Welcome to the 2017 Tweener list. 2016 was busy in the land of the Tweeners. Here are some highlights:

Definition of Triangle Tweener

Triangle Tweeners are companies based out of the Triangle with at least $1M in sales or 10 people. They generally are technology companies (mostly around software) and are independent and not public.

Off the Tweener list:

The Tweeners now total 110, with 15 companies new to the list:

DZone
Entrinsik
Field2Base
First
Fokus Labs
JouleBug
KEEPS Corporation
MATI Energy
Net32
PatientPay
Phononic
PlotWatt
ShiftWizard
SignalPath
Vital Plan

Tweeners raised over $130 million!

The top 10 raisers were:
Phononic, $40M
Pendo, $20M
PrecisionHawk, $18M
Valencell, $11M
Samanage $10M
TransLoc, $8M
K4Connect, $8M
Zaloni, $7.5M
Windsor Circle, $6.6M
Teamworks, $6M
More details below.

And check out last year’s list here.

On to the 2017 Tweeners:

Adzerk

Pitch: There are a variety of ad servers out there, but large publishers have very specific needs. They could build their own ad servers, but the costs are prohibitive. Enter Adzerk, an AdTech (advertising technology) company. Adzerk gives publishers a set of APIs that allow them to build their own custom servers and then Adzerk takes care of the complexity on the back end. This creates the best of both worlds: customization capabilities plus scalability at a great price.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $650K from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Brian Handly (of Reveal Mobile) and other angels
CEO: James Avery
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Active Location Inc.
Pitch: This AdTech company, founded in Raleigh in 2014, provides technology that allows advertisers to target ads by location. This technology gives advertisers unprecedented understanding of consumer behavior.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $250K in two rounds
CEO: Devin DeLane
LinkedIn

Adwerx
Pitch: A local/vertical ad:tech (advertising technology) company that in early 2015 spun out of ReverbNation. This Durham team is making it easier for hyper-local verticals (real estate is the first one) to take advantage of the latest advertising technologies.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $1.2M Series A that includes Bull City Venture Partners, Boulder Ventures, Advancit Capital, SeventySix Capital
CEO: Jed Carlson
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Archive Social
Pitch: You have a business that is active on social media (aren’t we all?!), but you are in an industry that has document and record-keeping requirements (like finance, healthcare, government, legal, etc.). ArchiveSocial, a Durham startup founded in 2011, automatically pulls, records and archives all of your social media so you are compliant with all the relevant requirements.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $1.1M in two rounds from NC IDEA, David Gardner, The Startup Factory and e.Republic Ventures
CEO: Anil Chawla
.*Update: Archive Social did a deal with the DOJ and White House, elevating the solution nationally.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Axial Exchange
Pitch: Red Hat COO Joanne Rohde left in 2009 to found Raleigh-based Axial Exchange and change the way patients interact with their doctors. Axial helps heath care providers get better at patient engagement. Think of it as bed-side manner as a service.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $9.4M in five rounds. Idea Fund Partners and Canaan Partners are investors.
CEO: Joanne Rohde/Michael Donahue
*Update: Joanne and a Michael Donahue are both listed as CEO at the company right now. Donahue also carries the title president.
LinkedIn

Bandwidth
Pitch: Henry Kaestner and David Morken started Bandwidth.com back in 1999 and it has grown ever since then. Bandwidth, based in Raleigh, has a wide portfolio of businesses such as selling VOIP equipment and service to SMBs, a consumer WIFI phone offering (Republic Wireless). Bandwidth technology is also used to power Google’s consumer voicemail offering – Google Voice. Bandwidth is perpetually rumored to be on the cusp of an IPO or a big M+A, but nothing has happened yet.
Size: 200-500
Investors: $20.5M
CEO: David Morken
LinkedIn

Blogads
Pitch: An advertising network along with provider of services for advertisers that want to advertise on blogs. Blogads also allows for bloggers (publishers) to monetize their content. And it is working on several interesting internal startup ideas. It’s based in Durham.
Size: 50-110
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Henry Copeland
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

BrightDoor Systems
Pitch: If you are a real estate developer and you have a great new neighborhood, you need a complete CRM/digital marketing system to help you promote and manage your sales force and customer data. BrightDoor, founded in 2005 in Cary, provides a SaaS platform for the builder industry.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $2M from Idea Fund Partners and Outcome Capital.
CEO: Michael Worthington
LinkedIn

Bright Wolf
Pitch: Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be huge and Bright Wolf is a Durham company with a lot of traction in the space. Imagine that everything had a sensor on it. If a generator in a factory is going out, a sensor could raise an alert so a second generator could take over while a maintenance dude comes out to fix generator 1. Bright Wolf’s platform enables this type of machine-to-machine (m2m) automation, and is used heavily in the transportation industry.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Peter Bourne
*Update: Serial entrepreneur/investor Peter Bourne is now leading the company, taking over for founders James Branigan and Patrick Dempsey.
LinkedIn

Brooks Bell Interactive
Pitch: Brooks Bell Interactive started in 2003 and helps companies perform A/B testing and optimize their ‘whatever they want to optimize’ online—conversions, sales, etc. Full disclosure—Brooks was an intern for us back in 1999 and I take 100% credit for all her success since then 😉 Brooks is also one of the co-founders of HQ Raleigh.
Size: 50-110
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Brooks Bell
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Candlescience
Pitch: Candlescience is a Durham e-commerce company that helps candle-making enthusiasts find the supplies they need and enjoy the experience of making something with their own hands. It was founded in 2004.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Daniel Swimm
.*Update: Candlescience launched a sister site, Soapscience, in 2016.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Canopy
Pitch: An on-demand company in Raleigh that operates a marketplace for home care services like lawn maintenance, pest control, gutter cleaning and pressure washing. It was founded in 2014.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $3.5M from Cofounders Capital, Idea Fund Partners, Sovereign’s Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Lowe’s Companies
CEO: Hunt Davis
*Update: Canopy raised $2M in December 2016, including an investment from Lowes.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Carusele
Pitch: Spun out of the agency Ignite Social Media in 2015, Cary-based Carusele creates and distributes organic social media content for brands and retailers.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $750K from undisclosed investors
President: Jim Tobin (also CEO of Ignite Social Media)
LinkedIn

