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Happy Tuesday!

We’re nine days way from the next GrepBeat Happy Hour on Thursday, Aug. 18. Our friends at coworking spot Durham Bottling Co. will both sponsor and host the event at their digs at 506 Ramseur St in downtown Durham. They’re the reason you’ll be drinking free, so thank them in person. Please register so we can stock up appropriately.
 


The Download

Raleigh Founded is the OG of Triangle coworking spaces, marking its 10th anniversary (and almost as many names) with an Oct. 7 party. So it’s fitting that this week’s subject of the Download Q&A is Lauren Romer, who took over as Director in June about four years after she first joined the organization as a Community Coordinator.

If you want to know the very latest re: Raleigh Founded as well as pick up some great tips on where to eat and drink in Raleigh, click here for the full Q&A.


 


Popping Up

Popups definitely got a bad name from the early days of internet advertising, so much so that entire businesses were built on blocking said popups. Yet the dreaded popup is still one of the best ways for ecommerce companies to collect contact info on potential customers for effective marketing that they can “own” rather than buying ads on Google, Facebook, and the rest.

That’s why serial entrepreneur Matt Cimino is back with another startup: Raleigh-based Amped, which helps companies devise attractive and effective popups that meet their marketing goals without annoying the heck out of the rest of us. (We also profiled Matt’s most recent startup, Ellie, in April, 2020.) Read our new story on Amped here.


 


Good Info

Move over, Dr. Google—plenty of Americans now get their medical “info” from Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and the like. That’s a big problem for pediatricians in particular, who need to reach the parents and caregivers of their patients—especially the youngest ones—with accurate information, but don’t tend to be social media mavens themselves. That’s where Raleigh-based Social Cascade comes in.

Social Cascade is founded by Lucy Shores Kosturko and Scott McQuiggan, who met in grad school at NC State and later led a philanthropic division at SAS that built edtech. The pair is participating in CED’s GRO Incubator. Read our full story on Social Cascade here.


 


NIL Rush

As a diehard college football fan (did you know that LSU kicks off its opener vs. Florida State in 26 days, six hours, 42 minutes and 25 seconds… 24 seconds… 23…) I’ve become as familiar with the initials NIL and I am with PJM. In broad terms, NIL refers to the fact that college athletes can now receive compensation based on their “name, image and likeness” while still maintaining eligibility. What are the specific rules beyond that? Who knows! It’s the Wild West right now.

Naturally, plenty of entrepreneurs are jumping in to the new space. TBJ’s Lauren Ohnesorge dives in as well, talking to Jeffrey Clark—a serial entrepreneur who’s launched Booster Athletics to connect college athletes directly to fans—and Cofounders Capital’s David Gardner. She also wrote an accompanying story in Triangle Inno on three Triangle startups betting more broadly on the “digitization of sports.” In addition to Booster Athletics, she profiles PlayMetrics, a software platform for the management of youth sports that former Download subject Mike Doernberg spun out of his eMinor Inc.; and GrepBeat neighbor Teamworks, which (of course) closed on a new $50M funding round in June.


 


Buying Frenzy

The M&A market has remained hot despite (or possibly because of) lower valuations in both the private and public markets. Here are three fresh instances with local flavor: 1) Austin-based Vista Equity Partners is acquiring publicly traded automated tax compliance company Avalara for $8.4B and will take it private. Avalara is HQ’d in Seattle but has a prominent Durham presence, while Vista is no stranger to the Triangle after its past deals for the likes of Automated Insights. TechCrunch has more info.

2) Raleigh-based Vontier Corporation, a publicly traded company that spun out of Fortive Corporation and moved its HQ to the Oak City from Washington state in 2020, has acquired New Zealand-based Invenco for at least $80M. Vontier traditionally focused on transportation and mobility solutions, while Invenco’s software provides retailing and payment solutions.

3) Cox Enterprises is buying media company Axios for $525M (see this NYT story). Axios recently launched a Raleigh newsletter that is co-written by Zach Eanes, who formerly covered tech for the N&O.


 


Hat Tips

Here are some folks deserving a tip of the cap: 1) Henry McKoy, who among many other hats led NC Central’s entrepreneurial offerings, has accepted a presidential appointment to be the inaugural director of the Office of State and Community Energy Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy. See TechWire for a full Q&A.  2) Cary air-capture startup Sustaera, which won an XPRIZE for its innovative process to remove carbon from the air, has named Dr. Mary Haas as its new CEO. TechWire has more. 3) TBJ has a feature on Brian and Alexina Alonso, the husband-and-wife duo behind Durham-based Built Story, which as we told you last month has been selected for Google For Startups’ Latino Founders Fund.


 


Loading Up

If we had to pick one Triangle coworking space to get into the “co-warehousing” business, it makes sense that it would be the Loading Dock. Essentially, it’s a shared warehouse space that the Loading Dock offers in two of its four locations, which can be invaluable for companies that deal in physical goods and not just spreadsheets. See TechWire for more.


 


ICYMI

OK, maybe I’m the only one who missed this last week, but TBJ reported that Google has been quietly increasing its footprint in downtown Durham. Google is now subleasing all of the office space in 200 Morris St in the Durham Innovation District—close to 150,000 square feet. Google is believed to still be looking for a more permanent spot in the Triangle after announcing in early 2021 that it’s creating a 1,000-employee engineering hub in Durham.


 


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

Hey, are you a woman who works in Climate Tech? Or maybe you’d like to be? Well, the Women+ in Climate Tech community will meet this Thursday at the Raleigh Beer Garden at 5:30p.m. You can RSVP to info@womeninclimatetech.org to attend.

 

Because too much news is never enough.

 

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