It takes a lot to create a startup – drive, passion and oodles of creativity. This creative energy is often apparent in the physical spaces startups occupy. Here are three photo essays of new media startups that document that energy from the nation’s capital, by photographer Kelsey Hughes:

BYT: BrightestYoungThings

Office of Brightest Young Things in Washington D.C. is playful and fun.

Take a peek inside this culturally hip website’s new all-glass, trinkets-filled office, located inside a shared workspace in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Trove: Curation App

Trove office on 15th Street in in Washington, D.C.

Impossibly green grass and calming dim lighting make up the interior of  the open-air office for  Trove, a startup that operates a mobile news curation app and is located in an older building full of other startups across the street from The Washington Post.

My Little Bird: Culture Blog

Mary Carpenter works at her D.C. home for My Little Bird

Check out the cozy and convenient home office space of Mary Carpenter, one of the five women who make up the staff of the brand new D.C. culture blog “for grown-up girls.”