Money Moves: Funding, deals, and what they signal for product and management in the DMV
The DMV is still a magnet for government-focused tech. But the latest cash flow shows a push into niche platforms and AI-first tooling - with practical lessons for product and growth teams.
Here's what happened, why it matters, and a few moves you can borrow for your roadmap.
Ressio raises $8.75M to speed up AI in residential construction
Ressio, an AI-powered construction management platform for residential builders, closed an $8.75 million Series A. The round was led by Blueprint Equity, a growth equity firm - not a traditional VC. The funding will expand the product's footprint and accelerate features that help builders manage schedules, budgets, and documents.
"With this funding, we're pouring gasoline on our rapid product development model that starts with direct customer input," said founder and CEO Mitchell Kasselman. The company plans to double headcount across product, engineering, support, and onboarding.
- Playbook for PMs: Tight customer feedback loops win. Ship from real jobsite workflows, not a lab. Prioritize integrations with existing contractor tools to reduce switching friction.
- Team design: Fund both product and onboarding. In operational categories, adoption hinges on training and clean data migration.
Cvent's acquisition streak: Goldcast and ON24
Cvent announced two acquisitions totaling nearly $700 million+. First up: a nearly $300 million purchase of Boston-based Goldcast, an AI video content platform. Weeks later, Cvent agreed to acquire ON24 for $400 million; once closed in the first half of this year (pending ON24 shareholder approval), ON24 will go private.
"We are pleased to announce this transformative transaction which marks an important new chapter for ON24," said cofounder, chairman and CEO Sharat Sharan. Since Cvent was acquired by BlackRock in 2023, it has completed seven acquisitions since the start of 2024.
- Integration focus: Build a cross-sell engine early. Align packaging, usage metrics, and billing before the sales push.
- AI content leverage: Use event data and session video to auto-generate highlights, clips, and sales assets. This shortens follow-up cycles for revenue teams.
Further reading: ON24 and Appian's defense solutions.
Appian lands a 10-year government deal, with Army authorization for Defense Cloud
A new government agreement enables purchases of up to $500 million in Appian services and products over the next decade. Appian also announced its Defense Cloud is now authorized for Army use under specific conditions.
"We're enabling the Army and Department of War to move from pilot projects to mission-ready capabilities at scale, with speed, predictability and confidence," said Appian founder and CTO Michael Beckley.
- For PMs building in regulated spaces: Ship to compliance. Treat accreditation, auditability, and policy controls as core features - not afterthoughts.
- Revenue quality: Multi-year government contracts create backlog predictability. Plan resourcing and SLAs accordingly.
Other notable DMV moves
- Compu Dynamics' charity golf tournament brought total donations to Northern Virginia Community College above $200,000.
- Valinor Enterprises raised a $54 million Series A, bringing total capital to about $85 million.
- GDIT secured a $120 million Air Force task order to embed cybersecurity tech across 187 bases worldwide.
- Executives at Two Six Technologies invested $10 million of their own money into the company.
- BriefCatch, an AI legal writing assistant, closed a $6 million Series A to continue platform development.
- Aerospace company Avio USA plans a $500 million spend to open a new manufacturing site in Virginia.
More from recent SEC filings
- $1.5 million for McLean's Capital Defense Technologies
- $7.6 million for Vienna's Symmatrics
- $1.7 million for Leadership Connect
- $2.7 million for Safire Technology Group
What this means for product and management
- AI is moving into "dirty work" categories: Construction, events, and defense are ripe for workflow automation and summarization. Focus on specific bottlenecks (approvals, compliance, asset reuse) instead of generic AI features.
- Distribution beats novelty: Cvent's strategy is a reminder: own the surface area where your buyers already live, then plug in adjacent capabilities.
- Customer success is your moat: Ressio's hiring plan shows it. High-touch onboarding and data migration make or break adoption in complex operations.
- Compliance as product: With Army authorization in play, Appian reinforces a simple truth - security and accreditation unlock entire markets.
Practical next steps for your roadmap
- Prioritize 1-2 AI features that directly reduce time-to-value for users (e.g., auto-generated post-event assets, budget variance alerts, audit-ready reports).
- Stand up an integrations pod to meet customers where they work. Minimize switching costs, win renewals.
- Build an enablement bundle (templates, playbooks, quickstart data loaders) and attach it to every new deployment.
- If you sell into government or enterprise, invest in compliance workflows and reporting now - it speeds procurement later.
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