CloudFactory
Pitch: There are people all over the planet interested in doing tasks for companies on a part-time, as-needed basis. Amazon created a system—Mechanical Turk—to automate this. But it leaves a lot to be desired and is very specific to Amazon’s needs. Enter CloudFactory, which moved its headquarters from Nepal to Durham in 2014. CloudFactory has created some custom workflows for text-to-digital, audio-to-digital and CRM cleanup. This gives companies a turnkey way to solve these types of problems without building their own solutions. A cool thing is its social mission—it contracts with thousands of underemployed “cloudworkers” in cities in Africa.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $5.7M from Sovereign’s Capital, Rockefeller Foundation, David Clouse
CEO: Mark Sears
*Update: We hear the company is raising money right now.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

CloudPay
Pitch: The Cloud meets payroll! Honestly I don’t know much about these guys—it is one of these sleeping Tweeners I stumbled upon a while ago that is quite big, but under the radar locally. It’s based in Raleigh and was founded in 1998.
Size: 200-500
Investors: $52m+ raised to date from Rho Capital Partners and Pinnacle Ventures
CEO: Paul Bartlett
*Update: Paul Bartlett, a partner with Rho, replaced Andrew Pearson as CEO in 2016.                                                                  LinkedIn

CoreCompete LLC
Pitch: Provider of agile Big Data analytics on top of Amazon Web Services and SAS. Core Compete delivers pricing analytics, customer analytics and merchandising/supply chain solutions. It’s four years old and based in Durham.
Size: 50-110
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Shiva Kommareddi
LinkedIn

Corevist
Pitch: Sam Bayer was at HAHT from 1997 to 2000 in the early days of e-commerce. He then worked at SciQuest and MarketAcuity. In 2008, he launched Corevist (aka b2b2dot0) in Raleigh. Corevist helps SAP users connect their back-office ERP to more modern e-commerce platforms.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Sam Bayer
LinkedIn

Cultures for Health
Pitch: A big trend in food involves consumers focusing not only on healthier eating, but understanding where their food comes from and what’s in it. Founded in 2009, Cultures for Health moved to the Triangle from South Dakota recently. It operates a content and e-commerce site that helps folks make a change in how and what they eat. Many of the foods they offer and teach about require active cultures to get started (e.g. yogurt, kefir, sourdough, etc.). Tom and Joe (the Canvas on Demand/CafePress guys) are actively helping this company scale up.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Undisclosed funding from Tom and Joe
CEO: Julie Feickert
*Update: opened its own warehouse in 2016
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Dognition
Pitch: Want to learn more about your pet? Serial entrepreneur Kip Frey’s latest Durham company will help you figure out what your pet is feeling and thinking via science-based games.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Kip Frey
LinkedIn

Dropsource
Pitch: This Raleigh startup provides a drag-and-drop interface for creating native mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The founder dropped out of Syracuse University in 2013 and moved to the Triangle in 2014 to grow the company. With a November 2015 funding round, it rebranded from Queue Software to Dropsource.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $5.6M in 3 rounds, investors unknown
CEO: Ben Saren
*Update: Founder Aidan Cunniffe stepped down as CEO in December 2016.
LinkedIn

Dude Solutions
Pitch: Duuuuddeee…. Kent Hudson and Lee Prevost founded SchoolDude in 1999. They bootstrapped this puppy up to the point where, in 2014 they could take a $100 million investment from Warburg Pincus. They rebranded as Dude Solutions and have rolled out a bunch of products since. In a nutshell, Cary-based Dude has SaaS/Cloud based products for schools to manage procurement, maintenance and things like that.
Size: 200-500
Investors: Bootstrap, oh plus $100M from Warburg Pincus
CEO: Kent Hudson
LinkedIn

DZone
Pitch: Developers are always looking for communities where they can find folks working on similar problems and share their challenges and findings. Dzone is a community of over 1m developers that enjoy fresh content, message boards and other community features.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Rick Ross
LinkedIn

Entigral Systems
Pitch: A Raleigh IoT company that uses RFID technology to track assets, shipping and receiving of goods and the production process.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $1.67M in four rounds from Triangle Angel Partners
CEO: Mark Self
LinkedIn

Entrinsik
Pitch: This 33-year-old Raleigh software firm sells business intelligence software to 1,500 companies and organizations in higher education, insurance, manufacturing, nonprofits, healthcare and more. It was founded by CEO Doug Leupen.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $1.5M from Research Triangle Ventures and Catalysta Partners in 2001
CEO: Doug Leupen
LinkedIn

eTailInsights
Pitch: When Darren Pierce was at Bronto, he realized that cold calling online retailers was a tough business. He left and founded eTailInsights to solve this problem. The 2011-founded Cary company gathers a large database of online retailers and their contacts to help vendors get their products in front of the right audience.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Darren Pierce
LinkedIn

eTix
Pitch: I don’t know much about the founding of eTix, but Joe Kustelski was head of product before he left to start Rockhouse Partners. eTix then acquired Rockhouse in 2012 and Joe was CEO from 2012-2015. In late 2015, original founder Travis Janovich led a management buyout. eTix provides digital ticketing for venues (think TicketMaster but for smaller venues). You can’t go see a band or milk a cow at the Fair in RTP without ringing its cash register. This Durham company processes over 50 million tickets per year across 1800 venues globally.
Size: 100-300
Investors: $1 million from 1 investor – Southern Capitol Ventures
CEO: Travis Janovich
LinkedIn

