For about six months now, there’s been a debate in the Triangle amongst our entrepreneurs and investors, one that’s grown into a full-blown concern, over what might be our own localized “Series A Crunch” when it comes to venture capital.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re not worried about a lot of things, you’re not an entrepreneur. Or you’re not trying.

Because of the efforts to raise the profile of the entrepreneurial community in Durham and Raleigh over the last few years, combined with the lowering of the bar for technology startups to get a working product out the door, we’ve seen an explosion in early-stage startups, tackling everything from enterprise platform development to app building to analysis of dog behavior.

Those startups are also finding a healthy source, if not a windfall, of funding options. Beyond the traditional friends-and-family and angel investments, which have picked up considerably, local entrepreneurs have been fortunate enough to take part in the growth of third-party options like accelerator Triangle Startup Factory (18 early-stage startups funded over the last 12 months) and the NC IDEA Grant (12 awarded with another six being announced shortly). A few startups, like Organic Transit, have even thrown Kickstarter into the mix.

Furthermore, thanks to flexible, startup-focused office space options like American Underground, HUB Raleigh, Launch Chapel Hill, and on and on, these early-stagers have a place to convene and congeal. And with an increased focus by publications like TechWire and new entrepreneur-driven websites like ExitEvent, they’re getting some much-needed publicity.

According to the ExitEvent network, there are now over 300 registered and verified startups in the Triangle. And when we shook the tree in Charlotte last week for our monthly Startup Social (our first in the Queen City), we found another 50+ there, and we soon realized that was just scratching the surface.

It’s a lot more than there were three years ago, and even a lot more than there were last year. The top of the funnel is, make no mistake, filling on its way to full, although there are some who think we still don’t have enough startups in the Triangle, at least those startups who are making enough viability noise to attract more attention to our area.

For the record, “viability noise” sounds a lot like a cash register ringing.

Therein lies the heart of the matter. Keep filling the top of the funnel and hope a good chunk of those startups make their way down to exit. Then hope there’s no clog that sends a flood of early stagers back over the top.

That clog seems to be Series A (and B) rounds.

At the 2013 Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte last week, I showed up predisposed with the notion that we’ve got a lot of startups in the $50K to $500K seed stage, and next to none ready for that $1 to $5 million Series A/B stage. Beyond Raleigh’s KnowledgeTree, who raised a $4.75 million Series B last year, and Durham’s Plotwatt, who secured a $3 million Series A, few other local startups rang the bell in that range in 2012.

Furthermore, on the outside looking in, few are ready. VCs tell me that they’re looking for recurring revenue at $1 million or more (and I’m starting to hear $2 million) before institutional investment becomes an option. Unless, that is, there is a serious groundswell of support (read: the next SnapChat).

We don’t really do the next SnapChat. We do the next Glaxo.

But once I started having conversations with the entrepreneurs and investors at SEVC, I realized there are a few out there – maybe not enough – but definitely a few. Here’s my take at the brightest hope for the 2013 Triangle Series A and B players, based solely on what I learned at SEVC.

And because we’re all focused on our brackets this week, I broke it out from a Sweet 16 into an Elite 8:

Bronto showed up and presented (CEO Joe Colopy was also on a panel) but… they’re not raising, are they? I doubt it. I’ve known Colopy for years, and he has always been very proud of their bootstrapped history and so far that continues to work for them. If they are raising, it’s to do something big and new.

deja mi showed off the adoption numbers on WedPics, their app that integrates planning and media for and from a wedding. CEO Justin Miller has also been able to maximize revenue in a competitive space.

Entigral is a quietly profitable startup that sells software to track inventory by RFID. They’ve never raised capital before, and have put almost $3 million in retained revenue back into the company over the last two years, which puts them in play.

Speaking of competitive, there are a lot of Triangle early-stagers in the health and wellness space, and Fitsistant is just a bit ahead of the game having raised $200K in seed money to date. More of a dark horse, they’ve built a good team and a good product, and are focused on customer acquisition.

You might not know PatientPay, but they’ve been around for a while. They’ve recently rebranded, and the founding team is made up of former Smart Online and A4 Health Systems executives.

ReverbNation is probably closer to an exit than their next series, but I’m putting them here because a) Like Bronto, they presented and b) They probably could raise a solid round if they wanted to.

Valencell had already raised $6.5 million in VC in 2009 and 2011, but the company is probably ready to top that in their next round. In fact, I’d call them the most likely candidates to get a seven-or-eight-figure round done this year.

So the Series A/B companies are out there and, based on their appearance at SEVC, they’re testing the waters. 2013 will be a pivotal year for the Triangle startup scene. We’ve proven we have the infrastructure to support the creation of hundreds of startups. Now let’s see if we have the same to propel them forward.

Editor’s note: Joe Procopio is a serial entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. He is VP of Product at Automated Insights and the founder of startup network and news resource ExitEvent. Follow him at @jproco or read him at http://joeprocopio.com