Venture Capital

NC IDEA Announces Fall 2012 Startup Grant Winners

Posted by Joe Procopio | Nov 29, 2012

The last time I wrote about NC IDEA handing out up to $50K to deserving startups, I put the rest the idea that it’s the best kept secret in the North Carolina startup scene. It’s just no longer a secret. Too much good has come of it and too many viable companies have gotten their start thanks to NC IDEA. It’s also evolving. While the notable trend from the last semester was that three of the five startups chosen had recently finished cycles at Triangle Startup Factory or Groundwork Labs, only one current recipient is a TSF grad. In...

Spreading the Startup Gospel

Posted by Joe Procopio | Nov 13, 2012

It’s my intention that this is as close to a traditional blog post that I’ll ever do in the pages of ExitEvent. Self-serving? Sure. But everyone does that now, so I’m jumping off the proverbial bridge with them. Anyway, I got a call from the Raleigh News and Observer asking if I’d like to write about startups. 1st thing I said: “Yes” 2nd thing I said: “Wait. You’ve read me, right?” I’ve never considered myself a journalist. First of all, I don’t have the time or inclination to do all that they do. But more importantly, I’m not really...

108 Reasons to Rethink N.C. Startup Capital

Posted by Joan Siefert | Sep 19, 2012

Joan Siefert Rose has spent six years as president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, considered the oldest and largest entrepreneurial support organization in the country. She previously worked in commercial and public broadcasting. No capital for startups in North Carolina? I can give you more than 100 reasons to think otherwise. The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) recently released its 2013 Innovators Report showing that investment in tech, life science, and advanced materials companies in the state was more robust and diverse than you might imagine. We found that 108 separate funders did 260 deals in North Carolina...

The Top Two Things Early Stage Startups Need the Most

Posted by Joe Procopio | Jul 22, 2012

Back in April, I was driving home from an all-too-rare vacation, obviously thinking about work and ignoring the faint dialogue of the 20th in-car showing of Despicable Me when I got hit with inspiration. Build a machine that would allow me to shrink and steal the moon. No. The next night would be that month’s ExitEvent Startup Social, and I decided to take the last-minute liberty of putting up a poster board and handing out sharpies, asking for everyone to list, modify, or agree or disagree with the top three things our Startup Ecosystem needed. I use that capitalization...

Raleigh's Knowledge Tree Raises $4.75 Million Series B Round

Posted by Joe Procopio | Jul 9, 2012

I haven’t seen or heard the South African accent of one Daniel Chalef in a very long time. Now I know why. Fittingly enough, the last time we chatted was in downtown Raleigh for the Innovate Raleigh kickoff back in January. Yesterday, his Glenwood South-based KnowledgeTree announced the closing of a $4.75 million Series B round, featuring local VCs River Cities Capital and Hatteras Venture Partners, along with DC-based Core Capital Partners and Series A lead Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa. So all is forgiven. KnowledgeTree does SaaS document management for mid-to-enterprise level companies with a social twist. Born in...

Durham's PlotWatt Raises $3 Million Series A Round

Posted by Joe Procopio | Jul 4, 2012

I hadn’t actually met Luke Fishback until a couple weeks ago, totally unrelated to this story, when he happened to be lurking at the StatSheet offices either having just wrapped up or having just politely refused a ping-pong deathmatch. But I’ve been following PlotWatt’s course for over a year. StatSheet and PlotWatt both presented at Tech Jobs Under the Big Top in May, 2011. And I was intrigued enough by their presentation, professional and smooth with just the right amount of passion and geekery (after all, these are scientists), to introduce myself to Daniel Arneman and strike up a...