Tomorrow’s Friday Nooner guest is Archie O’Connor, the Co-Founder of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week and a recent Download Q&A subject. As we discuss in Item No. 1 below and will dive into in more detail on tomorrow’s show, the all-free RDSW runs from next Tuesday through Thursday (April 18-20) with the first two days in Durham and the third in Raleigh. You can watch tomorrow’s show live at noon on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, or catch afterwards on those same platforms or in its podcast form.
Speaking of RDSW, we’ll be capping Day One with a GrepBeat Happy Hour next Tuesday, April 18, from 5-7 p.m. at Bull McCabe’s in downtown Durham. Your first round will be courtesy of our sponsor, Dualboot Partners. Please register here so we can get a sense of numbers.
RDSW
Today we run a full preview story for next week’s Raleigh-Durham Startup Week, aka “RDSW” to its friends. You can also check out the RDSW site, and download the event’s Whova app. But really, you should read our story first.
Teamwork$
Durham-based Teamworks—arguably best known as GrepBeat’s across-the-street neighbor—announced yesterday that it raised a $65M Series E round, some chunk of which it presumably used to acquire ARMS Software, which focuses on automating athlete recruiting and NCAA compliance for college athletic departments. The jumbo funding round brings Teamworks’ total funding to $115M over the past year and $165M overall.
You likely know that Teamworks was founded by former Duke football player Zach Maurides, originally to help the Duke athletic program manage itself. Now Teamworks bills itself as “The Operating System for Sports,” with its software platform used by hundreds of college and professional sports teams and leagues. Its newest investors—this round was led by San Francisco-based Dragoneer Investment Group—also see applications for other professions outside sports, especially the military.
You can see more info at Teamworks’ site or in Triangle Inno. The second half of the headline of the latter story asks a valid question: “Is an exit ahead?” Generally speaking, when investors pout $165M into a startup, they are going to want an exit at some point so they can chalk up a W and return money to their own investors. Co-Founder Mitch Heath didn’t want to talk about what some consider the three magic letters—"I-P-O”—but acknowledged that they need to consider what “those potential outcomes” might be. Well, here are the main options: acquisition by private equity or a strategic player, or an IPO. And when the news does break, we hope Teamworks sends someone to run across Parrish Street to let us know.
Self-Storage
I’m never quite sure if Raleigh-based 10 Federal counts as a “tech startup” or not. I’m running about 70/30 against, but the rapidly growing operator of self-storage locations is definitely tech-enabled. The facilities are generally operated remotely, with users letting themselves into and out of their units.
What isn’t in dispute is that 10 Federal continues to grow fast as more and more people use storage units to de-clutter their homes. They’ve raised $32M since mid-December and this week announced the acquisition of three more facilities in Georgia. The company now operates in 16 states. 10 Federal also named three new execs to help manage its growth. See TechWire for more info.
Local Acquisition
Cary-based tech firm iGlass has been acquired by Kansas City-based PE firm 20 South Partners and its portfolio company, ISPN Networks Services. iGlass was founded in 1997 and delivers what it calls “network operations centers as a service,” which is what, “NOCaaS”? Basically it helps customers in broadband, health care, IT and financial services manage and visualize their network performance data. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. See TBJ for more info.
Artist Alerts
This week’s Triangle Inno profiles the new-to-us startup Beepr, which is based in Chapel Hill and founded by Jake Zinn, a Chapel Hill native and Carrboro High grad (who for some reason is now based in Charlotte). Beepr provides instant alerts on news about your favorite musical artists. He started building the app in 2018 while a student at the College of Charleston and soft-launched in 2020, but Beepr’s recent selection as one of 10 startups in a Techstars accelerator for the music industry provided a crucial jumpstart, including seed funding.
New CEO
Durham-based ProcessMaker has named a new CEO, Jeff Lortz. Co-Founder and longtime CEO Brian Reale—a GrepBeat Q&A subject way back in our early days as well as an Exit Stories guest and Download subject—will stay on as a board member and focus on big-picture strategy. In 2021, PE firm Aldrich Capital Partners acquired a majority interest in ProcessMaker, which is a leader in low-code business process automation. See here for more info.
EdTech Awards
Durham-based The Social Institute has been named a finalist for the 2023 EdTech Awards. The startup’s #WinAtSocial Insights platform is up for the honor in the “Cool Tools” category. It’s a gamified online learning platform that equips students, educators and families to navigate social experiences—both online and off—in healthy ways. We first wrote about The Social Institute in May, 2020, and also spoke to Founder and CEO Laura Tierney as part of a February, 2022, story on how some Triangle founders were using tech to combat the negative impacts of the tech already all around us.
Safe Dining
If you want to know the very latest about Durham-based Allergood and Founder and CEO Michelle Addison, this story from today's Triangle Inno is for you. We first profiled Allergood last May, and Michelle took top honors from the judges in the GrepTank session at last June’s inaugural Grep-a-palooza. (Speaking of, you should register now for Grep-a-palooza 2, which will be held on Thursday, June 1 at the Durham Convention Center.) Allergood works with restaurants to better support diners with food allergies.
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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