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The Download

The Download returns today for what will be a quarterly cadence going forward led as always by EisnerAmper’s tech man-about-town, Brooks Malone. (EisnerAmper acquired Hughes Pittman & Gupton, effective late last year.) Brooks virtually sat down with serial entrepreneur Alexandra Jones, a co-founder of Navi, a startup that serves as a “digital coach” to help people learn innovation skills, coding, and more. Navi is HQ’d in San Francisco, but Alex is a Durham native who recently returned to the Bull City. As a result, Navi partners with several Triangle entrepreneurial programs.
 
Read the full Q&A here.

Privacy Mode

Data privacy is something that’s become more and more important for both consumers/users—the ones generating the data—and the companies that hope to benefit from it while staying on the right side of ever-expanding laws and regulations. Durham-based startup Elroi and its Founder/CEO Rachel Cash earned one of NC IDEA’s $10K MICRO grants in October to keep building out its platform that aims to serve both consumers and businesses. It’s free for the former and a paid offering for the latter.
 
Read our full story on Elroi here.

Supreme Snub

This morning the Supreme Court rejected dueling petitions by Cary’s Epic Games and Apple to revisit the results of their 2023 court case, which was mostly won by Apple. That means that the case is officially complete, and it went a lot better for Apple than Google recently fared in a similar case. Two key differences: the Apple case was argued in front of a judge only while the Google case was decided by a jury, and Google execs tended to speak more openly via email and other legally discoverable electronic means than Apple’s notoriously private internal culture.
 
Here's more on this morning’s news from The Verge and CNN, and here’s the reaction from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on X/Twitter. As you might guess, he’s not super-psyched. Though some segment of the Epic board might just be happy that the Apple case is finally over.

Up Next

Triangle-based podcast studio startup Earfluence has acquired Podcast Ally, a podcast guesting service/PR agency. (Terms were not released.) Earfluence will now launch its own podcast guesting service. So if one of your 2024 resolutions is to get guest slots on more podcasts, give them a call. OK, right, apparently nobody actually makes phone calls anymore, but definitely reach out.

Deep Dive

Have you heard some things about NCInnovation—and the $500M+ in public money that the state has (sorta) granted it—but aren’t too clear on all the details? Then this TBJ cover story is for you. In short, the goal is to turn research being done in state universities into new startups that can spur the innovation economy and economic development statewide. For everything else, read the story.

Test Drive

Since by law we can’t let a newsletter go by without mentioning VinFast, here’s the first-hand account of WRAL anchor Chris Lovingood’s test drive of the VF8 at the first non-factory-owned dealer in the U.S., Leith VinFast in Cary. The tl:dr is that while VinFast seems to have addressed several of the issues that led to some downright scathing early reviews of the VF8 a few months back, it didn’t exactly impress Chris as the “luxury” car it aspires to be.
 
While we’re on the topic on EVs, the state has released a map with the first proposed sites for EV charging stations that it’s building with funds from a federal program. See WRAL.com for more.

Battery Builders

Sticking in the broader “clean energy economy” category, TBJ talked to Paul Lichty, the CEO of Colorado-based Forge Nano, about the 200-job battery factory that the company is building in Morrisville. At first, the lithium-ion batteries will be targeted to the Department of Defense and aerospace applications, which can go for premium prices, though down the road it might attack the EV market.

Quick-Hitters

Quick hitters: 1) Applications for Launch Chapel Hill’s Spring 2024 Startup Accelerator close at the end of the day today. You can find the info and application here, and feel free to email Tim Flood with any questions or to get a short extension. Also, Launch will hold its free Celebrating Founders event this Thursday, Jan. 18, from 5-7 p.m. Register here.

2) Raleigh-based Digital.ai unveiled today its 17^th State of Agile report. Some key takeaways: of the respondents who use the Agile methodology for their software development, only 11% were “very satisfied” and 33% “somewhat satisfied,” though smaller organizations tended to be happier with Agile than larger ones. Find more info here.

3) Raleigh-based AI startup Howso (formerly Diveplane) has named industry vet Gaurav Rao as its new CEO. Former CEO Dr. Mike Capps will remain as Board Chair. See more info here.

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Because too much news is never enough.

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