Field2Base
Pitch: If you have people in the field (maintenance, etc.) they need to be able to capture information and send it back to HQ. Field2Base has solutions for that.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Thomas Bright
LinkedIn

FilterEasy
Pitch: Are you like me at the first of every month relishing that it is time to pull out the ladder and change your air-conditioner filters? Ok, I fibbed, I actually do this about every six months if I’m lucky. Why? Because it’s one of those things that not only is hard to remember, but is a pain because I’m always missing 1-2 of the filters and have to go to Home Depot or Lowe’s to buy them. Thad Tarkington and Kevin Barry were NCSU students when they came up with an e-commerce solution with an automated delivery service for air filters, and it’s grown like crazy ever since.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $5M+ from RTP Capital Associates, Iron Yard Ventures, Cofounders Capital, Azure Capital Partners and Michael Olander Jr.
CEO: Thad Tarkington
* Update: FilterEasy raised $4.2m in 2016. The founders were also featured in Forbes 30 under 30.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

First.
Pitch: In the real estate industry, the best leads are when people are thinking of moving. First uses predictive analytics to determine which people in a Realtor’s network are most likely to buy, and then offers up a variety of ways for a Realtor to connect to that person. The company is based in Durham at American Underground.
Size: 10
Investors: $1.5 million from IDEA Fund Partners and Sovereign’s Capital
CEO: Mike Schneider
LinkedIn

Fokus Labs
Pitch: Fokus makes the Re:vibe – a wearable that is designed to help students focus in a school room setting.
Size:> $1m in sales
Investors: Cofounders Capital and The Launch Place
CEO: Rich Brancaccio
LinkedIn

FoodLogiQ
Pitch: In today’s world of possible noro-virus and e-coli outbreaks, food safety and traceability are huge priorities. FoodLogiQ provides a SaaS platform for managing the complete food supply chain and has more than 1900 customers with 18,000 locations as customers since its 2006 founding. It’s based in Durham
Size: 10-50
Investors: one investor in undisclosed round
CEO: Dean Wiltse
*Update: Little birds tell us, this firm may have raised another secretive investment in 2016.
LinkedIn

FotoSwipe
Pitch: Sharing pictures and media directly on your mobile devices is complicated. You can email them or text them, but that can be cumbersome. Apple’s cloud and Android/Google don’t ‘play nice together. But FotoSwipe is a mobile app that lets you seamlessly swipe photos between any device.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $1M in three rounds from Cofounders Capital and Tom Lotrecchiano
CEO: Sylvain Dufour
*Update: Launched new products in 2016, announced two million users.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Gather Digital
Pitch: Gather provides native mobile apps for events, allowing attendees to vote, view agendas and more. Founded in 2009, it’s based in Chapel Hill.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Jon Phillips
LinkedIn

Get Spiffy
Pitch: An on-demand mobile app that allows you to schedule an at-work and at-home wash or detail within minutes, founded in 2014. All communication and payment is handled through the app making this the most convenient way for you to keep your car Spiffy. The company is based in Durham.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Scot Wingo
*Update: Scot moved to CEO role in 2016 and Spiffy opened in ATL.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage
Full disclosure: I’m a founder, investor and CEO of this company.

Global Value Commerce (aka Global Golf)
Pitch: Ed Byman was a pro golfer on the PGA tour and in 2001 realized there was an opportunity to sell golf equipment online. He’s built GVC into a global golf company carefully tucked away here in Raleigh. Full disclosure—this is a ChannelAdvisor customer.
Size: 100-200
Investors: $500k from Southern Capitol Ventures
CEO: Ed Byman
LinkedIn

GoldenKey (used to be called SoloPro)
Pitch: If you’ve bought or sold a home, you may have looked at the reconciliation report and thought, “Wow I just paid an agent(s) a big check. What did they do for all that?” SoloPro is for the FSBO audience and allows you to work with agents on more of a consulting basis. Need an opinion on the investment aspects for a property or help making an offer, or input on pricing? SoloPro, founded in Durham in 2014, has a platform and services enabling this.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $3M+ from nine investors including Lowe’s, the Duke Angel Network, Capitol Broadcasting, Switch V, NFX
CEO: Tommy Sowers
* Update: Raised $1.75 million in January 2017.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

icimo LLC
Pitch: In today’s world, your business throws off more data than ever. Commercial analytics platforms like Tableau, SAS, etc. help, but icimo, of Apex, provides custom analysis templates and a best practice methodology on top of those platforms. It’s used by the retail, banking/finance and healthcare industries, founded in 2010.
Size: 50-110
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Bryce Gartner
LinkedIn

Infina Connect
Pitch: Infina Connect is a SaaS platform that automates and optimizes the physician referral network system. Founded in 2010, it’s based in Cary.
Size: 10-50
Investors: >$1.9M in three rounds, investors undisclosed
CEO: Mark Hefner
LinkedIn

