The latest Friday Nooner featured guest Lucy Kosturko, the Co-Founder of Raleigh-based Social Cascade, as well as news that Pete is related to a famous pediatrician, or at least a pediatrician with a famous name. Also ICYMI: our latest Week in 90 Seconds.
The Download
This week’s Download subject is Caleb Smith, the co-founder of Cary’s Triangle Esports Academy and an honoree in the latest Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the education category. We first wrote about Caleb in August, 2021, but it’s only now that you will learn what he has in his pockets, where he drinks—or doesn’t drink—coffee and what he has planned for the next 40-plus years. (Not a joke.) Read the full Q&A here.
For Starters
The guest on Episode 4 of the Robinson Bradshaw-sponsored For Starters podcast is Rebecca Egger, the Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Little Otter Health. We first profiled the platform that tackles mental health issues of young people last June, and named Little Otter to our 2022 Startups To Watch list. Fitting in with this season’s For Starters theme, host Anil Chawla traces with Rebecca how the still-quite -oung startup has found product-market fit.
Read some show highlights here, then listen (and subscribe!) to the episode here.
Final Sale
Cary-based B2B ecommerce startup Sellware has been acquired by PE-backed Fishbowl Inventory, a Utah-based software developer that’s in the portfolio of California’s Diversis Capital. Sellware CEO Anthony Musselwhite founded the company in 2004 based on a product he originally developed to help his wife “sell some stuff on eBay,” he told Triangle Inno. Sellware makes software tools for B2B ecommerce sellers. Anthony wouldn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal—they almost never do—besides saying he’s “very happy” with the terms and that the team (which is all joining Fishbowl) should grow locally.
Hockey Stick
Raleigh-based cloud computing firm Aligned Technology Group tripped the wires of local tech media by filing with the SEC to memorialize the raising of $321K (an admirably precise number). TBJ/Triangle Inno’s Lauren Ohnesorgedove deeper to learn that company founder John Zemonek launched it less than two years ago but it already has nine employees and about $20M in revenue thanks to some fat contracts. Aligned helps its customers migrate, adopt and operationalize cloud services, specializing specifically in helping companies move to and operate on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
In the GrepBeat universe we’d classify that more as a services or consulting business rather than a “true” startup, which we define as more product-driven. (Though I could be misunderstanding the description of what the company does.) But regardless of what you call it, it’s obviously a quick success on a significant scale. See more on Triangle Inno and WRAL TechWire.
More M&A
When Mark Self was our guest on the Jan. 13 edition of The Friday Nooner, we joked that in addition to his (main) day job as CEO of British import mpro5, his LinkedIn page also said he was still the CEO of several other companies. And we weren’t even counting Raleigh-based Entigral Systems, which develops RFID-tracking software (RFID = radio-frequency identification) for the tracking of physical assets, smart manufacturing and other uses.
Mark was a board member at Entigral Systems for 8+ years until resigning in September, 2021, to focus on the 83 other things he was doing. But Entigral Systems called him back last September for some assistance on the M&A front, a process that was officially completed last week when Pennsylvania-based Asset Vue merged with Entigral Systems. See the full story here, and hopefully Mark will have a well-deserved couple of hours off.
While we’re talking M&A, Cary-based IT firm BlueAlly has acquired Maryland-based n2grate Government Technology Solutions. See TechWire for more.
What’s GrepBeat’s prediction, you ask? What am I, a fortune-teller?
Space Makers
NC State’s business school is looking into relocating from the university’s main campus to a potential new building/complex on NCSU’s Centennial Campus, where there is more room to roam. As the Poole College of Management has continued to grow since it was established in the early 1990s—it now has about 3,500 undergraduates and 900 graduate students—it’s been outgrowing its space in Nelson Hall. And it’s not just a space issue, it’s what’s in the space.
The effort could take 5-10 years. TBJ has all the details.
Quick-Hitters
No time for transitions, let’s get to them: 1) Durham-based Allergood successfully launched its second pilot, this one with Durham restaurant NanaSteak, to help diners with food allergies stay safe while dining out. We first profiled Allergood last May, and CEO Michelle Addisonwon the GrepTank event at last June’s inaugural Grep-a-palooza. (Remember to mark those calendars for Grep-a-palooza 2 on Thursday, June 1, at the Durham Convention Center!)
2) Past Friday Nooner guest Ryan Bethencourt’s vegan dog food startup Wild Earth got mentioned in a story by Bay Area Inno, giving him reason to tweak Mr Wonderfulon Twitter for scoffing about the potential market for vegan dog food on the same Shark Tank episode in which Ryan landed a deal from Mark Cuban.
3) NC Central student-entrepreneur Jahmir Hamilton earned a $2,500 cash prize for winning the 2023 PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative Pitch Competition. Jahmir’s pitch was “IX Studio: Empowering others, through gaming.” Hey, we need to get Jahmir together with Caleb Smith, today’s Download subject!
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