.
Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust noted that approaching the installation as a pilot project seemed redundant, since it’s a well-established technology used by other jurisdictions.
“It seems to me like we’re reinventing the wheel in a lot of ways,” said Foust. “These things have been around for a long time, and we’re treating it like we have to study this or analyze that. We need these things. They work.”
Supervisor Dan Storck was similarly dubious of staff’s assertion that there was limited data on the effectiveness of the signs, given that Arlington County has installed similar signs.
While the current plan is to continually rotate the location of the signs, Foust said the County will likely be able to identify problem areas where the signs will likely need to be put up and left.
Photo via Flickr/Loozrboy
Police are investigating a series of wheel thefts in the Tysons area.
Over the last two months, five cars have had their wheels stolen around Tysons, including two vehicles at different locations earlier this week, according to a Fairfax County Police Department recap from Tuesday.
One larceny took place in the 1500 block of Lincoln Way in The Fountains at McLean neighborhood. The other was at the 1500 block of Westbranch Drive, northeast of Tysons Galleria.
Fairfax County Police Sgt. James Curry said thieves typically remove the entire wheel, including the rims and the tires, leaving the vehicle propped up on cinder blocks.
Three other thefts have been reported in the area by FCPD since the beginning of February:
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive
- The 1500 block of Westbranch Drive
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive again
The Highgate at the Mile is a mixed-use development at 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive. One resident of the building told Tysons Reporter that the building’s garage requires a clicker to enter. Building management sent an email to residents warning of “vandalism” in the parking garage after the theft.
Curry said residents of buildings with parking garages should be vigilant about “piggybacking” — people entering the facility on someone else’s pass. Sometimes car thieves also arrive in vehicles that slip in behind a car that legitimately accesses the building, Curry said.
If the garage door to a complex is not functioning, Curry advised alerting the leasing agency or a homeowner’s association
A Redditor claiming to be the victim of the larceny at Fountains at McLean took to the Northern Virginia subreddit to warn others about the incident. According to the Reddit post:
Hey all, just a quick warning. I just had the wheels stolen off of my 2018 Charger on Sunday night from the parking garage in my apartment complex. I filed a police report and the officer with whom I spoke said that this is becoming a much more prevalent problem in the area, with thieves targeting vehicles even in open parking lots.
My car had wheel locks, but unfortunately they really don’t do anything except slow the thieves down by a few seconds, as most of the perpetrators in this area are professionals, and are in and out within minutes. Just a caution for everyone, perhaps consider installing tilt sensors or dash cameras in your vehicles to prevent something like this from happening to you. Definitely the first purchase I’ll make once my car is back up and running.
File photo
A new study of the Maple Avenue corridor shows Vienna’s most dangerous intersections and details extensive gaps in the town’s sidewalk network.
At an April 1 work session, the Vienna Town Council is scheduled to discuss the initial results of study by planning consulting firm Kimley-Horn.
The report also showed three major traffic crash hotspots calculated over three years: where Maple Avenue intersects with Nutley Street, Courthouse Road, and Park Street.
The study shows that while Maple Avenue has extensive sidewalk coverage, streets one block away like Windover Avenue and Glen Avenue on the west end or East Street and Mashie Drive at the east end of town are completely without sidewalks.
Church Street, another major street through the town, only has sidewalks on one side of the street between Park Street and Beulah Road.
In a finding that will surprise few Vienna residents, Maple Avenue is overcrowded. The report said daily traffic on the street topped 30,000 vehicles per day, on the high end of the study’s scale.
The street’s traffic density was worst between Nutley Street and Follin Lane, the main stretch through town.
Maple Avenue also sees high levels of bicycle traffic. It os ranked by the report at “level of traffic stress 4,” the highest category available, meaning that it is exceedingly uncomfortable and stressful for cyclists to use.
Nearly every major road feeding into the street, like Nutley Street and Park Street, as well as the aforementioned Church Street also saw high levels of car traffic and cyclist stress.
Zantech, a technology contractor located just south of the Chain Bridge Road/Leesburg Pike interchange in Tysons, announced plans today to invest $317,853 in an office expansion while adding 120 new jobs.
The company was founded in 2007 and provides technical support primarily for federal government and contracting clients, according to a press release from the Gov. Ralph Northam’s office.
“Strengthening Virginia’s position as a leader in information technology remains one of my highest priorities and partnering with a forward-looking firm like Zantech reinforces the Commonwealth’s reputation as an epicenter for this industry,” Northam said in the press release. “We look forward to Zantech’s continued growth in Fairfax County.”
Zantech’s expansion in Virginia is being supported by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a program run through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to provide consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs.
Photo via Facebook
