GrepBeat unveiled its inaugural Startups To Watch list on Thursday night at an event that everyone said was an unrivalled triumph. (OK, maybe I was the one who said that.) Click here for a recap of all the honorees, and you can find much more coverage—including pics—on our social media channels. Which you should totally be following.
And here are some ICYMIs: 1) The latest Friday Noonerfeatured Cycle Labs CEO Josh Owen, one of the Startups To Watch honorees, plus an even higher-than-usual level of Pete v. Joe “ribbing” given the lack of sleep post-event; 2) Jackie’s The Week in 90 Secondsis always a great way to catch up quickly on the week that was in GrepBeat World.
Car Chats
Due to long stretches living in Manhattan and later in downtown Chicago, I still have lived more than half my adult life without a car—and the stretches that I’ve owned a car were in four different states. That has only made me more wary of trying to find a car mechanic that I trust. Then you add in all the hassles and anxiety of taking off work and/or being car-less while your vehicle undergoes what could be very expensive repairs for reasons you don’t entirely understand and can’t evaluate on your own.
So I was particularly intrigued by Raleigh startup Ratchit when I saw it among the nominees for Startups To Watch. Ratchit is a platform to connect car owners with mechanics via video chat. The mechanic might be able to walk the driver through a do-it-yourself-fix, saving time and money. Or if an in-shop repair is needed, the mechanic might offer a discount—and the car owner has at least seen the mechanic via a screen before taking the leap of faith to drop the car off. Read our full story on Ratchit here. And I don't mean to brag, but I came up with a killer headline that you'll have to click to see.
Homecoming
Durham native and UNC grad George Kirkland has done the Silicon Valley thing, co-founding the edtech RaiseMe while raising his own family in a San Francisco apartment. When the pandemic hit and WFH became the norm, the 1,500 square feet seemed awfully cramped for a family of four, so the Kirklands headed back to the Triangle. That’s where they undertook something truly terrifying: buying a new home.
Soon RaiseMe was acquired (in July 2020) by CampusLogic and George had both the time and capital to devote to something new—and had just come across a big problem worth solving. A new home is overflowing with things that can break, with nary a landlord around to fix them. So George has co-founded HomeCloud, an online dashboard to help new homeowners manage their home by storing all of the information relating to appliances and systems and providing actionable insights and recommendations based on that information. Read our full story on HomeCloud here.
New SEEDlings
The NC IDEA grant machine rumbles on with yesterday’s announcement of 26 semifinalists from across the state for the Fall 2021 grant cycle of the $50K SEED grants. We’ve previously written about six of the Triangle-based semifinalists: Acta Solutions, Greppys winner Flux Hybrids, Startup (To Watch)2 honoree iMama, Rella, Sani and Without A Trace Foods. The other Triangle-based startups are Durham’s Plantd Inc. and SnapPicFix; Raleigh’s myKare INC. and Spring & Mulberry; Holly Springs’ The Nurtured Nest; and Morrisville’s Vetletics.
Know Your ABCs
Durham-based edtech MetaMetrics has announced the acquisition of Elemeno, an edtech that focuses on early literacy. (And my mind has been blown by my sudden realization that Elemeno is named for the “L-M-N-O” part of the ABC Song. Seriously, I can barely continue.) MetaMetrics is the developer of the Lexile and Quintile Frameworks, which measure reading and listening (Lexile) and math (Quintile) skills. Cool names, but did they consider the Aitchijay Framework? (Give it a second...) See TechWire for more.
In other acquisition news: Durham-based startup Boostopia, which we profiled last March, announced that it has been acquired by SupporTrends. Boostopia’s software product for customer support teams will now be part of SupporTrends’ offerings, while Boostopia CEO Justin Winter and his team will put their focus on the coaching efforts that they had begun to deploy alongside their product. See Boostopia’s release for more info.
Office Work
The City of Raleigh is creating a new Office of Strategy and Innovation that will launch in 2022. That’s in addition to Innovate Raleigh, which is still looking for an executive director after former Friday Nooner guest Bridget Harrington left in August. TechWire has more info.
More Grants
The SBA isn’t just for small business loans. It also sponsors a Growth Accelerator Fund Competition that has awarded $50K grants to three Triangle-based entrepreneurial organizations: RIoT (and its RIoT Accelerator Program), First Flight Venture Center and UNC’s KickStart Venture Services. The grants are specifically for programs targeted to underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, rural and military veteran entrepreneurs. See TechWire for more info, including links to the 90-second video “applications” from each of the grantees.
Another tech support org doing its part in trying to support underrepresented groups is NC TECH, which last week held its second annual Summit for Women in Tech. Tracy Sternberg, NC TECH’s director of programs and sponsorship, recapped the event’s highlights for TechWire.
Onward And Upward
Here’s a trio of updates on startups that we’ve profiled before: A) Protopia, a Raleigh-based startup that connects colleges with their alumni that we profiled in 2019, has teamed with UNC’s Innovate Carolina to launch Ask An Innovator, an online platform that makes it easy for students and faculty to send questions to a UNC-connected community of innovators and experts.
B) John Cowan, the CEO of Raleigh-based edge computing startup EDJX, is a former Download subject. Now EDJX is partnering with Cubic Corporation on the world’s first Internet of Military Things Edge Platform. It’s an end-to-end IoMT (Internet of Military Things) solution from the “base to the battlefield,” taking advantage of edge computing to make communication and computing virtually instantaneous.
C) Triangle Inno has a feature on Protect3d, the Durham-based startup founded by three former Duke football players that makes 3d-printed custom protective devices for athletes. We featured Protect3d in April.
Checkwriters
A few investing notes in rapidish-fire fashion because time is short and fingers are failing: A) VentureSouth, a Greenville, S.C.-headquartered collection of angel groups, has announced its newest chapter: VentureSouth Triangle. Yes, our Triangle. VentureSouth Managing Director Matt Dunbar is a former guest on Pete Meets...
B) A new report on investor activity in the Southeast identified a 30% increase in VC firm creation within the past three years. TechWire interviewed one of the report’s authors for more of a Triangle spin.
C) Last Wednesday’s Startup Summit included a panel of VCs and angel investors discussing how Covid has changed the local investing scene. Read what they had to say here.
Bottled Up
If you’re looking for coworking space, you can always play it safe and glom on to a big chain like WeWork. And hey, they’re perfectly nice. But if you’re looking for something more local, gritty and—dare we say it—cool, then the soon-to-open Durham Bottling Company may be for you. Smashing Boxes CEO Nick Jordan bought the space at 506 Ramseur Street a few years back as a new company HQ but always had grander plans for the 16,000+ square feet. Enter Durham Bottling Company (DBC), which might sound like a new nightlife concept but is in fact a coworking and event space with a stated mission to create a more inclusive and diverse community. DBC offers all the usual amenities you’d expect (free coffee, hot desks, private offices, etc.) but also has a sister nonprofit entity that will help stage a monthly event series. You can get on the waitlist here.
Extra Bit
Do you want to know the GrepBeat Godfather’s three tips for angel investing? Or maybe you want to see what he looked like more than a decade ago? This link provides both.
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