RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – With regular updates to keep content fresh, WRAL TechWire’s Triangle Startup Guide offers a timely resource package for anyone looking to start or grow a business in the Triangle area.
Today, we’re back with a fresh set of resources for local entrepreneurs. We recently made three new additions to our interactive map of local coworking spaces and incubators, which features dozens of spaces fit for startup teams and small businesses in the Triangle:
Blush Cowork (Cary)
Blush Cowork is a women-focused coworking space offering on-site childcare services and a play space, along with an open coworking area, private offices, dedicated desks and conference rooms. The space opened in Cary last month.
Photo source: Blush Cowork, via Instagram
The Factory (Raleigh)
The Factory is a community-oriented makerspace where entrepreneurs, small business owners and innovators can use shared equipment and resources to build products, participate in networking and pitch events, and receive free business development training. The Black Dollar Corp., an online directory of Black-owned businesses in North Carolina, opened the space in April 2022.
A look at The Factory, a new makerspace in Raleigh. (Photo source: The Factory)
The Work Hall (Raleigh)
Located in the center of downtown Raleigh, The Work Hall is a two-story coworking space offering part-time and 24/7 memberships for local startups, freelancers, remote teams and professionals.
The Work Hall is a new coworking space in downtown Raleigh. (Photo source: The Work Hall)
The space opened earlier this month and aims to cater to the real estate and development industries, including everything from property technology companies to real estate brokerages.
The Work Hall – a coworking space for real estate industry professionals – opening in Raleigh
Other recent additions to the Triangle Startup Guide
Every week, we update the guide with new resources for local entrepreneurs for our exclusive Triangle Startup Guide. If we missed something, please feel free to suggest it for inclusion. You can email me directly or use this contact form.
In case you missed it, check out all the updates we made in 2021. And here’s a review of the additions from recent weeks:
- In the “Free Events and Meetups” section, we added Raleigh-Durham Startup Week—an annual event hosted by prominent startup accelerator Techstars. The four-day program brings together the local startup community to celebrate recent accomplishments, discuss emerging business topics, share innovative ideas and make new connections. This year’s Raleigh-Durham Startup Week runs from April 19 to April 22 at various venues in Durham.
The ‘well-rounded’ Raleigh-Durham Startup Week – free to all – begins next Tuesday
- In the “Communities, Networks & Memberships” section of the guide, we added Duke University’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club (EVCC). Run out of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, the EVCC provides resources and events supporting student entrepreneurs and people who want to work at local startups. The club’s calendar of events includes a mix of pitch competitions, conferences, workshops, lunch and learns, and networking opportunities for Duke’s growing startup community.
- In the “Competitions, Grants & Other Funding Sources” section of the guide, we added NC State University’s Miller Fellowship, a program that helps newly-graduated alumni pursue their ventures full-time. The fellowship aims to capture recent grads in that short window between finishing college and deciding whether to jump into a full-time job or take a risk in growing a startup.
- In the “Inspiration, Advice & More Resources” section of the guide, we added a link to last month’s “podcast marathon,” an eight-hour event held in the Earfluence podcast studio in Durham’s American Underground. (Note: Capitol Broadcasting Company, parent of WRAL TechWire, owns American Underground)
‘Podcast marathon’ featuring who’s who of Triangle startup scene launches Earfluence’s new studio
More recent additions
- In the VC and angel funding section of the guide, we added Front Porch Venture Partners, a local venture capital firm founded by graduates of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. As Hypepotamus recently reported, Front Porch Venture Partners follows a “hybrid” model, investing in both early-stage startups and other VC funds. The group’s inaugural fund invested in 14 venture funds and 13 startups. Its fund partners include many local investors, such as Idea Fund Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners and Cofounders Capital.
- In the “Inspiration, Advice & More Resources” section, we added a link to the latest “State of the Region” address delivered by Tom Snyder, executive director of Raleigh-based RIoT. The annual address lays out the progress, opportunities and threats facing the Triangle over the course of the year. This year’s edition, delivered at Raleigh Founded, focuses on changes in the labor force, supply chain struggles and inflation, domestic and foreign affairs, and the growth in entrepreneurship.
- In the “Inspiration, Advice & More Resources” section, we added CED’s 2021 Innovators Report, which provides an overview of North Carolina’s innovation economy, including the latest data on startup funding, deal flow and exits. The 2021 edition reported a record $4.6 billion raised by 222 companies across 250 separate funding events—a 35% increase from 2020’s total. Technology investments accounted for 69% of the year’s deals, while life sciences claimed 24%.