InMotionNow
Pitch: Founded in 1999 as Proof-it-Online, this company helped creative departments automate workflows with a SaaS platform to get content proofed and approved. In 2009, it launched inMotion for videos and animation. This has taken off. In 2012, the company rebranded as InMotionNow and the buzz is that Ben Hartmere (CEO since ’13) has this Morrisville Tweener on fire.
Size: 50-100
Investors: $4.4M from Madison River Ventures and Eastside Partners.
CEO: Ben Hartmere
*Update: In 2016, InMotionNow raised $3.1M led by Eastside Partners.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Intervolve
Pitch: I don’t know much about these guys other than this blurb: “Intervolve provides supply-chain software for the beverage industry.” Sounds like they deal with beer, which is pretty cool and must help with developer recruiting. Raleigh company founded in 1999.
Size: 50-200
Investors: $8M from NC IDEA, Sanoch Management and undisclosed investors
CEO: Mason Koffman
*Update: Long time CEO Bill Kaluza stepped down as CEO in 2016.
LinkedIn

iScribes
Pitch: Doctors have to spend a lot of their time documenting their decisions and patient visits versus spending time with the patient. iScribes records the patient visit and stores it on a secure server. A certified medical scribe then documents the encounter and the physician can review it. This company moved to Durham from Virginia after it’s 2014 founding.
Size: 50-110
Investors: $1.1M from physician-angel investors, Triangle Angel Partners and The Launch Place
CEO: Jared Pelo
* Update: iScribes graduated out of American Underground and is now in Durham proper. It has closed a small bridge round in early 2017.
LinkedIn

JouleBug
Pitch: Making the world more sustainable sounds easy, but what small changes an you make in your everyday habits to make a difference? JouleBug is an app that lets you measure your impact, get ideas on improved sustainability and you’ll earn buzz points.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Grant Willard
LinkedIn

Junxure
Pitch: This SaaS CRM solution, founded in 2000 in Raleigh, is customized for wealth/financial advisors.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Greg Friedman
LinkedIn

K4Connect
Pitch: Scott Moody’s previous company created the technology that is now used by Apple (via acquisition) for its Touch ID finger print sensor. Now in Raleigh, Scott’s newest company (founded 2014) has an IoT platform that allows it to rapidly develop and release solutions oriented towards the older adult market. It’s got a contract to roll out the technology in senior living communities across Pennsylvania and is starting to expand to others with new funding.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $10M from Sierra Ventures, Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners, Better Ventures, Stephen Morton and Ben Yu
CEO: F. Scott Moody
* Update: Raised $8M led by Intel Capital last fall.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

KEEPS Corporation
Pitch: KEEPS produces software called ROAMS that helps automobile service departments automate and optimize their operations.
Size:11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Ray Branch
LinkedIn

Keona Health
Pitch: This Chapel Hill-based healthcare IT company allows patients to communicate more directly with caregivers than using existing processes. Think of it as chat/messaging for your doctor.
Size: 50-110
Investors: $2.5M from Blueprint Health
CEO: Oakkar Oakkar
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

KnowledgeTree
Pitch: Software for training sales reps and increasing your $/rep. This Raleigh company’s data science predicts what content will work when, and bam, you close more deals. It was founded in 2009.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $7.6M from River Cities, Hatteras, Core Capital and Hasso Plattner
CEO: Sean O’Leary
* Update: In Jan of 2017, KnowledgeTree announced a management change. Serial CEO (StrikeIron, TapRoot) Sean O’Leary has taken the helm.
LinkedIn

LCMS Plus
Pitch: Spun out of Duke University in 2010, Durham-based LCMS+ is an online edu-tech Size: 10-15
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Allison Wood
LinkedIn

Lea(R)n
Pitch: Schools have a portfolio of software platforms and programs these days, which is great for students but hard for educators to manage. Raleigh-based Lea(R)n, founded in 2014, seeks to solve this problem with a platform and content that helps administrators and educators manage the ed-tech suite.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $800K from seven investors: AT&T, Edovate, Gregg Burt, Jean Hammond, Kaplan, Techstars
CEO: Karl Rectanus
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Lulu
Pitch: In 2002, Red Hat founder Bob Young wanted to do a three ring tech circus. He pivoted into self publishing. Now he sells yoga pants—just kidding, different Lulu.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Bootstrap (Bank of Bob)
CEO: Nigel Lee
LinkedIn

Magnus Health
Pitch: You operate a school or camp and need electronic access to students’ medical records. Who is allergic to peanuts? What’s the emergency contact for John Doe? This Raleigh company was founded in 2006 to make those questions easy to answer.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $100K from undisclosed investors (though David Gardner is on the board)
CEO: Brian Biddulph-Krentar
*Update: In May 2016, Magnus replaced CEO James Burns with former chief strategy officer Brian Biddulph-Krentar, who is based in Philadelphia.
LinkedIn

MATI Energy
Pitch: MATI Energy was founded by Tatiana Birgisson, who was a Duke student looking for a healthy energy drink and couldn’t find one. So what does an enterprising entrepreneur do but invent a healthy alternative? MATI Energy was born.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $2.2M invested including Steve Case and the Duke Angel Network
CEO: Tatiana Birgisson
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Medfusion
Pitch: I love these types of stories because I’ve lived one before. Stephen Malik started Medfusion (1.0) in 2000. Its SaaS software helped patients make appointments and pay medical bills. In May of 2010, Malik sold the Cary company to Intuit for $91 million and rebranded as Intuit Health. Flash forward to 2013 when Steve bought back the business for an undisclosed amount and Medfusion (2.0) was born.
Size: 50-100
Investors: $3M from BCVP and Hatteras Ventures
CEO: Kimberly Labow
* Update: The firm switched CEOs to Kimberly Labow in February 2016.
LinkedIn

MobileSmith
Pitch: MobileSmith develops a platform that companies use to publish mobile applications with little to no code. Simply drag and drop popular elements and you have an interactive mobile app. This Raleigh company was founded in 1993.
Size: 10-50
Investors: MobileSmith is a ‘penny stock’ traded on the OTCBB under MOST and was a spin-out of Smart Online’s mobile development platform
CEO: Bob Dieterle
* Update: The company announced in January 2017 that its new CEO is founder and former president Bob Dieterle.
LinkedIn

