Today’s episode of The Friday Nooner comes with all the usual fun and local news highlights, plus a little bit of magic. As in, CEO of Levitate Jesse Lipson is the guest, and he gives the lowdown on what his company should be called (the gist: for everyone inside the company, it’s Real Magic, but for everyone outside it’s Levitate).
Here are some of the episode’s highlights:
- In case you missed it in the newsletter, the GrepBeat Happy Hour is back! Come on down to Bull McCabe’s in downtown Durham from 5-7pm on Thursday, June 10. Locals and newcomers to the Triangle tech community alike are invited to mix and mingle, so come one, come all! (Register here)
- In local-ish news, the entrepreneurial support organization NEW (Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington), created by Jim Roberts, celebrated its 6th anniversary this week. Wilmington’s tech ecosystem is definitely gaining recognition, especially as a fintech center after the recent IPO of Live Oak Bank-backed nCino. The lights will get even brighter when the PBS TV show Start-Up features four entrepreneurs from the Wilmington area for its upcoming season. (13:00)
- There’s a lot of buzz surrounding Apple’s upcoming arrival to the Triangle and expected creation of 3,000 jobs, and rightfully so. But especially for people living and working in or near downtown Durham, a more immediate change will be Google’s imminent creation of up to 1,000 jobs downtown in the Durham ID building. (Pete wondered aloud if that will that mean longer lines at Toast during lunch. Ugh!) (16:00)
- Guest Jesse Lipson—who amongst many other things founded ShareFile, which was acquired by Citrix—explained that the mission behind Levitate is to facilitate authentic, personal outreach for relationship-based businesses and their clients (i.e. more personal than an email marketing campaign). Politely demanding answers, Joe and Pete ask for an explanation behind the confusion (in Pete’s addled mind anyway) surrounding the company’s true name. Lipson explains that, internally, it’s referred to as Real Magic, but for all outsiders, it’s Levitate. Fun fact: Lipson said the names of the company’s products will all have some connection to magic, hence the name Levitate. Watch starting at minute 29:00 to see Lipson’s levitating household decoration as well as hear Joe regale a childhood story involving a magic trick and a rabbit.
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