Happy Thursday!
Important safety tip: please check your footwear this morning to make sure they’re not about to spontaneously combust. (Too soon, Duke fans?) |
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We haven’t yet confirmed whether President Obama will be at next week’s CED Tech Conference, but we’re not not saying he’ll be there. (Though please, don’t swarm the Raleigh Convention Center like UNC students did in Chapel Hill yesterday when word spread on social media that Obama and his daughter Sasha were touring campus; they weren’t.) Though we do know that roughly 900 startup founders, investors, and members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the Triangle and beyond will be there on Monday and Tuesday, clearing out just in time for CED’s Life Sciences Conference to start around lunchtime on Tuesday and continue on to Wednesday.
Check out our full preview of the CED TechCon (which is what the kids call it) so you’ll know what not to miss, and check out CED’s site as well. And if you’ll be there, be sure to swing by the GrepBeat table to say hi. Though please keep it down on Tuesday morning because I’ll be on deadline.
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Drinking beer is fun, but selling it is a business. That’s where Raleigh’s BruVue comes in. BruVue enables bar, restaurant, and concession operators to track each pour via a sensor to increase efficiency, reduce theft, and to know how much is left in a keg without having to lift it up and guesstimate.
BruVue will be one of the 30 companies presenting on the mainstage at the CED Tech Conference. Get the down-low on them ahead of time via our profile.
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You know what goes great with beer? Food. And if you want to save some room (and money) for the hops, you best eat healthy and economically. That’s what Myxx Co-Founders Monica Wood and Dede Houston and their Cary-based startup are all about. Myxx is a free site on which consumers can find healthy recipes and then be directed where exactly to find the ingredients at their local grocery store, including a partnership with all Harris Teeter and Kroger locations nationwide. The company makes its money from its retail and brand partners paying for the placement of their products on the site.
Myxx will also be presenting at the CED Tech Conference. (Noticing a trend?) Don't miss our full story on Myxx here.
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We here at GrepBeat obviously know all about software development, because if we didn’t, how in the world would we know what “grep” means? (Though there’s no shame in looking it up.) Still, the development and release process of new software can be something of a black box even to those who do it every day. That’s the problem that Raleigh’s Allstacks is solving. Allstacks’ main product plugs into the tools that a company’s software developers use to help diagnose bottlenecks before they spiral out of control—and scotch the planned release date.
Allstacks will also—you guessed it!—be presenting at CED TechCon. It's the sixth and final company profile in our pre-conference series, along with Myxx and BruVue above, plus our earlier stories on ProAxion, Klever Insight, and mesur.io. Read the Allstacks story here.
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While a number of companies at the Tech Conference are relatively early, they’ve all progressed past the idea stage, which is a major hurdle in itself. WRAL TechWire has a cool story today on so-called “fab labs” (the “fab” is for “fabrication”) that can help. Take Hangar6, for instance. Launched by RTP’s First Flight Venture Center, it provides entrepreneurs with prototyping equipment, workspace and training for around $200 a month. The faster and cheaper a startup can build its first prototype, the quicker it can iterate. How about this product idea: a basketball sneaker that doesn’t explode. Can't miss!
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Good news, bad news, and better news for the Triangle from a new ranking of the best cities for women in tech by Smart Asset. The good news: Durham ranked No. 8. The bad news: Raleigh finished 56th out of 58 cities, weighed down by a large gender pay gap. Ouch. The better news: Austin ranked 44th. Ha!
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TBJ unveiled its 2019 Women in Business Awards winners this morning. The honorees from Triangle Tech-land include Elaine McVey of TransLoc; Annette Sanders of SAS; Lenovo’s Johanny Peyero; and Beth Segovia of ChannelAdvisor. The winners will be recognized at an awards luncheon on March 28 at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. Congrats to all!
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One word in a TBJ story yesterday made me laugh, and since I have no filter between my brain and the three fingers that I type with—no joke; 20+ years as a professional writer with just my two index fingers and right thumb—I’m going to share it. TBJ reported that Louisiana-based Walk-On’s Bistreaux and Bar is looking to expand to the Triangle. While the story focused on co-owner Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints QB, I was more interested in its description of co-founder (and co-owner) Brandon Landry as a “former Louisiana State University basketball star.”
I happened to cover LSU sports for the Lafayette (La.) Daily Advertiser when Landry was a player, and he only played a few minutes more than me. He was a walk-on (thus the restaurant’s name) who logged career totals of 17 minutes and 8 points. Not per game; for his whole career. Someday, I hope to be so successful that stories about me will describe how my fingers (all 10 of them!) used to fly across the keyboard. But you'll know better.
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Because too much news is never enough
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