Learning to love tech

A bellwether for the region’s tech community is a company that helps retailers and manufacturers manage and resell excess merchandise. As a “circular economy company, heavy sustainability focus,” Optoro has a finger on the pulse of the area’s tech industry, according to Josh Szmajda, Optoro’s Chief Technology Officer.

Szmajda says one of the problems facing D.C.’s tech industry is a lack of education.

While people may have bright ideas, “we don’t educate people enough on technology, and what it’s capable of, and what the challenges are,” he said. “I think that leads people who want to then found a business [to be] kind of at a loss as to the viability of their concept.”

“If you go to a D.C. tech meet-up, you’ll find 10-to-one, people who have an idea versus people with the ability to implement it,” said Szmajda. He hopes that entrepreneurs will take the time to better embrace technology — both its benefits and limitations — in order to improve their businesses.

“It’s really incumbent upon entrepreneurs to try to pick up at least some amount of understanding of technology, to just kind of get an idea of feasibility,” he told What’s Working in Washington.

Szmajda and his team designed their user experience with the understanding their users may not know much about technology.

“We have a new head of design who’s really focused on design thinking, which is all about engaging with an understanding of the people who are using our software, and empathizing with them,” he said.

When it comes to helping people learn about technology, to become the sort of talent that can create successful technology and software companies, Szmajda said the area needs to put more effort into “giving them the environment, giving them the tools, helping them understand that they’re not an imposter, they can actually do it, too.”

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