This opening bit is a little Triangle-centric, but since there’s a big event playing out all next week (Raleigh-Durham Startup Week) and many from Wilmington made it out to our Founders After Party in Raleigh last week, I do want to tip you off that GrepBeat is hosting a Happy Hour in Durham next Tuesday, April 8th from 5-7pm ET at Bull McCabe’s.
The Happy Hour will cap off the first full day of RDSW, and if you register in advance, our generous sponsor, Hutchison, will cover your first drink.
~100 startups pitched at CED’s annual Venture Connect summit last week in Downtown Raleigh. Startups were split into categories, and each batch faced an audience vote. And in the “AI & Machine Learning” session on Day Two, Wilmington’s Skillmaker.ai came out on top. (Founder, CEO, and thoroughly engaging presenter Robin Cowienoted on LinkedIn that the startup’s platform officially launched the same day. So, you know. Not a bad day.)
Congrats to Robin and Skillmaker! See Wilmington Biz’s post-pitch-win write-up here, and check out our own Venture Connect recap to peruse other competing startups and session winners.
Nuream Networking
Nuream Co-Founder and CEO Rob Cooley continues to make the podcast rounds. As some of you may have seen shouted out in the latest newsletter NEW's Jim Roberts, Rob recently sat for an interview with Chris Capone on the Capone & Associates podcast.
He discussed his military experience and numerous business ventures (from Apple Annie’s bakery—which catered GrepBeat’s Wilmington kickoff last fall with delectable morsels—to Nuream). As always, there were some interesting stories and insights. (Incidentally, Nuream also joined Skillmaker.ai as the only other Wilmington-based startup to pitch at Venture Connect last week; Rob gave a great pitch, and left me feeling like I need better sleep.)
CareHome Competes
Like the Greeks entrusting their hopes to Achilles at the outset of the 2004 sword-and-sandals movie Troy, Wilmington is sending a lone champion to compete at The Launch Place’s 10th annual IdeaFest pitch competition later on today. CareHome Health Solutions (founded by AJ Trelease) was announced as one of the event’s 20 finalists, and the only one to hail from the Wilmington area.
The event takes place at 2 Witches Winery and Brewing Co. in Danville, Virginia, and will see the finalists compete for 1st ($5K), 2nd ($3K), and 3rd ($2K) place prizes. Best of luck to AJ!
FCAT Fellowship
📯Sounds founder summoning bugle!📯 Per Laura Zabinski, the Executive Director at American Underground in Durham, the FCAT Fellowshipis back—and applications are now open. The FCAT Fellowship is a 10-week program providing mentorship, business resources, and an invaluable cohort community—and culminating in a demo day and a 12-month coworking membership at AU for members.
While there are some in-person expectations in Durham, the fellowship is open to any startup in the U.S. (and is aiming to include early-stage, pre-seed startups demonstrating disruptive tech and "grit and determination").
See details and apply here (and check out GrepBeat's recap of the inaugural FCAT Fellowship cohort's demo day last fall here).
Coast --> Capital
As you may have seen in yesterday's Triangle newsletter (you should really read all of them, it's good for the brain), Topsail Steamer—the coastal seafood boil startup that netted $350K in a Shark Tank appearance last fall—is exploring further into the mainland.
As was reported by Triangle Business Journal, the company is preparing to open a first retail location in Raleigh. Part of the idea, it seems, is to make Topsail Steamer's custom boils available for things like Carolina Hurricanes and NC State game tailgates. (As someone who was born and raised in Raleigh, I can tell you this is going to go over well.)
Queen Tee
Last week I linked to an article about how BreakingT—a socially fueled, of-the-moment apparel company whose founder, Jamie Mottram, resides in Wilmington—would be capitalizing on March Madness.
We won’t necessarily shout out every time this startup has a newsy release, but because we’re still in the midst of March Madness, a quick note that BreakingT did generate some tourney buzz. After University of Maryland star Derik Queen cashed in the tournament’s only buzzer-beater to date, BreakingT did its thing and rapidly produced shirts capturing some (amusing) quotes from the team. The Baltimore Banner wrote about it here.
Fresh Soup!
This week marks the beginning of the spring season of In The Soup (a show under The GrepBeat Podcast). On today's debut episode, stalwart soup stewards Jenn Summe (Primordial) and Melissa Crosby (Colopy Ventures) wanted to offer listeners a bit of a prep show for Raleigh-Durham Startup Week (which, again, takes place next week).
To that end, they spoke with Haley Huie (of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic), who is on the RDSW organizing committee, and Charlotte Louis (of SenterMe) who attended and spoke last year.
Come for conference prep and general wisdom; stay for those opening nuggets (this time on getting those steps in and supporting World Autism Day).
