ICYMI: Last week'sFriday Nooner guest was Will Bowen, the Co-Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based Givebacks, a fundraising platform for nonprofits. We first profiled the startup in 2019 when it was previously named MemberHub and also named it to our inaugural Startups To Watch list in 2021. You can learn more about them on our plethora of streaming platforms for the Nooner or in its podcast form.
And FYI: Pete is on vacation in Myrtle Beach this week so you'll be seeing my name more than usual. While I'm sure he already misses writing this newsletter, he's doing a good job hiding his feelings while looking at this view from a Starbucks. Good for you, Pete! Not jealous at all!
Another quarter down... another The Download, led as always by EisnerAmper’s tech man-about-town, Brooks Malone (EisnerAmper is now a confirmed sponsor for Grep-a-palooza 3 so take their word, it's going to be a good time). Brooks sat down with Chris Stoecker, a managing director with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a commercial bank that provides innovative financial solutions, especially to venture-backed startups. While SVB is based in, well, Silicon Valley, Chris and his team are based in its RTP office, where he has been since 2010.
Before co-founding their Chapel Hill-based B2B SaaS startup ZW LLC, Robert Fu and Mitch Odinack and the rest of their team used to work at Corning—a 173-year-old multinational tech company best known for its specialized glass, ceramics and advanced optics.
Now, using their decades of experience in fields such as research and development, engineering, AI, machine learning (ML) and more, they've builtZW, which creates products using AI and ML software that help advanced manufacturers reduce costs, optimize energy and oversee quality control. Robert says that the name ZW—which stands for "zen water"—was loosely inspired by Bruce Lee's famous mantra: “Be formless, shapeless, like water."
Can AI truly bring a formless ease to these manufacturers? Read our full feature to find out.
Women In The Lead
Established in 2004 originally as The Interorganizational Network (ION), the national organization announced that it has rebranded as The Leaderboard, reflecting a renewed commitment to advancing women's leadership in corporate boardrooms nationwide. It has a local branch based in RTP called OnBoardNC.
A common denominator among these organizations is friend-of-GrepBeat Suzanne Miglucci, who serves as Chair of OnBoardNC and is a member of The Leaderboard leadership team. As a former CEO of Charles & Colvard, CMO of ChannelAdvisor and an involved advisor for various organizations, Suzanne brings a breadth of expertise to help further shrink the boardroom gender gap. She was also a moderator for a panel at last year's Grep-a-palooza 2.
Speaking of Grep-a-palooza, if you haven't heard already, our third Grep-a-palooza is coming up soon on Tuesday, June 4, at the Durham Convention Center so make sure to grab tickets at Early Bird prices! Keep an eye out on our social media platforms for panel and speaker announcements and take advantage of those low ticket prices before the Early Bird rates expire at the end of April... which is surprisingly coming soon. (As in next Tuesday.) Wasn't it just March?
Vin (Too) Fast
VinFast has been revving up in local news recently, especially since we previously talked about them in last Thursday's newsletter about their rough week on the stock market and the cease of construction for their Chatham County factory. Today, they announced that they've officially signed agreements with 12 new U.S. dealers, one in Greensboro, further expanding their plans to establish a solid foundation for its strong growth in the U.S. market.
However, as WRAL points out, new plans for their Chatham factory show that VinFast is scaling down the size of its manufacturing plant to a roughly 20% reduction from the original plans for a 995,500-square-foot building.
And according to recent investigations by financial news site Hunterbrook Media, reported by Axios Raleigh, the Vietnamese EV maker is still struggling to sell its cars, which could put a major brake on their plans to add over 7,000 jobs to its Chatham County factory. According to SEC filings, more than 70% of the 35,000 vehicles delivered last year were to companies owned by VinFast's CEO Pham Nhat Vuong, accounting for more than 90% of VinFast's total sales revenues. VinFast has shipped 3,118 cars to the U.S. so far. Of those, only 265 had sold as of December, according to EV registration data.
How fast is VinFast willing to go to establish its name in the U.S. EV market? We'll have to sit back, ride it out and see. Read more from the WRAL and Axios stories.
A Slow Wolfspeed
TBJ reports that as Durham-HQ'ed Wolfspeed plans to build what it dubs the "world’s largest silicon carbide materials facility," their active investors are asking the company to explore ways to improve shareholder value, including the exploration of a sale. Over the past year, the company's stock has dropped more than 59 percent and while they still lead in market potential for silicon carbide, competitors are not slowing down to its (wolf)speed... too much?
NCInnovation is the state's public-private partnership focused on advancing university research into commercial opportunities through a grant process where funding is often lacking. And thanks to the private contributions come from a range of NC companies and organizations, they just secured $25 million to its cause. Some of the pledged companies include SAS, Bank of America, First Citizens Bank and more.
Vaco, a Nashville-based global professional services firm with a Triangle presence that specializes in consulting, talent solutions and managed services, announced yesterday that Jessica Mitsch Homes has been named Senior Director of Sales for Vaco’s Raleigh office. Jessica is a familiar, friendly face to GrepBeat whom you will likely recognize as Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Momentum, a technical training school until it ceased operations this past month.
While we have known Jessica for her appearance on The Friday Nooner, as a source in a trend story about the rate of female comp sci majors, a fewfeatures and a guest luminary for 2021 predictions, we are excited to see her stick around the NC area in her new role at Vaco. Read more about her new role in the press release.
Build Great Software
Dualboot is a software development company. We build software that drives revenue growth and transforms business. With a proven track record of creating nearly a billion dollars in equity value, we are committed to driving your business growth. Clients include tech and non-tech founders as well as Fortune 500 companies, so they can start small or scale fast depending on what you need. Learn more here, and email us here to work together.
Real talk: doing our best to serve you costs money. Businesses and organizations that would like to support our efforts should see our sponsorship opportunities here.
