Today I’m pleased to announce that GrepBeat has been acquired by Starbucks, which is after our mug IP. Overarching financial terms were not disclosed, but I received $1.7 billion in the deal.
In non-April Fools news, I also want to remind you all that with our Venture Connect “Founders After Party” happy hour in the rearview, GrepBeat’s next happy hour is just a week away. Join us from 5-7pm ET on Tuesday, April 8th at Bull McCabe’s in Durham to cap off day one of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week. Register and your first drink will be on Hutchison, which is graciously sponsoring the event.
ICYMI, last Friday we posted a recap of our experience at Venture Connect 2025—which took place Wednesday and Friday at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Raleigh.
If you didn’t catch the event or you just want to relive it, the recap will take you through the program that was, highlight winners of various pitch groups, and show some photos of the action (including the puppies CED populated the cap-off party with). Check it out here and congrats again to CED for a great week.
A(I)gent Outreach
For a go-to-market team (which is sometimes, in reality, just a single go-to-market person) the processes of customer discovery and marketing can eat up a lot of time. It’s “busy work” and “stuff that people hate to do,” as Raleigh’s Dan Moore put it. And these are some of the reasons why he and Justin Michel co-founded Tarka.
This startup equips go-to-market teams with AI Agents that can take on most of that busy work—specifically, to begin with, on LinkedIn. The company’s agents can impersonate a user’s profile and then seek out and speak with potential customers in a way that feels natural (as opposed to, say, a spam email or cold contact).
The Launch Place’s 10th annual IdeaFest pitch competition is set to take place tomorrow at Danville, Virginia’s 2 Witches Winery and Brewing Co. As a reminder, this competition sees 20 finalists present their startups to judges and a live audience, with eventual prizes of $5K (1st place), $3K (2nd place), and $2K (3rd place) being awarded.
We’ll keep an eye out for winners, but The Launch Place announced its 20 finalists late last week. Special shouts to a handful of NC startups GrepBeat has had the pleasure of covering in the past—SoberRide, Kahmino, CareHome Health Solutions, No Show Hero, and Nearby Nearby—and you can see the full list here.
Education is Key
True in general, but also in a somewhat more literal sense for Grogo—a startup producing an app designed to make kids’ screen time healthier. While the specifics are flexible (and can be controlled by parents), the general idea is that after a given amount of time on a screen, kids will be prompted to answer educational questions to unlock continued access.
We profiled Grogo last fall, but with TBJ having done a fresh write-up and interview with Co-Founder Brad Brinegar, it’s worth offering a few updates. Most notable is that the app—which TBJ notes has been funded by friends, family, and advertising firm McKinney (where Brad was CEO)—recently went live in the Apple and Google Play stores.
Check out the app, see TBJ’s update here, and click here for our 2024 feature.
NC Open(to)AI
Perhaps you've heard of... AI? Little thing going around. At any rate, we learned late last week that NC's government is getting in on it in a new way, with Treasurer Brad Briner set to embrace ChatGPT. Specifically, ChatGPT "will gain access to some of the state agency's data and files" for next 12 weeks. The idea is to increase efficiency, with Briner alluding to the summarizing of reports and identification of warning signs in financial audits as potential perks.
Notably, Briner also stressed that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT (which per the company's Chief Economist and Durham's own Ronnie Chatterji is providing the service for free to demonstrate its benefits) will not gain access to "sensitive personal information."
Okay, so it’s not tech, but one of the really fun startup stories our state has produced in recent years is Topsail Steamer, which sells custom, ready-to-cook seafood boils—and which went on Shark Tank and secured $350K in investment last fall.
Now, TBJ reports that Topsail Steamer is expanding inland, with a first retail location in the Triangle set to open soon at the Quail Corners shopping center. Part of the vision in setting up shop in Raleigh is to take advantage of things like potential brewery partnerships, pregame Hurricanes tailgates, etc.
Grep-a-Palooza Pitches
Speaking of Shark Tank, I have a quick reminder-slash-update concerning our own pitch competition, which as we announced recently will be returning at Grep-a-Palooza 2025. More details to come, but the gist of it is, we're expanding the field. Which means that, while the selection process will be competitive, you have a better shot of making the cut.
Finally, in case you haven't noticed in the "Jobs" section below, I want to give a shout to a current GrepBeat listing. We are looking for a Multimedia Producer to come join our team!
See details here, and if you think you're a fit (and want to hang out with me a bunch), shoot us an application. We'd love to hear from you. Likewise, if you know of anyone who might be interested, please help us spread the word.
Extra Bit
Want wise insights like, “Tax reports don’t grow on a tax-report shelf,” or cautionary AI horror portents like, “Silicon chips can create spies that never sleep, financiers that never forget, and despots that never die?” Read “Nexus” by Yuval Noah Harari with us!
If you start now, you might just finish by the time the GrepBeat Book Club gets together this Friday at 8:30am at the GB HQ. Let us know if you’re coming.
