If you missed the latest Friday Nooner with our first-ever guest—Sarah Leners, a Senior Associate at Durham’s Bull City Venture Partners—you can find it here. But if for some reason you don’t have the time or (heaven forbid!) the inclination to watch, we’ll let you in on some news that we broke during the episode.
To wit: we are going to host the first-ever Greppy Awards—aka “The Greppys”—on Thursday, April 22, at noon. The awards will honor some of the best and brightest in the Triangle’s tech startup community and are sponsored by our friends at Dualboot Partners. (Hit them up for your development needs!) Sarah and Dualboot’s Tina Cochrane are among our prestigious nominating committee. More details coming soon, but mark the date on your calendar!
The Download
Tampa-based Topmark Partners likes investing in the Triangle so much that they decided to stick around. At least, that's the case for Topmark Managing Partner Travis Milks, who moved to the Triangle in November (his two fellow partners remain in Florida) and is the subject of the latest edition of Brooks Malone’s The Download Q&A. Topmark is an investor in Raleigh’s K4Connect (you likely know of its CEO, Scott Moody) and RTP-based Zaloni, and the success of those investments is one reason that Travis decided to establish a permanent Triangle beachhead for Topmark.
As you’ll see from the Q&A, Travis is still settling in and could use some recommendations for coffee shops and restaurants. Read the full Q&A here.
Big Idea
We don’t speak to too many early-stage founders who publicly proclaim that they’re aiming to be the next North Carolina unicorn or that, if all goes as hoped, they could become “one of the largest companies in the United States.” But Tom Gordon and Will Duckett, the co-founders of Raleigh-based Equity Shift, aren’t afraid to put their BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) on the record. Equity Shift is a patented software platform that allows companies to control transactional activity—fundraising, secondary transfers, vesting, awards, and more—in a way that has never been possible before, while also creating a secondary market for private equity that will enable investors to exit on their own timetable rather than waiting for an IPO or acquisition. A big idea, indeed!
Equity Shift will be one of the startups presenting at CED’s Venture Connect summit (March 23-25). Read our full feature story here.
"Rise" Recap
As you would have known from last week’s newsletters as well as the Friday Nooner, Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund hosted a session on Clubhouse Friday afternoon on what makes the Triangle an attractive market for tech startup investors and founders. TechWire has a recap of the event and how Steve was "super excited."
Curiously, the session completely avoided the elephant in the room, or at least the elephant in the GrepBeat Godfather’s room—what Joe contends is the unintentionally patronizing aspects of the “Rise of the Rest” name itself, since it implies that the Triangle and other non-coastal markets are "the rest,” the “also-rans,” the "leftovers," the “losers.” In the Friday Nooner, Sarah helpfully suggested a rebranding as the “Rise of the Best,” which we offer to Steve for no charge. Though in a somewhat related story, a story on Recode yesterday suggests caution in offering Clubhouse your personal info when cashing in your “coveted” invite.
Campus Corner
A TechWire sidebar story to Friday’s Clubhouse chat focused on the role that the Triangle’s universities are playing to help cultivate more inclusion in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Last week, for instance, we mentioned the UNC Eship Center’s partnership with Opportunity Hub (OHUB) and 100 Black Angels and Allies. This TechWire story mentioned Duke’s growing partnership with Durham’s NC Central, which will include Pitch, a competition for Black student entrepreneurs on April 8-9.
Separately, Duke has kicked off its new Cultural Competence in Computing (3C) professional development program with 144 fellows in its inaugural cohort to help improve computing diversity, equity and inclusion. Here’s more info from TechWire and Duke itself.
Central Location
It’s been an especially busy week for news at NC Central. Yesterday, IBMannounced that it had added NC Central to its HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) quantum computing program. The program now includes 23 HCBUs to advance not only quantum information sciences, but also STEM-based opportunities for these traditionally underrepresented communities. Late last week, meanwhile, Intelannounced a $5M donation over the next five years to help create a tech law and policy center at NCCU. NCCU is one of just six HCBUs in the nation with a law school.
Moving On
More campus news: Judith Cone, UNC’s vice chancellor for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development, will retire from Carolina in April after 11 years in the role. Among other things, Judith created Innovate Carolina as part of UNC’s increasing emphasis on the importance of entrepreneurship.
Deadline Time
Next Monday, March 1, is the deadline to apply for NC IDEA’s SEED ($50K) or MICRO ($10K) grants. Grants—and we cannot stress this enough—are free money!
Make It Legal
Hutchison is a boutique law firm that embraces the entrepreneurial spirit and steers technology and life sciences entrepreneurs to success through all stages of their company’s life. Hutchison partners with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded organizations to enable business solutions that make the law work for them, and advises angel investors and venture capital firms to support their investment selections to maximize their potential for success. Hutchison takes the time to learn your business and understand what’s behind the deal.
