Pittsburgh Business Times Celebrated DashStrom as a 2026 Startup to Watch at Workscape

May 5, 2026

You can check out the full Pittsburgh Business Times article here.

There's a particular kind of validation that comes not from a pitch competition or a funding round, but from someone who simply pays close attention to what you're doing and decides it's worth telling the world about.

That's what the Pittsburgh Business Times Startups to Watch list is. Each year, the publication surveys the region's innovation landscape and identifies the companies that are gaining real traction. The ones building something that matters, not just making noise.

Being named to the 2026 list isn't something for which you apply or pay to get the chance to selected. It is something you earn.

And DashStrom earned it.

What DashStrom Is Building

At its core, DashStrom is a youth enrichment and empowerment platform, but that description undersells what the company actually does. Co-founded by Dr. Ketaki Desai and Cristina Ramirez, DashStrom trains and deploys certified Youth Enrichment Coaches who guide children ages 3+ through activities designed to help them find their dash; their grit, confidence, and growth mindset.

The "dash" in DashStrom isn't incidental. It refers to that inner spark — the belief that challenge is where growth lives, that struggle is not a signal to stop but an invitation to push further. The mission, simply put, is to help children everywhere find their dash.

What began as a running club idea has grown into a national, year-long and scalable footprint. DashStrom is expanding into schools, after-school programs, and community spaces throughout Southwestern PA, Pittsburgh proper, Denver, and beyond. The company offers coaches not just a curriculum but a partnership with any program that teaches Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Even better? DashStrom makes the operations of the program seamless. The platform takes care of all of the annoying details: registration tools, communications, payment processing. And the fees for the program keep it accessible for educators, parents, and community members to build something meaningful for their children.

Recognition That Compounds

The Pittsburgh Business Times spotlight comes on the heels of another major honor: DashStrom was named a 2026 RealLIST Startup honoree by Technical.ly, one of the country's most credible voices in local tech journalism. That recognition, which is editorially driven and cannot be purchased, cited DashStrom's societal impact, founder experience, and potential to shape the region's future.

Then there's the financial validation. DashStrom was awarded second prize ($75,000) in the BNY UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge, Pittsburgh's premier competition for entrepreneurship with long-term community benefit, a signal that investors and philanthropic institutions see real staying power in what the company is doing.

Now, the Pittsburgh Business Times listing joins that growing record. Each recognition adds weight to the others. Momentum like this is cumulative.

Part of Something Bigger in Pittsburgh

DashStrom's inclusion on the Startups to Watch list places it alongside nine other emerging companies, from AI and robotics to life sciences and hardware — as part of the broader Pittsburgh innovation story that is, by any honest measure, accelerating.

Innovation Works, one of the most active early-stage investors in the country, celebrated the full list in a recent post, noting that "founders are building in AI, robotics, life sciences, and beyond and continuing to scale." That framing matters. Pittsburgh is no longer just a city with strong research universities and a good quality of life. It is a city producing companies that attract institutional capital, national attention, and measurable community impact.

DashStrom fits squarely in that picture. Maybe not as a tech company in the traditional sense, but as tech company that makes it possible to scale social impact. At Pittsburgh's core is a commitment to a startup culture that extends into every sector where innovation can make lives better. Youth development is not a niche. Some say it's the future of community as we know it. From DashStrom's point of view, the missing link in bringing DashStrom to every child has been made simple: it's infrastructure.

What's Ahead

DashStrom's founders have been clear-eyed about what recognition like this means and doesn't mean. In the company's own words: "This honor is a milestone, but it's not the destination. We're just getting warmed up."

That's the right posture. The work: getting into more classrooms, training more coaches, reaching more kids who need to discover what they're capable of, for example, remains as urgent as ever.

For anyone who believes that a city's greatness is measured not just by its venture capital totals but by what it does for its youngest residents, DashStrom is a company worth watching. Pittsburgh's Business Times agrees.

Congratulations to the entire DashStrom team, and to all 10 companies named to the Pittsburgh Business Times 2026 Startups to Watch list. The Pittsburgh ecosystem is proud of what you're building.

As the company likes to say, have a dashing day.