The crowd had a lot of fun at the very first Google Exchange Pitch Day for Black Founder Entrepreneurs at the American Underground at Main in Durham last Friday. Encouraged to be focal and compete in sections for tee-shirts and other swag, the 250 or so present did so enthusiastically.

Doug Speight, founder of Cathedral Leasing and entrepreneur in residence at American Underground, did the MC duties, keeping the crowd charged up.

The crowd, which included Durham Mayor Bill Bell, cheered the 12 entrepreneurs who gave their two-minute elevator pitches to a panel of investors. Several of the panelists were from firms with a specific interest in minority entrepreneurs, specifically people of color and women.

Boston Senior care startup, CareAcademywon the top prize at the event, $5,000 in cash and $8,000 in computer equipment from Lenovo, with its focus on training senior care providers. It wasn’t difficult to see what impressed the investor judges.

After telling an unfortunately not uncommon story of a nursing home patient injured because a care-giver was undertrained, founder Helen Adeosun said care givers face two problems when it comes to training:. They often work up to 60 hours a week and lack time for training, and they have little access to the training they need.

CareAdademy provides 20 hours of training via online classes on preventing falls, and dealing with Alzeheimers or dementia. It qualifies care givers and licenses the trainging directly to care-giver agencies, a $1.2 billion market likely to grow as the population ages. And CareAcademy manages admirable margins of 82-84 percent.

The thing most employers look for in employees is completion of a care giving program, and CareAcademy’s results are three times its competitions average.

Since 2015, 5,300 care givers took its classes and it has booked $110,000 in recurring revenue. The company also closed a $150,000 bridge round.

For a look at the other presenting startups, see our full report on the event at: https://wraltechwire.com/boston-senior-care-startup-wins-google-pitch-day-at-american-underground-in-durham/16118146/

Adam Klein told WRAL Techwire that the 12 firms selected from 170 applicants had a busy six-days of 24/7 coaching, mentoring, and meeting potential corporate partners. Google provided three mentors from its San Francisco offices.

The response to the Pitch Day event exceeded all expectations, Klein said.

Triangle startups, interesting but no cigar

The Triangle startups, two from Durham and one from Raleigh, did not win anything except exposure, but one seems particularly natural for sports crazed North Carolina.

Robert Hartsfield said his startup’s Rantroom social media app already has 18,000 users and aims to snare those people who use social media while at events, particularly sports. Users create rooms based on topics. It’s very early stage with a launch planned for this winter.

Hartsfield noted that 83 percent of sports fans interact with social media while watching an event. The team includes two developers from SAS. So far, it’s self-funded.

It plans to sell ads and create partnerships with local sports bars.

It drew the question, “Do we really need another social network?” from one of the investors.

Another Durham-based entreprenerur,, Jon Hayes, pitched RewardStock, where users can get help to make the most of their frequent flyer and other rewards points to travel cheap. The most interesting part of his presentation was the stories about his own amazing and nearly free honeymoon and flying in his finance’s parents for the wedding at a cost of $6 each.

The problem with all those rewards points is that getting the most out of them can be complicated. “We show you how to maximize your purchasing power,” he said. It uses software, not intuition to do the job. The site is free (www.rewardsstock.com)

Raleigh-based BlindedHR provides employers with an applicant’s good points, such as achievements, before revealing gender or minority disclosing information, including names. The idea is to help companies form a talented, creative, diverse, and inclusive workforce from unbiased recruiting measures

Part of the experience for the visiting entrepreneurs from the 12 startups included the history of Durham’s Black Wall Street, including the NC Mutual Insurance Co. and its distinctive high rise office building near the American Tobacco Campus.

Chuck Watts, a lawyer with Banks lawfirm in Durham, said black entrepreneurship “Is part of the spirit of this city, part of the DNA of Durham.”