</ndustrial.io>
Pitch: ndustrial is a company building IoT solutions for industrial applications. Tomorrow’s factory will be totally outfitted with sensors—ndustrial is working on a solution for that future reality in Durham.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $1.4M in two rounds from Acorn Innovestments and Bay Grove Capital
CEO: Jason Massey
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Needlepoint.com
Pitch: Started in 1999, Needlepoint had a retail store, and using its great domain name, needlepoint.com, started to do well online. The wife of Bob Young (of Lulu, Red Hat and PrecisionHawk fame) started the business and he is now serving as CEO.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap (Bank of Bob)
CEO: Bob Young

Net32
Pitch: Dental supplies are extremely expensive and there are lots of middlemen. Net32 sells dental supplies direct to dentists at extreme discounts because they eliminate the middlemen.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Pat Cassidy
LinkedIn

Netsertive
Pitch: Brendan Morrissey moved to the area from LA as part of a Motricity acquisition and in 2009 founded Netsertive in Morrisville. He started by helping local electronics retailers advertise and has expanded to help national brands leverage their marketing into local markets through brand/dealer campaigns.
Size: 201-500
Investors: ~$49M from River Cities Capital, RRE Ventures, Greycroft, Harbert Venture Partners and Venture debt from Square 1 Bank
• CEO: Brendan Morrissey
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Nextlot, Inc.
Pitch: In today’s world of two-day e-commerce delivery thanks to Amazon, it’s easy to forget there is still a need for auctioneers. Bank foreclosures, estate sales and other events call for an auction and today’s auctioneers need to stay high-tech and current. Raleigh-based NextLot, founded in 2007, provides a platform that allows you to run your own auctions with online, mobile and webcast features.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Scott Finkelstein
LinkedIn

Offline Media
Pitch: David Shaner graduated from NC State and had an itch to start a company. He started Offline in Raleigh in in 2012 to help people reconnect with their local communities. Offline curates activities and places for your city. This creates an indispensable resource if you move or travel. Simply fire up Offline and you have an insider’s view to what is going on and where to go.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $700K+ from The Startup Factory, Joe Kutelski (formerly eTix) and McClatchy
CEO: David Shaner
Update: Raised $700K in 2016 and in early 2017, signed a deal with McClatchy that includes strategic partnership and an undisclosed amount of investment.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Operable
Pitch: Operable sits at the interesting intersection of two trends: 1. Chatbots – iMessage, Slack, FB Messenger and WhatsApp all have trained us to move short status work conversations out of email and into chat. These platforms all have apps that are called chatbots. 2. DevOps – Developer Operations is the automation of some of the tedious tasks that are required of the development process (e.g. builds, automated qa tests, deployments, etc.). Operable offers Cog, which is a chatbot for DevOps. Now you can say “cog deploy product x to server y” in a chat and boom, it is taken care of for you.
Size: 1-10
Investors: $3M from True Ventures, Makerbot and Fitbit
CEO: Mark Imbriaco
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Organic Transit
Pitch: Rob Cotter is an ex-auto industry guru who is looking to disrupt the transportation industry and guide the future of urban transportation. His first vehicle, the ELF, is a solar-powered electric platform that took Kickstarter by storm. Full disclosure, I’m on the board of Durham’s OT. And this one isn’t much software, but it’s solar and electric vehicles and that’s pretty cool—and there is definitely a software/e-commerce component.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $2.5M+ from Investors Circle and angel investors, also raised money in a Kickstarter campaign
CEO: Rob Cotter
*Update: Organic Transit raised $2.5 million in 2016.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Patagonia Health
Pitch: Ashok Mathur has been active in the Triangle startup scene since I can remember. In 2008, he started Cary-based Patagonia to build a SaaS EHR (electronic health record) platform that includes 15-20 different EHR apps.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Ashok Mathur
LinkedIn

PatientPay
Pitch: PatientPay is an online platform for patients to pay for their medical bills. Brings the simplicity of e-commerce to medicine.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $6.5M led by Mosaik Partners.
CEO: Tom Furr
LinkedIn

Pendo
Pitch: When you are building cloud-based apps, one challenge is instrumenting them so that you know what customers are doing within the app. Raleigh’s Pendo has a platform that helps you not only solve this problem, but gives you actionable insights into what users are doing and the ability to easily message users to nudge them in the right direction (hey, try this feature!). Todd Olson (Rally Software) and Erik Troan (rPath/Red Hat) are the founders and they’re building a new headquarters in Raleigh in 2016.
Size: 50-110
Investors: $33.25M from Battery Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Core Capital Partners, Contour Venture Partners, IDEA Fund Partners and angels
CEO: Todd Olson
* Update: Pendo raised an additional $20M in 2016 led by Spark Capital.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Phononic
Pitch: Solid state electronics have revolutionized computing, lighting (Cree) and now Phononic has figured out how to apply it to refrigeration. From cooling CPUs to residential and commercial applications, Phononic is ??????
Size: 50-200
Investors: $160M from 8 investors including Venrock, Oak investment, UBS Wealth
CEO: Anthony Atti
LinkedIn

Photofy
Pitch: Social content creation tool for consumers and businesses, founded in Raleigh in 2013 by the founder of InvitationBox.com (which sold to CafePress in 2011).
Size: 10-20
Investors: $1.8M from Capitol Broadcasting, Michael Olander Jr. and Jon LaNasa
CEO: Jon LaNasa
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

PlotWatt
Pitch: The electric grid is getting smarter and while a lot of solutions target the solution, PlotWatt helps small businesses understand their energy usage and lower their costs.
Size: 11-50
Investors: Raised ~$5m from Felicis Ventures and Acorn Investments
CEO: Luke Fishback
LinkedIn

PrecisionHawk
Pitch: Drones! (drops mic and walks off stage). Seriously though, PrecisionHawk has a UAV platform that can do real-time/AI mapping for a variety of uses—agriculture, GIS, search/rescue, etc. Founded in 2011, it’s based in Raleigh.
Size: 51-200
Investors: $29M Bank of Bob (Bob Young), Millennium Tech Ventures, Verizon Ventures
CEO: Michael Chasen
* Update: PrecisionHawk raised an additional $18M led by Verizon Ventures in 2016. It replaced interim CEO Bob Young with Blackboard co-founder Michael Chasen.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

