Joe and WRAL TechWire’s Chantal Allam rejoined Pete this week to host the latest edition of The Friday Nooner, sponsored by Dualboot Partners. Or, as Pete said, they got “back in the saddle.” The three talked about recent funding rounds in the Triangle, what characters they would be on The Office, and Pete’s experiences in TV “green rooms.”
Our featured guest this week was Krista Covey, president of First Flight Venture Center (FFVC). First Flight is an incubator for science-based startups in RTP. They offer offices and labs for startups to work out of, as well as community support, resources, funding opportunities, and mentorship. [Krista was also a subject of a Download Q&A last May.]
Here are some highlights:
- Pete talks about his experiences in TV green rooms. At the time, he was a “celebrity juror” (his words) coming off the high-profile Tyco trial and recalls a Good Morning America representative trying to recruit him to appear on their show—all while sitting in a rival network’s green room. Pete also said he was in a green room with financial journalist Michael Lewis, who apparently was rude to him. [Editor’s Note: You can read Pete’s first-hand account of the Tyco trial that he wrote for Time the night it ended—after six months.]
- Chantal said Pete reminds her of Toby Flenderson from the NBC sitcom The Office. Not exactly a compliment.
- The three discussed Durham-based workplace automation startup Wrangle’s closed pre-seed funding round of $2M. (Here’s GrepBeat’s story from Wednesday.) This led into a long thread about how Joe, once upon a time, created a data-science company called Wrangle Labs. In short, Joe feels as though “the Adams” allegedly took the name for their startup from Wrangle Labs (which, to be clear, no longer exists) in a manner that Joe kept calling “weird.”
- First Flight Venture Center recently celebrated three decades as an incubator. Krista talked about her experience moving to the Triangle during the pandemic, how the incubator supports itself, and upcoming real estate plans for FFVC.
Thanks again to our sponsor, Dualboot! Watch the full episode on Facebook here or on LinkedIn here.
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