We’re taking a holiday break—and hope you will have a chance to do the same—so this will be the last newsletter until Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. But we have a pair of presents for you before we go.
First is the music video for the already classic holiday tune O GrepBeat Mug. Second is the song we premiered on the last Friday Nooner—Walking In A GrepBeat Wonderland. Jackie did a great job shooting and editing the videos while I spent arguably too much time writing jokey lyrics, “singing” and capturing absurd antics for posterity. Thanks also to Jackie and our super-intern Claire Perry for appearing in the videos and to the GrepBeat Godfather for his (unwitting) cameo in one of them. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them.
Have a great holiday and we’ll see you in 2023!
2022's Most-Read
In another GrepBeat year-end tradition, we took a look at which GrepBeat stories attracted the most readers this year. (For you history buffs, here are the versions from 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.) Among this year’s top five were one story (on Organic Transit, the most-read GrepBeat story of the year) from our eight-part “Where Are They Now?” series on startups that made NC TECH’s annual Top 10 Startups of the Year lists from 2014-onward; our deep dive on the portfolios of Triangle VC firms; and this important look at the mental health challenges often faced by startup founders.
But really, you should just read the story, or at least skim the list.
Finally!
My professional and personal worlds collide in this week’s story that NC State cornerback Shyheim Battle has signed an NIL (name, image and likeness) deal with California-based Obsesh that includes equity in the startup as well as cash. Obsesh CEO Tracey Benson—herself a former college athlete and later a professional beach volleyball player—describes the company as an athlete-centric technology platform. Shyheim is a legit player; the redshirt sophomore started nine games this year and was an honorable mention All-ACC pick last year. He’s also savvy off the field, having designed his own clothing line called Battle Island. (In football speak, a cornerback playing man-to-man defense with no help from a safety is said to be on an “island.” Oh, how long I’ve waited for a legitimate excuse to talk sports in the newsletter!)
Yesterday was National Signing Day, the first day that high school football players could sign with the colleges of their choice. It’s basically a national holiday for serious college football fans. And now I can sorta justify all the time I spent following that thanks to Shyheim. You can read more about his deal on Triangle Inno or in this story on the national football recruiting site On3.
Ups And Downs
2022 has been a weird year for the tech job market in the Triangle and nationally. Many of the headlines are about layoffs or job freezes, mostly at very large tech companies (Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Cisco, Lenovo, etc.) or high-flying startups that have raised a ton of money that they now need to make last longer than they previously thought (such as Pendo and Policygenius, to give two local examples). But for many more tech companies—especially startups—the bigger challenge is holding on to the good employees they already have and trying to hire new ones. The Big Tech layoffs can also be good news for growing startups because it gives them more access to experienced talent.
Here's a Triangle Inno story from yesterday on the subject.
VC Forecast
PitchBook unveiled its 2023 VC market forecast this week. The tl:dr version—things have looked better. For instance, the number of unicorns plunged in 2022 compared to 2021. In 2021, 596 startups worldwide and 340 in the U.S. raised money at a valuation of $1B or higher, but in 2022 that fell to 308 globally and 200 in the U.S. Looking forward, PitchBook predicts that the number of “down rounds”—financings at a lower valuation than the previous financing for that startup—will likely surge in 2023.
One important caveat: this weakness is far more pronounced at the top of the market, i.e. for already large and (perhaps until recently) high-flying startups that have raised multiple rounds in the past. There is still funding to be had for early-stage startups with good teams showing some solid traction.
Speaking of early-stage tech investing, in 2023 Colopy Ventures (the parent company of both GrepBeat and growth-stage investor Jurassic Capital) is looking to expand into seed-stage investing. To that end, it’s looking to hire someone to lead the effort. The GrepBeat Godfather talks more about the position here, which includes a link to the LinkedIn job posting. One curiously unmentioned benefit to this position: you’ll get to see me on a regular basis. Who knows, maybe you can appear in a future GrepBeat holiday song/movie. In fact you'll probably want to send me your audition reel when you apply.
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