Happy hump day, Baltimore. I hope your week's going well despite all the chaos that seems to be engulfing Mayor Scott's administration, BOPA and the Department of Public Works. 

 

First off, thanks to everybody who chatted with me at last night's Equitech Tuesdays event. It's great to learn a bit more about what you and your companies have in the pipeline for 2023. Second, thanks to those of you who recommended companies for the rapidly approaching 2023 iteration of our RealLIST Startups. If you have any other ideas, feel free to let me know before week's end. 

 

Otherwise, below, you'll see a story about a new Uniting for Entrepreneurship Maryland initiative that aims to uplift entrepreneurs both within the state's immigrant communities and with solutions that could help those populations. Its organizers are looking for eligible applicants from three particular geographic areas: the Baltimore metro area, Prince George's County and Talbot County. Connect those points on a map, and you have a triangle that reaches between the state's largest city, the DC metro area and the Eastern Shore. This geography has me thinking about other moves we've followed — from the consolidation of regional Startup Grind chapters into an overall Maryland one to the Maryland Tech Council's creation of regional chapters in Baltimore, PG County and the Chesapeake region — that seem invested in a statewide vision of economic growth. 

For me, this both makes sense (as someone who goes to DC a fair amount to see family, friends, concerts and museums) and poses an existential question. DC and Baltimore are, obviously, not the same city, and Technical.ly treats them as such. But, these cities' economic and cultural tentacles spread so far into Maryland as to, at times, be virtually indistinguishable from one another. And, of course, the lives of people from both regions take them east to the shore, west to the Appalachian foothills and elsewhere throughout the state. 

 

How do you define your work and lives in relation to Maryland's two primary population centers? What about the more rural geographies to the east, west, south and north of these regions? Let us know your thoughts by emailing baltimore@technical.ly, and I hope you stay warm this week.