Tomorrow’s Friday Nooner guest is Lucy Kosturko, the Co-Founder of Raleigh-based startup Social Cascade, which bills itself as the “easy button” for pediatrician offices trying to improve communication with their patients and (especially) their patients’ parents. [We wrote about the company last August.] You can watch live at noon on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, or catch afterwards on those platforms or in its podcast form. Pete pledges to show up, should that make you more—or less—likely to watch/listen.
Wellness Check
In her 20+ years as a school counselor, Kristin Hiemstra was often inspired by the goals and dreams possessed by her students. But when she looked at the adults around her, often she saw people too jaded to pursue goals—or even know what they should be. That led her to createAlight Success, a Chapel Hill-based platform for virtual wellness coaching. The startup participated in the latest cohort of the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator.
Read our full story on Kristin and Alight Success here.
Staying On Mission
We first wrote about Durham-based Allobee back in May, 2020, when it was known as MOMentum Marketplace and connected working moms. A tweak or two later, Founder Brooke Markevicius rebranded the startup as Allobee with a mission of helping women find flexible work. Last year Allobee looked to raise up to $3M to fuel growth, but with the funding environment proving increasingly challenging, Brooke started to explore other options. The result is a good one: Allobee is being acquired by Seattle-based The Riveter, which is also focused on working women. (The terms were not disclosed.)
The Riveter was founded by Amy Nelson and had raised $20M to build a network of coworking spaces and communities targeted especially to working moms. Brooke was one of the original members of The Riveter back in 2017 when she lived in Seattle. The pandemic proved especially cruel to the coworking industry, however, so Nelson pivoted to focus on the community aspects as well as introducing Riveter Build, a business-building webinar series. Allobee will be merged into Riveter Build and Brooke will take on the role of Chief Product Officer, remaining in Durham. See Triangle Inno for the full story.
Fun fact: I’ve heard of and tracked The Riveter since its inception because the lead developer of my previous startup, Whit Nelson, is Amy Nelson’s brother-in-law. Whit randomly reached out to me two weeks ago because he has now moved to North Carolina from Chicago, just as I did in 2018, though for some reason he picked Asheville over the Triangle. Small world, etc.
Mein Factory
So Durham’s Wolfspeed has given (a factory) to the Triangle, and now it has taketh away. Or something like that. Let’s start again: Wolfspeed announced this week that it is pledging $3B to build the world’s largest factory to make silicon carbide semiconductor chips in Germany. North Carolina and upstate New York were also on the short list for where to locate this newest factory, said Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe. Though the Triangle shouldn’t hang its head too low since Wolfspeed is already fullspeed (sorry) ahead in spending a few billion on a new semiconductor plant in Chatham County.
TechWire has more info, while TBJ has two stories: the main one here and a deeper dive on how this latest decision was made, including how German officials were motivated to raise their incentives game after the U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act, both of which (especially the second) had provisions to encourage chip production in the U.S.
Content Generator
We first profiled Raleigh-based TSV Analytics last March and then again when its two founders (Trevor Ferree and Aidan McCarthy) pitched at the Demo Day for NC State’s Andrews Launch Accelerator in August. TSV Analytics calls itself the first prescriptive analytics tool designed to keep brands aware of their company’s online perception—and given that young people use TikTok, Instagram or Reddit more than Google for searching, SEO is yesterday’s news to reach today’s younger audience.
TSV has now released its Content Generator, which can create a month of social media content for your brand for free. Says Trevor, “With the rise of ChatGPT, you can think of TSV as the ChatGPT for social media content.” You can find the generator here.
They Love L.A.
Of course Wolfspeed isn’t the only company building a big factory in Chatham County—Vietnam-based electric vehicle maker VinFast is putting down roots here as well to the tune of a $4B facility. But those roots, TBJ reports, won’t include the official HQ for VinFast North American, which it just created by merging its U.S. and Canadian operations. Instead, VinFast North American will have its official HQ in Los Angeles, where it already has an office.
NetApp Layoffs
Cloud data giant NetApp—which has a substantial RTP presence—announced this week that it will cut its workforce by about eight percent, which would mean roughly 900 layoffs company-wide. NetApp wouldn’t say how exactly those cuts would play out for Triangle-based employees, but the company currently has about 1,500 workers in its RTP offices. See TechWire ad TBJ for more.
HBCU Grant
Raleigh’s St. Augustine is one of 12 universities across the nation that will receive federal grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand tech access. The HBCU will land nearly $2M from the Connecting Minority Communities Program for its plan to increase internet bandwidth capacity and connectivity at the school, as well as promote digital literacy among its campus and anchor communities. See TechWire for more.
TBJ's Women In Business
TBJ’s 2023 Women in Business honorees include Rachel Radulovich, the Co-Founder and Head of Design at Raleigh-based Rownd, which we’ve written about several times. The startup focuses on streamlining the registration and user authentication processes for companies. You can see TBJ's full list of honorees here.
Build Great Software
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Dualboot is a software and business development company. Their 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. Every client is assigned a U.S.-based Product Director with years of experience bringing products to market, and they can manage the entire development process. They focus on how the software fits into your company to drive revenue and build the business. At Dualboot, they don’t just write your software—they help you grow your business. Intrigued? Email them here.
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