NC IDEA announced today the five startups from across the state (out of 158 applicants) that earned $50K grants in the NC IDEA SEED program. Two of the five hail from the Triangle. One is Durham’s Courtroom5, which provides automated, customized legal assistance for pro se litigants (i.e. people who want to represent themselves) in civil court. The second is Raleigh’s ExLattice, which is developing computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) software for 3D printing. We at GrepBeat approve of their nospacebetweenwords approach to company names.
You can find out more about Courtroom5 and ExLattice as well as the other winners—from Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Tar Heel, which sounds like it should be on Franklin Street but is actually located two hours south—via NC IDEA’s full release.
|
|
|
We’ve taken our shots at Amazon in this space, sure, but mostly of the drive-by-quip variety. We’ll leave it to Joe Procopio, the Chief Product Officer at Get Spiffy and former Founder and CEO of GrepBeat inspiration ExitEvent, to spell out in detail why he thinks that it would have been a bad thing for the Triangle to land HQ2. (Or HQ2A, or HQ2+, or HQ3, or whatever silliness Amazon is concocting now; sorry, we’ll stop). In particular, Joe thinks Amazon’s arrival would have set back the Triangle’s startup growth by several years. Click here to find out why.
|
|
|
It’s amazing Joe finds the time to dash off anti-Amazon screeds given how busy a week this has been for Spiffy. Yesterday, the company announced agreements with the connected car initiatives of 13 major car brands. That means that Spiffy won’t need to get your keys in order to deliver their mobile, on-demand, car-care services that include car washes and oil changes. While you could probably wash your car simply by leaving it outside this week in the cold rain, that’s no substitute for Spiffy’s hot wax.
|
|
|
The story of Tatiana Birgisson brewing MATI energy drink in her Duke dorm room back in 2012 and rapidly building it into a company with $1M+ in revenues is a familiar one to observers of the Triangle startup scene. Less known is MATI’s current CEO, former Coca-Cola exec Eric Masters, who came aboard five months ago to help scale MATI Energy into a national brand. (Birgisson left the company in early 2018). Our own Tricia Lucas helped bridge that knowledge gap by sitting down with the marketing-savvy and dog-loving Masters in the latest edition of the Meet... series.
|
|
Forbes’ 30 Under 30 lists are A) a great way to recognize the next wave of innovators and leaders; B) a great way for Forbes to market itself; C) a great way to make roughly 70% of our readers feel really old; D) all of the above.
The correct answer is D), but 26-year-old Sean Newman Maroni, the CEO of Raleigh’s Betabox, is a great example of A). Betabox brings field trips to schools with their mobile “Betaboxes,” revamped shipping containers that offer interactive STEM and design experiences. So far the three-year-old company has brought 45,000 learning hours to 150,000 students across 25 states at a cost of less than $2.50 a student. That success has landed Maroni on the 30 Under 30 list for education, and also landed him in the virtual pages of GrepBeat here.
|
|
While Amazon’s definitely not coming and Apple’s still dithering—reader Doug Long spied this story that Virginia’s Fairfax County now thinks it has the inside track on Apple—a less-noticed trend is emerging. Namely, companies that are moving their primary HQ to the Triangle, not just a second HQ or branch office. One of those dominoes fell this week with software firm ImageQuix announcing a move to Raleigh. Previously it was HQ’d in Greenville, S.C., with a small Cary offshoot.
Meanwhile, ag- and food tech company Pairwise is making the long trip from RTP to downtown Durham. We recommend they try the salad with roasted chicken at Toast. Tell them Pete sent you and they'll look at you quizzically.
|
|
Totally unsolicited tip to the CEOs out there: don’t follow the lead of Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and spin your company’s upcoming layoffs as a strategy to improve “customer experience” rather than a cost-cutting measure. Here’s betting Robbins has never been laid off.
Hey, business is business, and sometimes layoffs are necessary. We get that. But CEOs need to put themselves in the shoes of those they’re laying off. Does anyone getting the axe at Cisco want to read that their CEO thinks the company’s customers will have a better experience once they’re out of the way? Hey, CEOs: Don’t spin, just say you’re sorry that it has to happen and then give everyone time and space to move on.
|
|
|
Because too much news is never enough
|
|
|
Your periodic, highly curated calendar of Triangle tech events
- Nov. 15 (tonight) — NC Tech Awards, Durham (sold out)
- Nov. 16 — Wolf Den, a Shark Tank-inspired event for student startups, at NC State in Raleigh
|
|
|
Extra Bit
If you’re at Day 2 of the Internet Summit today in Raleigh, please swing by the GrepBeat table outside Stages 5-7 to say hi. Also: we have candy!
|
|
|
|
|
|
