Hey hey: January is Early Employees Month of our new editorial calendar, and you should send story ideas about company formation, hiring trends and culture building to baltimore@technical.ly.

It's also time for the editorial team to start thinking about the 2020 RealLIST Startups, aka our annual list of each market’s most promising young tech companies (see Baltimore's 2019 list here). It's basically our way of forecasting what local companies are going to have a big year based on factors such as founder experience, venture capital raises and originality of product. 

We have a whole bunch of finalists in our heads already, but we want suggestions from readers, too. Know an exceptional up-and-coming company that deserves some shine? Tell us via this form by EOD Sunday, Jan. 12.

— Technical.ly Managing Editor Julie Zeglen (julie@technical.ly)