Laura Baverman

A Transplant’s Take On Triangle Startups, and What ExitEvent Has To Do With It

Posted by Laura Baverman | Feb 3, 2014

So, I’m from Ohio. Cincinnati actually. And it won’t take longer than 10 minutes of conversation for me to relate a business, person, landmark, food or product back to my hometown in some way, much to the dismay of my Floridian husband. I introduce myself this way because it’s taken some time for me to feel love for the Triangle like I feel for home. But when Adam Klein called me six weeks ago and offered me an opportunity that would connect me even more to this place, something hit me. I actually like it here. And Adam’s pitch...

Entrepreneurs Have Biological Clocks, Too

Posted by Laura Baverman | Oct 13, 2013

Aaron Dinin is a Duke grad and author of two books. He’s also a web developer and co-founder of RocketBolt, a website plugin that automates the process of increasing online engagement. RocketBolt is in the current class of The Startup Factory. Ask even the most disinterested technology observers to summarize the allure of building tech startups, and they’d only need a day of reading TechCrunch and Hacker News to tell you about glamorous concepts like investor pitches, multi-million-dollar raises, and nine-figure exit events [1]. In the shadow of all those things that make tech startups sexy, I’m going to...

Windsor Circle Closes $1MM Series A Round: Lessons Learned

Posted by Laura Baverman | Dec 18, 2012

Windsor Circle, a Durham-based retention marketing startup, is one of those early-stagers that made it look easy. The four founders secured $350,000 in seed funding from IDEA Fund Partners and angel investors before they even built a product. They used those funds to hire engineers to build a platform they believed could transform the way small and medium online retailers market to their most loyal customers. By the end of 2011, they already had 10 paying customers and a convertible note worth $405,000. But then it came time to raise a Series A dollars this year, and things got...

Girl Develop It Levels Field for Lady Coders

Posted by Laura Baverman | Dec 5, 2012

Two New York women were tired of being the only female coders in the workplace, tech meetups, in life in general. So they started Girl Develop It to teach other women to code. And then word spread to other cities, and more women began hosting classes in CSS, HTML, WordPress and more. Sydney, Austin, Detroit, Ottawa, Cincinnati…. and now Raleigh/Durham. Raleigh native Rachael Hobbs is behind the new group, kicking off its first set of four classes January 9 at Relevance Inc. in Durham. Hobbs isn’t necessarily a feminist, but the reality is that her efforts could be a...

College Grads Forgo the Fortune 500 for the Inc 500

Posted by Laura Baverman | Nov 19, 2012

I always get excited when I meet young college grads who skipped the campus job fair to give their own business idea a chance. Wake Forest grads John Kirkpatrick and Ryan Edwards are betting Campus Grumble will let them avoid the corporate life. The Charlotte residents have spent the months since May graduation building a platform that lets students and administrators solve campus issues in real time. They were recently invited to pitch the business at Raleigh’s Startup Summit and at the SHAPE Charlotte Competition last week. Their goal is for campus problems — with food, parking, exams, or...

East and West Coast VCs Are Eager to Invest in Raleigh and Durham Startups

Posted by Laura Baverman | Nov 5, 2012

Jason Caplain, the well known local venture capitalist, a partner at Southern Capitol Ventures, has opened his address book for this year’s Startup Summit, which kicks off today at the Raleigh Convention Center. His hope is to introduce smart Triangle area entrepreneurs to sophisticated investors from around the nation and world, helping to solve this region’s capital drought. Caplain will moderate a Wednesday morning panel with VC-recruits like Laura Witt of ABS Capital Partners in Baltimore and Silicon Valley and Dayna Grayson of NEA in Washington D.C. ABS is a past investor in Cobalt and Sequel and current funder...

The Benchmark Study for N.C.'s Future in Entrepreneurship

Posted by Laura Baverman | Sep 19, 2012

If the first half of 2013 was all about IPOs in North Carolina’s startup community, then the second half was all about venture capital. A 2013 Innovators Report published this morning by CED totaled North Carolina’s 2013 investments, grants and awards at $461.2 million from 108 unique sources. For the first half of 2013 (according to the inaugural Innovators Report last August), the state’s startups raised $203 million from 49 (disclosed) investors. The second half uptick gives a glimmer of hope to this year’s lackluster venture capital tally. In the first quarter of 2014, Triangle-area venture capital investments totaled...

The Benchmark Study for N.C.’s Future in Entrepreneurship

Posted by Laura Baverman | Sep 19, 2012

If the first half of 2013 was all about IPOs in North Carolina’s startup community, then the second half was all about venture capital. A 2013 Innovators Report published this morning by CED totaled North Carolina’s 2013 investments, grants and awards at $461.2 million from 108 unique sources. For the first half of 2013 (according to the inaugural Innovators Report last August), the state’s startups raised $203 million from 49 (disclosed) investors. The second half uptick gives a glimmer of hope to this year’s lackluster venture capital tally. In the first quarter of 2014, Triangle-area venture capital investments totaled...

Posts by Laura Baverman