Startup founders—and everyone else in the Triangle tech ecosystem—are invited to the third annual Raleigh-Durham Startup Week on April 9-12 (Tuesday-Friday), with the first two days held in Durham and the last two in Raleigh.
Over the course of the four-day conference, founders will have the opportunity to hear keynote speakers, engage in workshops and network with each other and the rest of the Triangle startup community. Events will be held at multiple locations in both cities, but the majority of the Durham events will be at American Underground and the Raleigh events at Raleigh Founded’s 509 W North St. location.
“We just want to help founders succeed—period,” said Chris Heivly, cofounder of RDSW. “And we want to reduce as much friction to that success as possible.”
Registration for the event is completely free, and Heivly suggests all attendees use the event’s Whova app to pre-register for the specific sessions they would like to attend in order to secure their spots. Each workshop will last 45 minutes with a 15-minute break between sessions.
As a retired entrepreneur, Heivly is sympathetic to the founder journey, which he has lived through himself. He said he is aware of all the challenges that founders face when starting a company, so he hopes the free admission eliminates at least one obstacle.
This year, Heivly said the biggest change to the conference is that there is a content track specifically for “tweeners,” or startups that are working on scaling their companies. The “tweener” name was dubbed by Spiffy CEO and serial entrepreneur Scot Wingo when he compiled his first Triangle Tweener List in 2015, looking to highlight Triangle startups that have reached key milestones of $1M in annual revenue (ARR) or 10 employees and are trying to scale into much larger companies. (Tweeners then “graduate” off the list at $80M ARR or 500 employees, or if they are acquired.)
The tweener-focused content is the Scale Track, the third of the three main tracks. The other two are the Idea Track and the Build Track, with content geared toward even earlier-stage startups.
Over 25 of the guest speakers and workshop leaders are from outside of the Triangle, and Heivly said it is beneficial for founders to hear from those with unique experiences.
One speaker to note is Techstars’ John Hill, who travels over 200 days a year to different tech ecosystems around the world. Presenting in the “Scale” track for the tweener companies, he will be speaking on April 9 at 4 p.m. about the “Power of the Network” and how to use online tools to fundraise more efficiently.
Another keynote speaker is Anna Wilson, a Duke adjunct professor who has previously held positions at DoorDash, Pandora and Google. She will share her insights on applying lessons from Silicon Valley at 1 p.m. on April 9.
Heivly said the speakers are encouraged to gear their sessions toward a workshop rather than a speech to allow the speakers to interact with the founders and help them work through potential problems.
Evening events
There are also multiple evening events to keep the networking going. On Wednesday, April 10, RDSW will sponsor the Tweener List Awards at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, where Wingo and fellow Tweener Fund general partner Robbie Allen will unveil the latest iteration of the Tweener List and present awards to startups on the list. (There’s a separate registration for this event.)
Other special events during the week include GrepBeat’s Happy Hour on April 9 at Bull McCabe’s in Durham—you can register here—and another happy hour in Raleigh at Flour & Barrel Brewing on Thursday, April 11.
RDSW will introduce founders to mentors, investors and other tech startup professionals. There will be opportunities for investor matchmaking, where founders can sign up to meet investors. Lawyers have also volunteered to provide office hours for founders to get guidance on legal matters.
“Not that you couldn’t get this information or get these connections on your own, but instead of it taking a year to get them, you can get them in four days – because we’re pulling everyone together at the same time,” Heivly said.