The Produce Box
Pitch: Courtney Tellefsen was a stay-at-home-mom in 2007. She wanted to understand where her food was coming from and support local NC farmers. Like anyone, she couldn’t get to the farmer’s market every week to buy fresh locally-sourced produce. The Produce Box was born! TPB now has a team of 200 folks that deliver thousands of produce boxes each week in the Triangle and Charlotte. It’s based in Raleigh.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Courtney Tellefsen
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Prometheus Group
Pitch: Prometheus was founded by NCSU alumni Eric Huang in 1998 and it’s based in Raleigh. It developed an add-on for SAP that helps with plant maintenance.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Prometheus Group raised an undisclosed amount from the large private equity company TA Associates.
CEO: Eric Huang
LinkedIn

PRSONAS
Pitch: People are expensive, robots and holograms are not. PRSONAS of Durham has developed technology that provides for self-service holograms. These holograms can provide virtual receptionists, product specialists and concierges. It was founded in 2013.
Size: 10-20
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: David Rose
* Update: PRSONAS raised $525k from local and regional angel investors and the Charlotte Angel Fund.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Quantifize Solutions
Pitch: Quantifize builds solutions targeted towards colleges and universities to improve the consumer (student) experience. One of the offerings is Buzz Report, which aggregates all of the social media for a university into one easy-to-manage and monitor dashboard. Students happy? Is the food on campus yummy or icky? Buzz Report will let you know. The other offering from Quantifize is Laundry Alert. Do you want to know how many laundry machines in the dorm are available or when your laundry is done? Laundry Alert gives students an automated way to monitor the machines.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Adam O’Donnell
LinkedIn

Racarie Software (Applicantstack.com)
Pitch: Racarie was founded by HR professionals that were looking for an inexpensive applicant tracking solution, so they created applicantstack.com. In addition to tracking job applicants, it also helps with on-boarding and many other manual HR tasks.
Size: 11-50
Investors: bootstrap
CEO: Nathan Shackles
LinkedIn

Railinc
Pitch: Railinc of Cary provides rail data and IT services for the freight railroad industry. It was founded in 1999.
Size: 200-500
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Allen West
LinkedIn

RevBoss
Pitch: Most B2B SaaS companies need outbound sales lead generation. Eric Boggs started at Bronto building this function, then did it again at Argyle Social and finally decided there is a company idea there in 2014. Durham-based RevBoss provides software and services that help recurring revenue businesses scale up their businesses rapidly without having to build their own SDR capabilities.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $1.1M from Sovereign’s Capital, Robbie Allen, Bruce Boehm and Alston Gardner
CEO: Eric Boggs
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Reveal Mobile
Pitch: Brian Handly is one of the Triangle’s most successful serial entrepreneurs. After Stepleader Digital spun out of Capitol Broadcasting, it built mobile apps for media companies but Handly has helped it pivot to leverage beacon technology and Big Data to help advertisers reach a local audience. Reveal Mobile, born in 2015, gives advertisers insights into what their customers and target customer are doing in the local world.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $2.5M from Capitol Broadcasting, Bull City Venture Partners, Alerion Ventures and Idea Fund Partners
CEO: Brian Handly
* Update: Reveal raised $500K in 2016.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

ReverbNation
Pitch: This is serial entrepreneur Michael Doernberg’s latest company (after selling SmartPath to DoubleClick). ReverbNation provides software and services for bands and is based in Durham.
Size: 50-200
Investors: $8.6M in 3 rounds from Southern Capitol Ventures, Novak Biddle and SeventySix Capital
CEO: Michael Doernberg
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Realvolve
Pitch: As you’ve probably noticed, there are a fair amount of industry-specific SaaS CRM solutions on our list. Realvolve, founded in 2012 in Raleigh, provides a SaaS CRM targeted to real estate agents.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $600K from angels and Lighter Capital
CEO: David Crumby (based in Denver)
*Update: Realvolve brought in $300K in debt financing in 2016.
LinkedIn

ROI Revolution
Pitch: ROI Revolution provides search engine marketing and other services to SMBs in various industries. Based in Raleigh, it was founded in 2002.
Size: 50-200
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Timothy Seward
LinkedIn

Sageworks
Pitch: Sageworks provides financial analysis software for helping value private companies. Based in Raleigh, it was founded in 1998.
Size: 200-500
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Scott Ogle
LinkedIn

Samanage
Pitch: SaaS/cloud based IT management and help desk software, founded in 2007. It’s based in Cary but has an R+D office in Israel.
Size: 50-200
Investors: $34M in four rounds from six investors including Carmel Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Salesforce Ventures and Marker LLC
CEO: Doron Gordon
*Update: Samanage raised a $10M series C round from Salesforce Ventures in December 2016.
LinkedIn

Savii Inc. (previously called Akili Software)
Pitch: Launched in 2014 by two female entrepreneurs, Savii provides software that at-home caregivers use to manage workflow and communicate with patients and their families.
Size: 10-15
Investors: $1.1M from Cofounders Capital, RTP Capital and Cherokee Investment Partners
CEO: Michelle Harper
* Update: Raised $1.1M in 2016 and changed name.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

SEAL Innovation
Pitch: SEAL Innovation is a wearable/IoT company that has developed a connected necklace that detects if someone is having problems swimming and alerts the parents and/or lifeguard of the situation. Founded in 2010 and based in Raleigh.
Size: 1-10
Investors: $2M from Triangle Angel Partners and The Launch Place
CEO: Graham Snyder
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

