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Happy Thursday!

Drop everything and register now for tomorrow morning’s 9 a.m. Coffee & Conversation on the pros/cons of using offshore developers, a topic that pretty much every software startup (or would-be founder) needs to consider. We’ve landed three great guests: Corevist CEO Sam Bayer, ProcessMaker CEO Brian Reale and True Influence VP/Product Nicole Woods Wyke. Register for the Zoom info!
 


Lending Help

While businesses and individuals hoping to land a loan might picture lenders as sitting on top of a giant pile of cash like some sultan, doling out favors on a whim, in fact the loan process can be just as byzantine for lenders as well. And when the potential borrower isn’t an established business titan, handling the potential financial risk is far from a no-brainer from even the most can-do lender.

That’s where Amber Bond hopes to come in with Durham-based Davos, which will give lenders—especially those at community banks and CDFIs (Community Development Financial Institutions)—the ability to get a quick yes/no on whether Davos will guarantee a potential loan in exchange for a small percentage fee. That’s a process that typically takes weeks and should result in more money getting into more borrowers’ hands more quickly.

Davos is one of the finalists for NC IDEA’s $50K SEED grants. You can read our full story on Davos here.


 


Two Floors Up

Today’s GrepBeat is likely the most lenders-friendly edition in history because we also have a feature story on Third Floor Technology, which uses AI to—you guessed it—make life easier for loan officers. Founder Brian Sparr was a software developer turned real estate agent who's now pivoting to be a software provider for real estate agents. Third Floor is, like Davos, one of the dozen finalists for NC IDEA’s SEED grants. NC IDEA will reveal the half-dozen or so winners on Day Two of its virtual Ecosystem Summit on Nov. 16-17. You can read our full story on Third Floor here.


 


Hot Stuff

Last Tuesday we mentioned Burny Wild’s Adventure Sauce, the new would-be hot sauce from Mike Rosado (a creative director at Raleigh digital agency MRC) and chef Bobby McFarland. They have eight days remaining in their Kickstarter campaign and are a little less than $3K shy of their $10K goal. If you like hot sauce, check it out. And a mea culpa: last week I called Mike “Tony Rosado.” Sorry, Mike!


 


Hurry!

Reminder that the two-day Innovate Raleigh Summit kicks off... like, right now. It runs virtually from 12-5 p.m. both today and tomorrow. GrepBeat readers can get half-price tickets for $40 using the promo code “whatcanbe.” Registrants will be able to access content on-demand once each program airs in its “time slot.” Here’s the schedule of speakers, which includes big names like Red Hat Co-Founder Bob Young, Pendo CEO Todd Olson, Sprout Pharmaceuticals CEO Cindy Eckert and "Where's Pete?" winner Sarah Glova.

 

Extra Bit

Confession: I’ve spent most of the past 48 hours focused on the election and the ongoing counting. On the bright side—for me, anyway—it seems that much of the rest of the region and country has been similarly distracted, so there’s not much non-election news and I was still able to finish today’s edition on time. Thanks, America!

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

Dexter Louie is this week’s winner for correctly identifying my location as the Carolina Brewery on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Here’s more about Dexter in the as-I-requested third person: “Dexter Louie manages Program Management at HemoSonics, a diagnostic medical device company with a point-of-care, rapid-assessment, hemostasis analyzer. He loves riding/commuting on his ELF and is Secretary of the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation. Support your local library!” Congrats, Dexter! And that’s one sweet ride.

 

Because too much news is never enough

                



    
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