Hi, everyone. Welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. I'm Sonal, and today Michael and I are continuing our DC on the road podcast trip.

And our guest today is Evan Burfield, who's the co-founder and co-CEO 1776, which is a global innovation network. What exactly is that, Evan?

You know, we do, at 1776, we do a variety of things. We do support and incubate startups through our startup network.

So you are also an incubator?

Yep.

Yep.

So we have curriculum.

We have mentor networks.

We have expert networks.

And we have a venture fund.

But we also do a lot of work with corporations and institutions and municipal governments that are sort of trying to drive their innovation strategies.

And then we do a lot of policy work.

We really try to work with governments in that sense.

Yeah, I actually really want to dive a little bit on the unique view you have being based out here in D.C.

And especially working in highly regulated sectors.

But before we deep dive on that, I want to ask you, could you help us paint the difference between an incubator, an accelerator?

I think at this point we sort of hate both terms because they create like this, these very iconic.

You know, in general, particularly when you're looking at it globally, accelerator programs tend to be someone writes a small check.

It's a structured 90-day program usually.

At the end, you have a demo day, you graduate, you move on, and there may be some sort of alumni support.

By commoner would be the archetypal accelerator.

You know, incubators, particularly in Europe or parts of Asia, tend to be much more about sort of a physical space.

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