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Happy Tuesday!

We’re just two days away from Grep-a-palooza, our inaugural full-day, early-stage tech conference this Thursday at the Durham Convention Center. (Get those tickets!) The doors open at 8:30 a.m. for registration, coffee and networking with the programming kicking off at 9:10 a.m. Then at 4 p.m. we’ll shift a few hundred yards to Bull McCabe’s for the After-Party. Remember that the After-Party is open to all, regardless of whether or not you were able to attend the conference (though Grep-a-palooza attendees will receive drink tickets).
 
If you want a sneak peek of Grep-a-palooza’s Opening Keynote speaker, Pendo CEO Todd Olson, he was the guest on the latest episode of the Friday Nooner.
 


Very Meta

WRAL News is reporting that Facebook parent company Meta is going to establish a “significant presence” in Durham. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment one way or another, but maybe Meta was suffering FOMO after Apple and Google previously announced large outposts in the Triangle. Meta would also be close to its fellow would-be Metaverse kingpin, Cary-based Epic Games. Details are sketchy because Meta isn’t saying boo on the record, though soon-to-step-down COO Sheryl Sandberg will reportedly be in Durham later this week for “unrelated business.” We’re pretty sure that’s code for “attending Grep-a-palooza.”


 


Coming Attraction

For Sheryl and everyone else, we took the liberty of spelling out in detail what you can expect at Grep-a-palooza. There will be six chunks of programming at 45 minutes at a pop—bracketed by keynotes with the aforementioned Todd Olson and Bandwidth CEO David Morken—broken up by lunch and three extended “networking breaks.” Don’t worry, we’ll keep you fed, caffeinated and hydrated throughout.
 
Read our preview story here, and peruse the full agenda here. Then lock down those tickets!


 


See Klearly

These are heady times for Klearly Founder and CEO Alex Krawchick, and not just because his beloved Mets are leading the NL East by nine games. Today the RTP-based startup that provides analytics to sales teams so they can know what is and isn’t working closed on $4M in new funding to fuel growth. The round was led by New Hampshire-based York IE—perhaps they heard about Alex’s Division I baseball exploits at the kinda-close University of Rhode Island?—with participation from the Triangle-based trio of IDEA Fund Partners, Front Porch Ventures and Scot Wingo’s Triangle Tweener Fund. Read our full story on the funding here.


 


Tech Culture Club

Host Melissa Phillippi finishes the first season of the Tech Culture Club podcast strong with guest Erikka Buracchio, the Chief People Officer at Cary-based Brightly Software (formerly Dude Solutions). Among other things, Erikka talks about the company’s name change, the nuances of delivering feedback to employees and ageism, which is something I don’t have to worry about because I’m super-young.
 
Read some show highlights here, then listen to the episode here—or the full 10-episode season here. And we’d like to send one final thank you to Vaco, our great season sponsor!


 


Reversing Course

While the Triangle tech scene generally continues to boom (see Items 1 and 3 above), we’re not totally immune from the ill winds that have been blowing against tech recently in the public and private financing markets—plus inflation, the war in Ukraine, continued supply-chain snarls, etc. Consider Policygenius, the online insurance platform with a second HQ in Durham. In March, the insurtech announced a new $125M in funding, but last Thursday TechCrunch reported that Policygenius has laid off 25% of its staff, amounting to about 170 employees—dozens of them from the Triangle.
 
In a statement, Policygenius CEO Jennifer Fitzgerald cited a “sudden and dramatic shift in the economy” that forced them to “adapt our strategy.” Reading between the lines, that sounds like the startup now believes it must prepare to make that $125M last a lot longer than it might have thought even a few months ago, because the outlook for future VC dollars or an IPO have gotten significantly cloudier for the intermediate future. See TBJ for more on the local angle.


 


New Unicorn

Enough bad news, let’s talk more about the Triangle tech scene’s newest unicorn! That, of course, would be Morrisville-based cybersecurity startup JupiterOne, which as we told you on Thursday has raised $70M at a valuation somewhere above the “unicorn line” of $1B. It’s been a meteoric rise for JupiterOne, which is less than two years from launching as a standalone company and less than a year from making GrepBeat’s inaugural Startups To Watch list.
 
Friday Nooner co-host Chantal Allam had an extensive Q&A with JupiterOne CEO Erkang Zheng in yesterday’s TechWire that’s worth your time.


 


Platinum Shovel

North Carolina has been awarded one of two “Platinum Shovel” awards from the current issue of Area Development, a quarterly publication covering site selection, facility planning and economic development. NC split the new award level with Tennessee, because the Gold Shovels (which went to five other states) weren’t sufficient. And this doesn't even count a potential Meta arrival. See TechWire for more.


 


Bandwidth Bio

Raleigh-based Bandwidth has announced a new Chief Innovation OfficerKarl Perkins, who was previously the CTO at Durham-based Avaya. Karl will report to Bandwidth CEO David Morken, who we may or may not have mentioned will be the Closing Keynote speaker at Thursday’s Grep-a-palooza. Tickets still available!


 


Build Great Software

Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Dualboot is a business and software development company. Their clients include tech and non-tech founders as well as Fortune 500 companies, so they can start small or scale fast depending on what you need. Every client is assigned a U.S.-based Product Director with at least 10 years experience bringing products to market, and they can manage the entire development process. They focus on how the software fits into your company to drive revenue and build the business. At Dualboot, they don’t just write your software—they help you grow your business. Intrigued? Email them here.


 

Grep-a-palooza Sponsors

We want to thank Grep-a-palooza’s Event Sponsors: ExtensisHR, Robinson Bradshaw, Hughes Pittman, Wyrick Robbins and Dualboot. The After-Party is being sponsored by Michael Best & Friedrich. Be sure to thank them in person on Thursday!

 

Because too much news is never enough.

 

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Here are some great jobs at Triangle startups.

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