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Happy Thursday!

I made (at least) one big mistake on Tuesday: I neglected to welcome Dualboot Partners as the new title sponsor for Season One of our Exit Stories podcast. Dualboot was already a GrepBeat Supporter, and you might recall that Dualboot Principal Todd Buelow was a Meet... Q&A subject this summer. If you’re looking for anything from a strategy session on your tech development plan to someone to build your tech offering from soup-to-nuts, then look no further than Dualboot. And you won’t have to look far because Charlotte-based Dualboot opened a Raleigh office—led by boldface Triangle tech names Tina Cochrane and Wade Minter—in January. (And you can read more about them in TechWire.) Thanks, Dualboot!
 


The Download

I’ve always wanted GrepBeat to feature someone who has won a professional golf tournament. Since Tiger Woods hasn't done squat in the Triangle tech startup scene, Brooks Malone instead spoke to Ed Byman—the Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based golf ecommerce player Global Value Commerce—for the latest edition of The Download. Ed won the 1974 Mexican Open by beating out runner-up (and future Hall of Famer) Lee Trevino. These days Ed and GVC are Hall of Famers in the golf “re-commerce” game, i.e. selling pre-owned golf equipment—and even allowing customers to trade in their own equipment as “currency” to buy the latest-and-greatest. You should read the whole Q&A here.


 


Virus Vanquishers

While we’ve all gotten used to slathering on alcohol-based hand sanitizer and wiping down surfaces with various alcohol- and bleach-laden cleaners, that approach doesn’t really work for laptops, handbags, books or other items that can be damaged that way. Enter UltraLoop, a device built by two UNC sophomores that can zap the novel coronavirus—and pretty much any other virus for that matter—with Ultraviolet-C (UVC) light. You simply place the items in the box (they call it an “oven”) and, 30 seconds later, they’re virus-free.

UltraLoop was in the most recent cohort of the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator and will launch a Kickstarter next month with a goal of $100K. Read our full story on UltraLoop here.


 


Coaching Up

Raleigh-based SoleLife—an AI-powered tele-coaching startup that we featured this spring—is heading to Techstars Iowa. As part of getting accepted to one of the prestigious Techstars accelerator programs, SoleLife will receive a $120K investment on top of 12 weeks of mentoring and other programming, plus a long tail of valuable contacts. You can read more about it here.


 


Persistence Pays

Raleigh-based Persistence AI is expanding during the pandemic—and will hire hundreds of new employees to help them do so. The SaaS startup dedicated to improving sales and marketing efforts has moved up the launch of its Agent product that had originally been slotted for 18-24 months out, in part, says CEO Ed Holloway, to create job opportunities for some who have lost their positions due to the pandemic-caused downturn. Agent provides clients with virtual call center services to help them augment their existing contact centers and sales teams. The new employees supporting Agent can work remotely from home, just as so many others are doing these days. You can find more info here.


 


Hire Knowledge

As the pandemic has hit certain industries extremely hard—think bars and restaurants, hospitality, travel, live events, etc.—that has inevitably led to job losses at tech companies that service those sectors. One downstream effect is that other tech companies that are still in growth mode suddenly have more talent to choose from. TBJ ran an interesting story earlier this week focusing especially on high-fliers Pendo and Policygenius and how they’re dealing with their rapid-fire hiring plans in what’s now an almost entirely virtual interviewing and on-boarding process. Pro tip to interviewees: be very aware of what’s in the background of your Zoom call, because the interviewer can’t help but be aware of it too.


 


Deadline Day

Today is the deadline to apply for CED’s new GRO incubator. The nine-week program geared toward high-growth startups will feature weekly classes and 1-on-1 coaching. The speaker and coaches list reads like a search results page of past GrepBeat story subjects including Chris Heivly and CEOs Robbie Allen (Startomatic), Bill Spruill (Global Data Consortium) and Ricci Wolman (Written Word Media). The program will kick off on Oct. 5 and cost $950. You can apply here.


 


Growth Strategy

Just like many of the startups that have gone through its accelerator program—the sixth cohort kicked off on Tuesday—RIoT is expanding. RIoT is planting stakes in both Virginia and Colorado with physical locations and new hires to help spread the gospel of the Internet of Things. RIoT Executive Director Tom Snyder explains the reasoning behind the growth in a TechWire column.


 


Rare Air

SAS Co-Founder and CEO Jim Goodnight might be hearing footsteps coming for his title as the richest person in North Carolina, though we’re guessing that $6.5B can buy you some nice noise-canceling headphones. Goodnight ranks No. 65 on the latest Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the U.S., but the real news of local tech import is that Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney jumped up to No. 123 with an estimated net worth of $5.3B. Tim is No. 2 with a bullet, moreover, as Fortnite’s ongoing dominance is sending his fortune skyrocketing. Though we’ll see if Epic’s ongoing feuds with Apple (especially) and Google ends up dinging that upward trajectory or raising its ceiling.

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

Amanda Quinn, last seen in GrepBeat as part of Republic Wireless’ new ArenaCX team, is back as this week’s winner for correctly identifying Cary's Lugano Ristorante. Says Amanda: “I don't know if I am more excited to win the GrepBeat mug, get out of my sweatpants this past weekend at my sister's wedding (below), or tell your readers that I am part of a new company that is launching in the Triangle the week of September 21st! Be sure to keep an eye out as what we're doing will translate into substantial savings for businesses. And, because we're huge GrepBeat fans, we'll make sure to give Pete the scoop!” Huh, that might be the first teaser in Where’s Pete? history. I look forward to hearing—and sharing—the news.

 

Because too much news is never enough

                



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