Speedy Trials
When brothers-in-law John Leveille and Chris Olinger got together 17 years ago to do some programming in a basement, their mantra was “Code for food.” It turned out pretty well. Now Morrisville-based d-wise has 85 employees worldwide building software to help accelerate clinical trials and make them more transparent, ultimately saving lives. Hmmm, is there anything in particular that we’d like to see clinical trials for these days?
Read our full story on d-wise—an overnight success after nearly two decades that just made Scot Wingo’s 2020 Tweener List—here.
All-Seeing Eye
You ever notice on TV or movies when the authorities are reviewing some grainy surveillance camera footage and are suddenly able to zoom in with such clarity that you can see if the bad guy needs his nose hair trimmed? Yeah, that probably wasn’t very realistic. Unless, of course, the local bank or bodega was using cameras made by Durham-based Aqueti. Developed in part by David Brady, a longtime professor of photonics at Duke, the multi-lens cameras enable public- and private-sector customers to put an eagle eye in the sky. Read our full story on Aqueti here.
Office Space
In the relatively near future—perhaps just a few weeks—the offices of Triangle tech companies are going to start reopening for workers, or for more workers if they’d never really closed. That doesn’t mean, of course, that things are going to look or feel exactly like they did before. TBJ has some interesting coverage on what returning to the office will look like, and also on the legal issues that employers must grapple with on whether, how, and whom to test for signs of a fever or other potential Covid-19 symptoms.
Good Neighbor
Neighborland, a Raleigh-based SaasS platform for civic organizations to collaborate with stakeholders on local projects, has been acquired by Nextdoor for an undisclosed amount. Neighborland was founded in 2010 by Dan Parham, who is now going to lead the Public Agencies team at Nextdoor. Neighborland had recently announced new partnerships with governors across the country, including Gavin Newsom (California), Andrew Cuomo (New York) and John Bel Edwards (Louisiana). Fun fact: Dan is the husband of Bridget Harrington, the executive director of Innovate Raleigh.
Jumping In
NetApp has acquired Garner’s CloudJumper, which makes software that it calls Cloud Workspace Management Suite (CWMS) and has managed to grow for 20 years without any venture funding. CloudJumper’s tech is particularly useful to ensure a consistent virtual desktop experience, and you might have noticed that more people are working from home lately who might be interested in exactly that.
Reinforcements
This has been an exceedingly strange time for the medical profession. We’ve all read and heard harrowing stories of frontline medical workers being overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients in places like Italy, New York City and Detroit. Though the fact that the healthcare system has tried so hard (understandably) to make room for potential coronavirus cases—and to save PPE for healthcare workers who will critically need it to safely treat them—has meant that elective procedures have mostly come to a halt and many local medical practices have been closing temporarily.
Now Raleigh-based Curi and OnCall Physician Staffing have partnered to create a free online platform called Helpfulpractices.com to connect out-of-work local doctors to healthcare systems around the country that experience surges in demand. Sounds like a true win-win. See TBJ for more details.
Cover-up
If you’re still tinkering with your mask game, consider the new CopperSAFE neckwear/facemask designed by Connor and Dylan Clark, teenage brothers from Raleigh. The masks are infused with copper, which is a naturally occurring antimicrobial. Connor is 16 and Dylan is 14, and this is actually Dylan’s second startup—he launched lacrosse apparel and lifestyle brand HashtagLax when he was 11. And you can barely remember what day it is! Wake up and start a company, lazybones!
Say What?
Raleigh’s Christina Marie Noel is launching the second cohort of the FYSO Accelerator for mission-driven companies. “FYSO” stands for “Figure Your Sh*t Out,” i.e. what the Clark boys already seem to have done. Given the current pandemic, this cohort will be going fully virtual for the first time and will also be “pay-what-you-can/pay-when-you-can.” Click here for more info.
Doing Work
They say that every company is a tech company these days, and they are right. (Aren’t they always?) Charlotte’s MyWorkChoice, formerly StrataForce, was founded more than 30 years ago to help businesses fill hourly jobs. But hey, it’s all apps these days and MyWorkChoice realized the key to connecting workers to work was flexibility, and giving them the option to pick their own shifts from the palm of their hand. It turned to Dualboot Partners to build out its entire web and mobile offering, and then stay on as its development team.
That’s positioned MyWorkChoice to help both businesses and workers during this current pandemic in which hourly, contingent workers—think warehouse stackers and essential supply chain operators—are in more demand than ever. If your company is looking for anything from a strategy session on your tech development plan to the full soup-to-nuts MyWorkChoice treatment, give Dualboot a look. And you won’t have to look far—Charlotte-HQ’d Dualboot opened a Raleigh office in January led by GrepBeat-famous Wade Minter and Tina Cochrane. When you email Tina, tell her we said hi!
Extra Bit
Durham’s Spreedly is going to host its annual conference, PAYMENTSfn, completely virtually for the first time on Wednesday, May 13. Also: it’s free!
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