In today’s episode of The Friday Nooner, Joe and Pete break down the latest in Triangle tech news and bring on the show’s first-ever guest, Sarah Leners of Bull City Venture Partners. (We’re confident that Sarah is the only Triangle VC with an imdb page as an actress.) Watch the full episode recording to see Joe’s “pheasant coat” and hear a special announcement related to the inaugural “Greppys” award show on April 22, sponsored by Dualboot.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
- A story from CNN this morning claimed IPOs—especially tech IPOs—are still very hot. Listen starting at 4:20 to hear Joe and Pete’s two cents (four cents?) on the importance of IPOs in the Triangle tech ecosystem. On the one hand, having big tech companies headquartered here is always a good thing, and IPOs tend to be a proxy for that. However, IPOs are not the holy grail or end-all-be-all that the media sometimes portrays them as and smaller companies are crucial to have headquartered here as well, Joe said.
- The Triangle is home to multiple VCs (Cofounders Capital, IDEA Fund Partners, etc). Special guest Sarah Leners of Bull City Venture Partners said they differentiate themselves in part by “betting on the jockey, not the horse.” A big part of their thesis is investing in founders who are serial entrepreneurs and/or have a deep industry knowledge. (14:10)
- The gang talked about the Rise Of The Rest “tour stop” in the Triangle that would be held at 4pm today (Friday) on the new-ish, invite-only audio app Clubhouse. Rise Of The Rest is the name of a seed fund from AOL Founder Steve Case’s Revolution VC, but it’s also the more colloquial name for its investment thesis that there are great—and maybe even better—deals to be made outside Silicon Valley, Boston, NY and other coastal hubs. Markets like, say, the Triangle.
- This episode is full of Friday Nooner firsts, including the first live trivia question and winner of a GrepBeat pint glass. (Congrats to loyal viewer Jim Roberts.) Listen starting at minute 28:00 to see if you would have gotten it right, and tune in live next Friday to participate in the next trivia contest and potentially win a glass of your own!
Watch the recording on Facebook Live:
Or on YouTube: