This week’s Friday Nooner kicked off with a static-y start from Pete, but soon all audio issues were addressed. Thank goodness for Joe—once an IT guy, always an IT guy. The crew started the episode discussing this week’s new For Starters episode, which featured guest Rebecca Egger, the Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based startup Little Otter Health. GrepBeat also rolled out a new Download Q&A column with Caleb Smith—the Co-Founder of Cary’s Triangle Esports Academy—and a profile on ChickTech RDU, a nonprofit focused on increasing the number of women in STEM fields.
After the GrepBeat recap, the gang also expressed excitement for Grep-a-palooza 2 on June 1. Pete tried to get Coach K as a speaker, but alas, the $70K price was just a tad too steep. At least Joe will be there, and it will only cost Joe’s usual asking price of a few beers (what a deal!). Before welcoming this week’s guest, Joe, Jackie, and Pete also touched on the Triangle Tweener Fund’s cool national publicity this week in Crunchbase for making the second most investments in the nation in January (10) behind Y Combinator—one slot ahead of VC heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz.
Today’s episode featured Gregg Bordes (yes, 3 G’s, not 2) of Front Porch Venture Partners. Here are some highlights of his appearance:
- Greg wasn’t always in the world of startups. Like Pete, he spent his earliest post-college days in investment banking and then in private equity up in New York before attending Duke’s Fuqua business school and catching the entrepreneurial bug. He joined a venture-backed data analytics startup in the space of investment research before permanently moving to N.C. and soon starting his own venture firm, Front Porch, with a few business-school buddies from Duke.
- Greg understands the struggle for investors to achieve true diversification, especially those who would like some exposure to venture investing in startups. When Joe asked whether Front Porch’s target investors were wealthy individuals, small institutions or family offices, Gregg’s short answer was: “Yes.” As for the outgoing checks that Front Porch writes, some are to venture funds throughout the Southeast (aka a “fund of funds”) and some are to individual startups, often alongside the VC firms they’ve invested in. But they do make direct investments on their own outside of that.
- The main goal of Front Porch is to “make the magic happen” for Southeast startups and VC funds. Greg and Front Porch Venture Partners hope to play the role of “connector” so they can continue bringing investment attention to the Triangle and the rest of the Southeast.
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