ServiceTrade
Pitch: Ex-Red Hatter Billy Marshall is at again. ServiceTrade, a Durham startup he founded in 2012, makes mobile apps and web apps to help maintenance businesses deliver more service calls and connect with their customers.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $4.8M in two rounds from undisclosed investors
CEO: Billy Marshall
LinkedIn

ShiftWizard
Pitch: Every part of the hospital care experience is getting automated and ShiftWizard is bringing technology to Nurse’s scheduling. Founded by nurses, for nurses, ShiftWizard simplifies the complexities of nurse scheduling.
Size:11-50
Investors: $3M from Rolling Hills Ventures and Resolute Venture Partners
CEO: Joe Velk
LinkedIn

Shoeboxed
Pitch: Taylor Mingos was a Duke student in 2007 and did an internship with a EU-based social media company. After that gig, he had the idea to marry some of the learnings from social media to B2B and Shoeboxed was born. Based in Durham, Shoeboxed collects receipts for businesses and individuals and turns them into digital data. This platform has tons of uses, such as automatically generated expense reports, business card scanning and contact updates, along with mileage tracking.
Size: 51-200
Investors: $2.5 million from four investors including Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Michael Brehm, Dennis Bemmann
CEO: Taylor Mingos
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

SignalPath
Pitch: Every drug candidate has to go through a complex clinical research process. Managing that is huge undertaking. SignalPath has software that helps manage the clinical research process.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $3M raised from unknown investors in 2016.
CEO: Ira Grossman
LinkedIn

Spoonflower
Pitch: Stephen Fraser and Gart Davis left Lulu to start Spoonflower in 2008. Durham-based Spoonflower allows consumers to create and print their own custom fabrics, wall paper and gift wrap. It has created a rapidly growing marketplace in the fabric world.
Size: 50-200
Investors: $25M from North Bridge Equity Partners and Bull City Venture Partners.
CEO: Gart Davis
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage
*Full disclosure: I am on the board of this company.

Spreedly
Pitch: Integrating payments into your app, website or service is complex. Spreedly provides a cloud-based API that makes it easy to accept and manage payments. Nathaniel Talbott founded Spreedly in 2007 and it’s based in Durham.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $6M from E-Merge, AngelList
CEO: Justin Benson
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Stealz
Pitch: If you are a local restaurant or service company, you know that social media and sharing generates word of mouth and can be very valuable. But how do you get patrons to actively promote your business? Also how do you build loyalty? Stealz, founded in Raleigh in 2012, produces a mobile app that encourages customers to both be loyal and promote the business. Stealz had a ton of momentum in 2015, signing large McDonalds and other franchises.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $1.5M from Cofounders Capital, Triangle Angel Partners, Michael Olander Jr. and RTP Capital.
CEO: Jim Zidar
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Teamworks
Pitch: You have a sports team with coaches, players, assistant coaches and other constituents. You need to share a bunch of information around playbooks, schedules, plans, etc. but you want to do it in a secure/managed way. Teamworks, founded in Durham by a former Duke football player, is a software platform that allows you to manage, deploy and optimize that situation.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $6M led by Seaport Capital
CEO: Zachary Maurides
* Update: In July of 2016, Teamworks left bootstrap mode and raised $6M from Seaport Capital and several other Duke-connected firms.
LinkedIn

Teamworks Solutions
Pitch: Yes—we apparently have two Tweeners named some variation of Teamworks! I discovered ‘this’ Teamworks while learning more about the other Teamworks. Another example of these Tweeners really hiding under the radar! Let’s say you run a factory or a service business that has technicians in the field doing maintenance. You will need software that enables the field techs to manage everything and work in a mobile way (through phone and tablets). Teamworks Solutions, based in Raleigh since a 2002 founding, has software that solves this problem and focuses on the c-store, education, healthcare and municipality industries.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Craig Drouillard
LinkedIn

Three Ships 
Pitch: Zach Clayton started Three Ships in 2009 as a digital agency. He was like 16 then and now is pushing 21 and can finally have a beer on Beer Fridays. (Seriously though, it’s great to see this crop of young new folks starting cos. in the area). Anywho, Three Ships developed some interesting technology around SEO for brands and has since split into three separate companies to focus on three different areas. CRISP is a branding agency. Demand Signals provides SEO and content marketing. 3s Ventures provides customer acquisition services.
Size: 51-200
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: Zach Clayton
* Update: Three Ships split itself into three separate companies in 2016. See details above. Demand Signals has since been acquired by TRANZACT.
LinkedIn

Tilt/Tilt 365
Pitch: There’s an explosion of software for managing HR and people, called HRIS or Human Resource Information Systems. Tilt 365, based in Raleigh and founded in 2008, helps with assessments. If you want to do a self assessment and see how your peers see you—Tilt 365 has software for delivering and analyzing that. What makes you tick? What will make you happiest in your career? Tilt has also built a complete methodology around its assessments to help companies develop people and increase retention.
Size: 10-50
Investors: Undisclosed but David Gardner is an investor
CEO: Pam Boney
*Update: Founder Pam Boney has replaced Jeff Smith as CEO. He’s now at Bandwidth.com running UX.
LinkedIn

TouchCare
Pitch: TouchCare provides a mobile health app that securely connects patients and physicians. Now, your next consultation may be as easy as FaceTime. Founded in 2013, the company is based in Durham.
Size: 10-50
Investors: $4M from Mosaic Health Solutions
CEO: Damian Gilbert
LinkedIn

