Long before electronic Evites, there were actual handwritten invitations. But even back then, Penny Pickett, president of the Washington, D.C. Technology Council, couldn’t separate her love of writing from her love of technology.
The Albuquerque, N.M., native launched her own calligraphy business in the late 1980s — just as personal computers were taking off — and soon found herself working with software engineers who were designing new fonts for software programs.
“The translation of fonts was unsophisticated. They were pretty crude and there couldn’t have been more than five,” Pickett said. “[My company] worked with the software people to get the fonts to look as good as they should.”
Today, there are hundreds of fonts to choose from, including some that mirror Pickett’s handwritten invitations.
Pickett sold her company in 1992 and started in a series of politically appointed positions for the Clinton administration, including a stint as a senior adviser to the Small Business Administration’s deputy administrator, an experience that would help her in her role at the council.
“It really gave me a chance to see a small business from another perspective,” she said. “It was a terrific opportunity to see the whole picture, and it’s very close to what we’re doing here.”
Pickett then went on to add to her eclectic resume — “One of these days I’m going to have to get a real job,” she joked of her varied career experience — and joined the Telecommunications Development Fund, a D.C.-based venture capital firm, which helped her gain insight into how startups can land elusive investment dollars.
“Investors are pretty realistic today,” she said. “They realize if you don’t put money in the early-stage companies, there won’t be anything in the pipeline for the later stage.”
In 2004, she landed at the D.C. Tech Council. The council offers a variety of programs that assist Washington-based technology startups — including seminars on how to pitch to venture capitalists — and works with other regional organizations to push the technology agenda throughout the Washington area.
Although the Tech Council often fights the perception that D.C. lags behind the rest of the region, Pickett said that’s not the case, citing a handful of homegrown successes, including XM Satellite Radio, InPhonic and Blackboard Inc.
“I think there’s a general impression that [the tech companies] are all out in Virginia or Maryland,” Pickett said. “But surprisingly, they’re not.”
Quick bio
» Current job: President, Washington, D.C. Technology Council
» Number of e-mails a day: 300 or more
» Education/credentials: Bachelor’s from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, master’s in education from University of New Mexico
» First job: Counted game, such as wild boar and big horn sheep, for the National Park Service in New Mexico
» Role model: Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton
» Quote: “Nothing is as much fun as messing about in boats.” — From “Wind in the Willows”
