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New Path

The pandemic has been tough on many of us for many reasons, but frontline healthcare workers may have been the most impacted as a group. It’s no wonder that so many are burned out and leaving the profession. On the brighter side, a number of them are turning to entrepreneurship as a new path. Today we have a story on the trend that talks to some of those entrepreneurs about their paths, including two whose startups we previously profiled in March—Tasha Holland-Kornegay of Wirl and Ivy Clinicians’ Leon Adelman. Read our full story here.

Surgical Precision

Though two of the three co-founders of Durham-based Higgs Bosun Health are doctors by training, they didn’t launch the startup after getting burned out by the pandemic. Rather, co-founder Rajeev Dharmapurikar (the lone non-M.D. among the founding team) was talking to Duke gastroenterologist Ziad Gellad about Rajeev’s previous startup—which resulted in a successful exit—and they were inspired to launch Higgs Boson in 2017. In short, it’s a platform to manage all patient activity before, during and after surgery. Last week, Higgs Bosun was recognized as a new Tweener by Tweener Titan Scot Wingo.
 
Oh, and about the startup's name? Come on, you need to read the story.

Tall Tale

Durham-based Phononic has picked former Fitbit exec Larry Yang as its first Chief Product Officer. Phononic has developed cutting-edge, solid-state cooling technology that enables far smaller, more portable and more efficient cooling solutions, such as refrigerators and air conditioners. It raised $50M last summer in a round led by Goldman Sachs, and was honored at last Thursday’s Tweener event as one of the largest 2021 fundings by a Tweener list startup.
 
Speaking of that event, I’d like to hereby apologize to Phononic CEO Tony Atti for telling him at said event—I was meeting him in person for the first time—that I thought he’d be taller. To be clear, Tony is probably right around my height. It’s just that from seeing pictures of him, including the one we ran with our Download Q&A with him, I thought he was like 6'5". Of course, among Triangle tech CEOs, he’s still a towering figure.

School's In

Since we’re on a Tweener list member kick, Raleigh-based student engagement platform Element451—which we first profiled in February, 2020 and was also part of our inaugural 2021 class of Startups To Watch—has released a new industry perspective paper. The paper is titled “Swipe, Tap, Submit: The College Experience Goes Personal to Boost Enrollment” and was authored by CEO Ardis Kadiu. The paper is a call to action for higher education institutions to rethink their interactions with students, from prospects to enrolled students to alums. Which, of course, is what Element451 does. See more information here.

All Wet

TBJ’s Lauren Ohnesorge alerted me to something I didn’t know yesterday—and not for the first time—in her story about Durham-based startup 374Water now being publicly listed on the Nasdaq. We first profiled 374Water in December, 2020, as a Duke spinout that transforms sewage sludge and other contaminated water sources into clean water suitable for drinking and other purposes.
 
Last year, 374Water merged with PowerVerde, a firm founded to commercialize zero-waste power systems. PowerVerde was already an OTC-traded firm. Last week, the combined company shifted its stock to the Nasdaq. So hey, we have another public tech company in the Triangle! See TBJ for more info.

Landing VinFast

Speaking of Lauren, this week she also has an interesting story in one of her specialties—mining public records requests for the behind-the-scenes dirt on North Carolina economic development officials trying to land a big fish. In this case, it’s the tale of how the state outmaneuvered Georgia for Vietnamese carmaker VinFast, which (as you surely know) is building a massive electric vehicle and battery manufacturing operation in Chatham County that’s expected to create 7,500 jobs.

Fore!-ward

I’m not really a golfer, but I know that those who are spend a lot on gear. Apex-based Stitch Golf Holdings knows that full well, as ecommerce sales of its golf bags, head covers, golf shirts and other items have roughly doubled since the onset of the pandemic. Stitch’s DTC approach is now going to be supplemented the old-fashioned way with its first brick-and-mortar retails stores, which it hopes to open in the fourth quarter in Palm Beach, Florida, and Dallas. See Triangle Inno for more.

Giving Back

Today’s TechWire has a feature on Raleigh-based Givefinity, which we profiled back in March. Co-Founders (and married couple) Amy and Kenton Gardinier have launched Givefinity as an app to streamline the tracking of volunteer work.

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.

Extra Bit

Next Wednesday from 1-2 p.m., RIoT will sponsor a virtual “Lunch & Learn” with Amplifi Labs on making software accessible to people with disabilities, why it matters and how to accomplish it. See here for more info and to register.

Because too much news is never enough.

• Global Internet of Things ‘Slam’ set for in-person conference this week in Cary (WRAL TechWire)
• NC economy relies on connecting workers, employers – that’s focus of new NCSU initiative (WRAL TechWire)

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Guess where Pete is and (maybe) win a GrepBeat pint glass!
 

This week’s winner is Austin Hall, who correctly identified my location as Durhmam’s EverLou Coffee. Let’s hear from him: “Oh, hi there. You surprised me while I was sipping from my Joe Sink mug. I’m an Assurance Manager at CLA and I lead our tech team here in the Triangle. I work with private companies and their owners to meet all of their assurance, tax, outsourced accounting, and other professional service needs. I also am always open to a chat about cycling, beer, and dogs free of charge!” Congrats, Austin!