Well, in my limited experience, Reston VA is a center for a lot of smaller tech companies. But they have a different environment. While they are entrepreneurial, they are not oriented around angel investing / venture capital to the same extent than places like San Francisco. This is because they have government funding and government contracts in lieu of private funding.
Now, obviously there is still a significant amount of VC funding in Reston, but government money plays the role that initial incubator money might in other regions. I, for instance, worked briefly at a startup that was developing technology spun off from a DARPA initiative. My uncle, a VC, was a Vice President there.
Like most things in and around Washington DC, the presence of the federal government changes the political/economic/social/cultural environment in ways that you won't see in other parts of the country.
Baltimore makes more sense, because there's a greater need for startup cash and startup cash will have a greater effect here, since it's not going to be crowded out by government money.
Now, obviously there is still a significant amount of VC funding in Reston, but government money plays the role that initial incubator money might in other regions. I, for instance, worked briefly at a startup that was developing technology spun off from a DARPA initiative. My uncle, a VC, was a Vice President there.
Like most things in and around Washington DC, the presence of the federal government changes the political/economic/social/cultural environment in ways that you won't see in other parts of the country.
Baltimore makes more sense, because there's a greater need for startup cash and startup cash will have a greater effect here, since it's not going to be crowded out by government money.