The District of Columbia unveiled a beta version of a digital services portal designed to help small businesses open in the nation’s capital. Washington D.C. Chief Technology Officer Lindsey Parker presents a new small-business licensing portal on Feb. 14, 2023, at a Microsoft office in downtown Washington. (Benjamin Freed / Scoop News Group) District of Columbia officials on Tuesday showed off a new website designed as a portal to help small businesses navigate the many bureaucratic and legal processes of setting up shop in the nation’s capital. The new D.C. Business Licensing Portal , which is still considered to be in its beta phase, is the first major project completed by the city’s relatively new digital services team . It’s meant to give small-business operators a replacement to what was once a thicket of forms requiring applicants to jump from agency to agency with little guidance. The project comes as D.C. officials look to rebuild a downtown economy still wounded by the coronavirus pandemic. Lindsey Parker, the district’s chief technology officer and assistant city administrator, said the business portal is designed to offer businesspeople a reprieve from navigating registration forms and licenses required by disparate city agencies and previously […]