Another Friday Nooner is in the books! This week, Joe returned to the show in some amazing ForeverGrep swag and as always Jackie presented in front of a unique background.
The crew started the episode discussing how Raleigh-based Levitate recently hit $40 million in cumulative investments since its launch in 2018 after announcing a $13.75M Series C that included a check from the GrepBeat Godfather. (Here’s our story on the funding round.) Jackie also described a couple other startups GrepBeat covered this week, Blue Pencil Box and TablDA.
More GrepBeat news: Jackie premiered her bobble head; Joe announced a new technological addition to the office; AND Pete released the name of another special panelist for June 1’s Grep-a-palooza 2. Speaking of Grep-a-palooza—our Early Bird rates end this Sunday, so get your tickets now! The Early Bird rates are $149 for Startup Founders/Employees and $249 for Everyone Else. Starting on Monday May 1, the price will go up to $199 for Startups/$299 for Everyone Else.
This week’s guest was Ted Zoller, a UNC entrepreneurship professor and now also the executive director of Carolina Angel Network (CAN). Here are some highlights of their conversation.
- Ted is working to transform CAN to become an entrepreneurial rocket-booster for UNC community members.
- He hopes to build a culture of entrepreneurs through operating CAN with a UNC affiliation while also spreading the model to other universities. Ted described the specific categories of startups that most interest CAN and the check sizes and funding rounds that the angel network typically participates in.
- In addition to seeking potential investors with UNC ties to join the network, there are also opportunities for folks who are not accredited investors to get involved on a less expensive basis to learn.
- After explaining why Iceland is an entrepreneurial hotspot, Ted also described a new networking space on Franklin Street for various UNC-affiliated innovation programs including Innovate Carolina, Launch Chapel Hill and CAN. He and Joe—who earned an MBA at UNC—then discussed why UNC is a huge part of expanding the tech hub within the Triangle.
To discover all the opportunities CAN has to offer—and become part of its powerful network—you can watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.
Or on YouTube:
Auditory learners can listen (and subscribe to!) our podcast version: