DURHAM – Young, hip and happening. That basically sums up the mood at Big Top’s Startup Crawl this month.

Around 100 people gathered for drinks and some mingling at Teamworks’ newly expanded office in downtown Durham on Monday night.

Jim Sughrue, Julie Carroll Busch, Kevin Carroll, of Placement Loop.

By all accounts, it was a night to celebrate one of the Triangle’s homegrown startups that has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Founded by Duke grads, the company has raised $21.55 million in funding and now powers more than 2,000 pro and college teams globally – and counting – since it launched in 2010.

Meagan Glatz and Rondale Davis.

Cameron Brown, Greg Brown, Brad Mooring.

“We’re proud of Durham’s growth, and as much as we can be a part of it, we’re excited about that,” said Mitch Heath, 29, Teamwork’s chief growth officer, who co-founded the startup with Zach Maurides, now 33, and Shaun Powell.

Apart from networking, the event also gave WRAL TechWire the chance to gauge the community’s temperature in the wake of the Triangle’s lost bid for Amazon and the continued silence surrounding the potential deal for Apple to set up a new campus here.

Noel Sinozich, Brij Aswani, Joey White.

Aya Okale-Weeks, Ana Jones, Joshua Akhigbe.

As it so happened, the event coincided with news that Raleigh startup Pendo is getting ready to triple its local operations over the new five years, adding 590 jobs.

As such, most seemed content on focusing on the positive.

“It’s amazing news,” Brij Aswani said about Pendo. “We need bigger companies – sort of what Rat Hat did and grown since 1992. Pendo is doing the same thing. There’s tons of talent in this area, and it’s opportunity for other companies to take that talent, if Amazon or Apple doesn’t take it.”

Big Top’s Molly Demarest.

Kevin Carroll also dismissed Amazon’s choice. He recently relocated his company, Placement Loop, to the Triangle from the Midwest.

“It’s their loss. We’re going to be fine without Amazon,” he said. “I just moved to this area for exactly the same reasons Amazon was considering the area. I arrived about four months ago. I’m brand new.

Daniel Beall and Jason Voigt.

“This is going to be the Silicon Valley of the South. We’re looking at space right now. We’re not sure what incubator/accelerator program that we’re going to be a part of, but we’re looking.”

Still, others remained hopeful about Apple.

“I would love Apple to be here,” said Rondale Davis. “It would definitely make this area boom a lot more than it already has. It would be a sight to see if we actually do get Apple to come here.”

With swank, bigger office, Durham’s Teamworks roars into growth mode