TransLoc
Pitch: TransLoc, founded in 2004 and based in RTP, enables real-time transportation information that passengers love and sells the software to government agencies that provide transportation services.
Size: 70-80
Investors: $8M from SJF Ventures, Fontinalis Partners and more
CEO: Doug Kaufman
* Update: In 2016, TransLoc raised $8 million.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Undercover Colors
Pitch: Undercover Colors has developed fingernail polish for women that in addition to being a fashion statement, can detect the presence of date rape drugs in drinks. This will empower women to prevent sexual assaault. The founders spun the startup out of NC State University in 2014. It’s based in Raleigh.
Size: 10-20
Investors: $8.2M from Cofounders Capital, Cindy Whitehead,
CEO: Tyler Confrey-Maloney
Update: Raised $5.5M in 2016 along with a great deal of media attention.
LinkedIn

Valencell
Pitch: Another wearable IoT company, Valencell of Raleigh, has developed advanced biometric technology for wearables that it has licensed out to manufacturers. It was founded in 2006.
Size: 50-110
Investors: $25.5M in four rounds from Best Buy Capital, CBC Partners, TDF Ventures, G//Tech Ventures and True Ventures
CEO: Michael Dering
* Update: Valencell raised an $11M series D round led by G// Tech Ventures.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Validic
Pitch: Validic gives developers of healthcare apps and insurance companies and healthcare systems one common interface to support all the different wearables and medical devices out there. Based in Durham, it was founded in 2010.
Size: 51-200
Investors: $18.4M raised from 11 investors including Mark Cuban, Greycroft, SJF Ventures and Kaiser Permanente Ventures
CEO: Drew Schiller
Update: Drew Schiller took over as CEO, replacing co-founder Ryan Beckland, who now serves as president.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Vertical IQ
Pitch: In 2010, Bobby Martin had the idea to create software to help bankers call on businesses (They’ve never called me – who knew they even did that!) The Raleigh company now has over 20,000 users at ~100 banks.
Size: 20-50
Investors: Bootstrap
CEO: T. Kevin McNamara is president with Martin serving as chairman.
LinkedIn

Vital Plan
Pitch: There are lots of confusing information about natural remedies. Braden Rawls partnered with her father to provide an alternative. In addition to tons of great content on the subject, they offer their own line of supplements.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $225K from angel investors
CEO: Braden Rawls
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

WedPics
Pitch: Justin Miller and Idan Koren originally came up with a social network around events called Deja Mi in 2010. But they noticed that brides were heavy users so went after that vertical first with WedPics. Now thousands of weddings every week utilize WedPics to create a private social network around their events. Full disclosure—I’m an investor here.
Size: 11-50
Investors: $14.85M in six rounds from Bullpen Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Idea Fund Partners, OCA Ventures, Adam Draper, Bob Young, Jocelyn Goldfein, Barbara Corcoran, Alex Osadzinski, John Repogle, Jed Carlson
CEO: Justin Miller
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Windsor Circle
Pitch: Matt Williamson left Bronto in 2011 with a crazy idea—what if he could develop software focused on helping e-commerce companies with retention vs. acquisition? He also asked himself: How could I possibly wear green pants every day? Windsor Circle was born in Durham!
Size: 51-200
Investors: $13.4M from Comcast Ventures, Origin Ventures, Idea Fund Partners and Triangle Angel Partners
CEO: Matt Williamson
Update: Windsor Circle brought in $6.6M in debt and equity financing in April 2016.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage
*Full disclosure: I am on the board of this company.

Written Word Media
Pitch: The trend toward self-publishing is huge. Amazon is driving this, and locally, we have a major player in Lulu. But these platforms give authors tools for writing, editing and publishing but what about marketing? Written Word Media of Durham has a platform and network that helps authors get their books discovered. The network has 18,000 authors and over 600,000 readers looking for book recommendations.
Size: 10
Investors: $50K from NC IDEA, Bootstrap
CEO: Ricci Wolman
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

XSInc
Pitch: XSInc provides a SaaS platform for the agriculture and turf/ornamental industries. XSinc’s customers are manufacturers and retailers that serve the production agriculture business (farms). Founded in 1998, it’s based in Morrisville.
Size: 50-200
Investors: $20M from Morgan Stanley
CEO: Fulton Breen
LinkedIn

Youth Digital
Pitch: Justin Richards has a passion for Minecraft and teaching kids about technology. He put those together and has built a very successful business called Youth Digital that sells online classes to youngsters to help them learn to code. Founded in 2010, it’s based in Chapel Hill.
Size: 50-110 Investors: $2M from an undisclosed investor(s)
CEO: Justin Richards
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Zaloni
Pitch: We’ve all heard the buzz around big data. One of the underlying technologies is called Hadoop and it’s open-source software out of Yahoo! Hadoop gives you a good foundation for a big data map-reduce system, but since it’s OSS, like Linux/Red Hat, it falls short of what many commercial enterprises need from a system. Enter a host of startups (Cloudera and Hortonworks are probably the best known). Zaloni is a RTP-based Hadoop startup, founded in 2007, that adds enterprise data management to Hadoop. What’s that mean? Well if you have a big Hadoop implementation (terabytes), the OSS management tools leave a lot to be desired. Zaloni gives you the ability to pull in large amounts of data, organize the data, monitor and extract it. It also gives you the ability to monitor permissions and workflows (who did what, when to what data and were they allowed to?). This space is so hot—I don’t think Zaloni will be on the Tweener list for long. It’s likely it will get snapped up by one of the big players out there
Size: 50-200
Investors: $7.5M from Sierra Ventures
CEO: Ben Sharma
Update: Closed on the $7.5M round in 2016.
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage

Zift Solutions
Pitch: Ken Romley was part of the SmartPath team (see ReverbNation) and after the acquisition by DoubleClick, started Zift in 2006. Durham-based Zift helps large brands manage their partner/channel networks to grow their channel sales.
Size: 51-200
Investors: $20.9M raised from investors such as Arrowroot Capital, SSM Partners, Southern Capitol Ventures/Bull City Venture Partners
CEO: Ken Romley
LinkedIn and ExitEvent coverage