Grep-a-palooza returns for its third year on Tuesday, June 4, at the Durham Convention Center. The full-day conference will focus on early-stage tech startups in the Triangle.
We couldn’t put on Grep-a-palooza without our great sponsors, which include Robinson Bradshaw, Hutchison, Financial Symmetry, EisnerAmper, NC State, UNC, Duke, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, plus a grant from NC IDEA. You should stop by the sponsors’ tables at the event to thank them in person and learn more about them.
We’ve also received in-kind support from Elemmir (video and photography) and Better Made Easy (speaker gifts).
Here’s the full agenda:
8:30 a.m.
Registration, Coffee and Networking
9:10 a.m.
Opening Remarks
9:15 a.m.
Opening Keynote
Jes Lipson, Levitate
What It’s About: Jes Lipson is the Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based Levitate, which helps relationship-based businesses stay top-of-mind with their current and potential customers. Before that he was the Founder and CEO of ShareFile, which he bootstrapped through its 2011 acquisition by Citrix for almost $100 million dollars.
10:00 a.m.
Morning Networking Break
10:30 a.m.
Breakout Sessions #1 (choose 1)
Panel: “Building Your Dream Team”
Moderator: Jenn Summe, Primordial Ventures
Panelists: Robbie Allen, Bionic Health; Jud Bowman, Sift; Rachael Classi, Tiny Earth Toys
What It’s About: No founder or founding team can do it alone. You’ll need to sell others on your vision and convince them to come aboard to help build your startup. This session will teach you how to do that.
— OR —
Panel: “Metrics Bring All The Exits To The Yard”
Moderator: Kevin Mosley, Jurassic Capital
Panelists: Susan Cook, Zaloni; Rob Crowe, Matchwell; Justyn Kasierski, Hutchison
What It’s About: We’re going to be talking about a word that is music to the ears of founders and investors alike (especially investors)—exits. What should you be thinking about now to achieve the best exit possible down the road?
11:15 a.m.
Breakout Sessions #2 (choose 1)
Panel: “Services => Product Evolution”
Moderator: Dave Neal, Duke Capital Partners
Panelists: Meghan Corroon, Clerdata; Josh Owen, Cycle Labs; Jon Sternstein, Stern Security
What It’s About: It’s a classic startup story: founders launch a business providing services to customers, then either build a product for their own use that they believe has enough potential to make into a standalone startup; or they always planned to launch a product but started as a services business to bring in revenue to keep the lights on. These founders who took some version of that path will share their stories.
— OR —
Panel: “Alternatives to Traditional Equity Funding”
Moderator: Glen Caplan, Robinson Bradshaw
Panelists: Andrea Inokon, Cadence Cash; Zack Mansfield, Conductor Capital; Will McGuire, Incolo
What It’s About: When it comes to funding, most early-stage founders (and the rest of us) think first about equity capital from VCs/angels/friends and family. This session talks about other funding options ranging from equity crowdfunding to various kinds of debt.
12:00 p.m.
Lunch: “Birds of a feather” tables by topic (optional)
The topics/tables are:
– Edtech (with Karl Rectanus of LEARN Platform)
– Women investors (with Jenn Summe of Primordial Ventures)
– Telling your startup’s story (with John Lane of DBA.JTL Leadership Consulting)
– Getting media for your startup
– Ecommerce
– Fintech
– Healthtech
– AI
– Greentech
– Building your MVP
1:00 p.m.
Panel: “Early-Stage VC Funding Outlook”
Moderator: Hunter Young, CED
Panelists: Jason Caplain, Bull City Venture Partners; Lister Delgado, IDEA Fund Partners; Tim McLoughlin, Cofounders Capital
What It’s About: These investors will talk about both the macro (what are the funding trends in the market?) and the micro (what leads them specifically to get out their checkbook?).
1:45 p.m.
Breakout Sessions #3 (choose 1)
GrepTank Session A
Startups: Anuma Aerospace, CliniSpan Health, CivicReach.AI
Judges: Eva Doss, The Launch Place; Jenn Summe, Primordial Ventures; Daniel Coley, Cofounders Capital
— OR —
GrepTank Session B
Startups: eBoxchain, Intake Health, UNREALAI
Judges: Mark Friedman, RTP Capital; Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill, IDEA Fund Partners; Evan Shear, Oval Park Capital
2:30 p.m.
Afternoon Networking Break
3:00 p.m.
Closing Keynote
Igor Jablokov, Pryon
What It’s About: Igor Jablokov is the Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based AI-for-the-enterprise startup Pryon, which raised a $100M round last fall. He previously founded industry pioneer Yap, a voice-recognition platform that became Amazon’s first AI acquisition and served as the nucleus for the Alexa.
3:45 p.m.
Closing Remarks
4:00 p.m.
After-Party
Bull McCabe’s Irish Pub, 427 W Main St
We’d also like to thank Cherry Bekaert for awarding scholarships to send five Triangle founders from CED’s GRO Incubator to Grep-a-palooza. They are: Jim Boyte, CEO of Active Defender; Krishnanand Kamath, CEO of Carpool.School; Claire Benton, CEO of TeachBase; Andy Robinson, CEO of GxPaaS; and Ruka Osoba, CEO of Pathstitch.
