Zach Cioffi

Throughout the journey that’s led Diane Durance to her new role as director of UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), connectivity has always been her mission.    From starting her own telecommunications engineering firm to leading a nonprofit that supports tech ventures throughout Michigan, Durance understands entrepreneurship as both founder and collaborator, and thus the need for continual symbiosis between those spheres.    Hired by the CIE in June 2016, Durance’s greatest challenge will be to translate her abilities to a Wilmington startup scene that is both promising yet fragmented. She’ll start by luring a national aquaculture innovation event...

From November 9 to 13, the present and future of North Carolina business mingled in downtown Wilmington during Cucalorus Connect.  Keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, pitch competitions, and social events were held at Ironclad Brewery, The Blind Elephant speakeasy, Bourgie Nights, and Expo 216 specialty museum.  The business conference originally began in Asheville in 2002 as Carolina Connect, then moved to Wilmington in 2014 as UNCW’s Coastal Connect conference. Last year, the conference was rechristened Cucalorus Connect as a partnership between UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), tekMountain, and the Cucalorus Film Festival, which celebrated its 22nd anniversary this past week.  Since...

When we first reported on Mimijumi almost a year ago, the baby bottle maker had recently undertaken a vast expansion of production capabilities. Though not yet ready to go public with partnership specifics, the company is looking to make its leap into the mainstream market.  Since investing in Mimijumi in mid-2014, Seahawk Innovation, LLC, an early stage investor and incubator based in UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has taken control of the bottle maker’s daily operations and moved assembly and distribution to Wilmington. Online sales quadrupled in 2015.  That upward trend could very well continue as the global baby...

During the 2016 Results Junkies Tech Tour stop in Wilmington, venture investors Paul Singh and Anthony Pompliano offered local founders a crash course in fundraising. During their chat at Ironclad Brewery, they focused on defining venture investment vs. other funding sources, while giving advice on the most investor-friendly ways to pitch a business. These two know what they’re talking about.  Singh, a former partner at 500 Startups, founder of Disruption Corporation, and now publisher of Results Junkies, has been in the game for a while. Pompliano, former Sergeant in the U.S. Army who recently announced his new Raleigh-based fund, Full Tilt...

36 cities. 24,000 miles. One Airstream travel trailer.  When venture capitalist Paul Singh arrived in Wilmington, NC, on Monday his reputation preceded him. Partner at global seed fund and startup accelerator 500 Startups. Founder at Disruption Corporation, an asset management & financial services firm that was acquired by global incubator and seed fund 1776, where Singh then served as managing director for a short time. Publisher of Results Junkies, a weekly newsletter/blog where Singh compiles a insights on venture capital, growing startups, small businesses, photography and travel.  When Singh, his wife Dana and their yellow lab Jack left Washington,...

For a sculptor, the statue awaits him inside the stone. For Pete Duncan, inside a block of wood waits your new pair of sunglasses.    Cut from some of the most sought-after timber in the world—Georgia black cherry, Virginia black locust, Pennsylvania oak, New York maple and black walnut from western North Carolina—Legacy Eyewear frames offer not just a different style and feel, but an identity as rich and storied as their land of origin.    A Wilmingtonian for almost a decade, Duncan believes his business concept meshes with the town’s blend of natural and human history, where the laid...

When people talk about business opportunity in North Carolina, they’re typically referring to the strong business communities in Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area. But thanks to a blooming innovation ecosystem in southeastern NC, that is starting to change.    Here’s a list of eight game-changer companies riding the wave out of Wilmington and into the rest of the world:    Connected Investors  Because real estate investment is naturally a network-oriented space, where buyers, sellers and investors come together to make a deal, Ross Hamilton hoped to translate this system digitally to increase the number of opportunities and connections.  This...