Basis Points
Not every SaaS startup demonstrates the meteoric growth rates that VC firms covet, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty of tasty meat on that bone. That’s where Raleigh’s Basis State comes in. Paolo DiVincenzo and Tim DeBone’s eight-month-old startup looks for SaaS startups with solid revenue that might be hovering around the profitability line and don’t have VCs lining up. Rather than making direct investments, Basis State works for a portion of the (hopefully increased) revenue and a piece of the hoped-for eventual exit, likely to a strategic buyer.
Read our full profile of Basis State here.
Big Launches
The Launch Place held its 6th Annual Big Launch Challenge yesterday in RTP and two Triangle-based startups took home the top prizes. Raleigh’s Intake, which makes a device that hangs over your toilet to automatically collect and test your urine to monitor your health daily, won the $15K award for first place. Second place and $5K went to Durham’s Optimal Solar, which makes high-efficiency solar modules. (We have written twice before about Optimal Solar, here and here.) WRAL TechWire has full coverage of the event here and here.
Black Founders Exchange
American Underground and Google for Startups have announced the 11 participants in the fourth annual cohort of the Black Founders Exchange, which will be held Sept. 22-27 at AU’s Durham Main St. campus and culminates in a Demo Day. The picks include three North Carolina companies, one of which is Durham’s Courtroom5, which helps pro se litigants argue cases for themselves without needing to pay a lawyer.
You’ll likely recall that on Tuesday, we mentioned that Courtroom5 has also been selected to the LexisNexis Legal Tech Accelerator, so it’s a big week for them. We’d never say that the company’s recent success derives in any way from the fact that we wrote about Courtroom5 in March, but we can’t keep other people from making that claim. (Meanwhile, here’s more from TechWire on the Black Founders Exchange and the LexisNexis program.)
Accelerators, Plural
While we’re talking accelerators, here are two more nuggets. No. 1—Recent Durham transplant The Climate Service has joined the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator for fintech companies. The Climate Service enables companies to measure, monitor and manage their risks related to climate change. James McMahon, the CEO of The Climate Service, tells GrepBeat he moved the company’s HQ to Durham from Asheville in June and plans to build out the startup’s tech and administrative teams here. “I’ve found Durham’s startup community both welcoming and impressive,” James says. “We’re excited to build this business here.” Well, James, we expect to see you at next Thursday’s Happy Hour.
Nugget No. 2: Two Triangle-based “cleantech” startups are among the seven picked to participate in next week’s (Sept. 18-20) Joules Accelerator Catalyst Program as part of the North Carolina Cleantech Corridor initiative. Durham’s Breezi makes what it calls a “fitness tracker for HVAC equipment,” which is good because my AC runs all night long (hey-o!). Meanwhile Raleigh-based Building Clarity is an IoT-enabled engineering firm that helps clients transform their energy and HVAC environments.
Study Strength
A new study by Volusion finds that Durham-Chapel Hill ranks fourth among 96 midsize metros (between 350K-1M residents) in the percentage of business owners who are women. The No. 1 slot actually goes to Fayetteville, N.C. Raleigh, meanwhile, ranks No. 36 among large metros on the same metric.
Working For Women
As a good Exhibit A for women-owned businesses in Durham, consider Founder/CEO Ursula Mead and InHerSight. The startup provides ratings for more than 100K workplaces based on how positive an environment they provide to women employees. TechWire profiled the company yesterday. And once you read that, read GrepBeat’s profile on Ursula and InHerSight from April. Or read us first. Whatevs.
Mango M&A
Morrisville-based TrialCard has acquired San Francisco-based Mango Health. Mango makes mobile health apps to help provide medication and increase patient adherence, and also (unfortunately) makes us think of this SNL character. Financial terms were not disclosed, natch.
From No. 1 To No. 2
If our mention of human waste above (re: Intake) made you a little uncomfortable, then this item is for you: Durham’s BioMass Controls has figured out how to turn pigs’ “fecal sludge” and food waste into nutrients for secondary uses such as fertilizer, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. TBJ has all the dirty deets.
From The Source
As much as we at GrepBeat flatter ourselves about our way with words, if you’re the founder of an early stage startup looking for a lawyer, you really want to hear from successful founders who were fairly recently where you are now. And hey, it’s not like we get paid by the word. So we urge you to check out this link to Fourscore Business Law’s “Client Tell” section, in which 20 Fourscore clients spell out why they chose the Fourscore team—and why they’re glad that they did. You’ll likely recognize clients like startups Bee Downtown, Aeva Labs, Sudsy and Kwipped, plus startup communities HQ Raleigh and Loading Dock Raleigh.
While we’re playing the re-direction game, here’s a link to GrepBeat’s Q&A with Fourscore lawyer Jesse Jones that will tell you everything you need to know about his personal (did you know he once played baseball against the Nicaraguan national team?) and professional (Smith Anderson ==> Forrest Firm ==> launching Fourscore) background. If you just can’t get enough—and we wouldn’t blame you—go to Fourscore’s entrepreneur workshop tonight at The Frontier. Tell the Fourscore team we said hi.
Extra Bit
Last call for tonight’s Entrepalooza event at NC State.
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