With 2024 just about in the books here at GrepBeat, it’s time once again for our annual look at the top stories of the year. In past years, “top stories” have been chosen solely according to total views. This year, we augmented that just a touch to give some late-breaking stories a fair shake.
The following stories were the best performers of the year based on a combination of strength out of the gate, total views, and staying power. (And once you’ve looked through them, stay tuned for a few more fun notes on top all-time stories, our terrific writers, the geographical spread of our readers, and more.)
Now—here are the top 20 stories of 2024, with (as always) some added color for the top 10.
1. Swipe For Styl: Duke Startup To Become The Tinder For Shopping (June 18)
It’s really no surprise that a startup pitching “Tinder for Fashion” turned some heads. But let’s just say people have been busily “swiping right” (sorry) on this tale of two Dukies and their mobile fashion startup pretty much every day since the story went live. (Also of note: Said Dukies recently sold Style AI! Please shower them with congratulations on social media.)
2. ELFs Off The Shelf: Cotter Back In Charge Of The Iconic, Eco-Friendly Vehicles (Feb. 6)
It’s been a long, winding road for these eco-friendly, eye-friendly, three-wheeled vehicles and their creator, Rob Cotter. This story was all about the ELFs’ resurgence—which Rob also expanded on in an appearance on the Friday Nooner in the spring.
3. “Moving it Toward a Younger Perspective”: UNC Students Lead VC Firm (Apr. 9)
This look at First Frontier Ventures touched on a bigger question that was (quite apparently!) of interest to many readers: What exactly does the next generation of investors look like?
4. Learn To Win Raises $30 Million, With Participation From Durham’s BCVP (June 13)
This was a rare Silicon Valley feature for GrepBeat—but a fitting one given that it involved two UNC grads locking in a $30M Series A with help from Bull City Venture Partners in a rare Tobacco Road alliance. Oh, and one of them played basketball at Carolina, which… I mean if that’s your thing.
5. NC State Alum Co-Founds Modi To Provide Accurate Sizing for Online Shoppers (Sept. 5)
Our story on Modi (and the founding Del Risco sisters pictured yonder) made it two style startups in the top five for 2024! (It appears many of us in the ecosystem need style advice….) This startup, though, is also on a mission to reduce fashion retail returns—and, thereby, waste.
6. For Women, By Women: Triangle Senior Leaders Open More Doors for Investing (June 27)
This June write-up covered the inception of Ladies Investing / Local Angels. LiLa was (/is) organized by our own Jenn Summe (Primordial) and Melissa Crosby (Colopy Ventures), alongside Susan Wall and Windy Kohl—and has rapidly become a go-to group for peer learning (and fun) among women investors.
7. Foster Dad Launches Sunlight to Help Reunite Foster Children with Parents (Aug. 13)
This was a particularly cool story about a founder experiencing a real-world problem and deciding to make a difference. Specifically, Ryan O’Donnell (also a recent Nooner guest) and his excellent hair (which accompanied him on the Nooner) encountered the inefficiencies of the foster care system and set up Sunlight to “strengthen America’s social safety net.”
8. GrepBeat’s 2024 Startups To Watch: Meet This Year’s Honorees (Sep. 20)
The recap of GrepBeat’s own Startups to Watch event drew a lot of eyes—presumably not because folks wanted to relive my emcee blurbs, but because they wanted to check out the honorees. So it’s only right to shout out said honorees one more time: Nimble Energy, Ooga Technologies, Simpliworks, Social Cascade, Tromml, eBoxchain, RepVue, ScoutIt, Keebler Health, aaaaaand CheQRboard!
9. Backed By $2M, Ex-JupiterOne Trio Leaves Stealth Mode With New Startup Opine (Feb. 1)
This was an awesome story that dove into the Opine team’s process of working in stealth mode (we were onto them because as part of Primordial’s portfolio they were working at GrepBeat/Primordial/Colopy HQ on occasion), securing robust pre-seed funding, and, well… starting up. CEO Akash Ganapathi (on the left) also made a Nooner appearance this year.
10. Chapel Hill Startup Brings Computer Vision to Custom Robotic Solutions (Nov. 21)
We couldn’t quite keep the robots at bay entirely. With a late-2024 burst of attention, UNC professor Steven King’s Blue Sky Robotics—which creates robots for “task-driven intelligence solutions”—earned the final spot in the year’s top 10.
Here are stories 11-20:
11. Durham-based NeedsList Acquired By Armillaria In ‘Tech For Good’ Space (Jan. 8)
12. Home Buyers Can Find their Ideal Neighborhood with Kahmino (May 21)
13. Durham Serial Entrepreneur “Unboxes” New Venture Studio for Budding Startups (Aug. 10)
14. Wake Forest Startup Connects Us Through Autonomous, Amphibious Cargo Drones (Nov. 5)
15. World’s First Wearable Breathalyzer From Raleigh-Based GreySun Technologies (Jan. 11)
16. The Download: Chris Stoecker, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank (Apr. 23)
17. ‘Hinge for Surrogacy’: Baby Bumps Offers Matchmaking for Parents and Surrogates (Jul. 2)
18. Duke MBA’s Startup Is Creating Financial Benefits For Domestic Workers In India (Feb. 8)
19. Speight Brings AxNano’s Pollution-Fighting Tech To Venture Connect (Mar. 7)
20. Two College Students’ Startup Strives To Make Greek Life Events Safer (Jan. 2)
More Fun Facts
The 20 most-read stories you just looked through were produced by seven of our excellent writers, matching a GrepBeat record set in 2023. Those writers were: Kaitlyn Dang (who wrote both of the top-two stories), Tori Newby, Hannah Kaufman, Abby Pender, Cooper Metts, Maddie Policastro, and Download maestro Brooks Malone (of EisnerAmper). I suppose I got in there as well, but mine was just the Startups To Watch recap.
Page views on the site were up double-digit percentage points over 2023. The busiest month on the site was October—which is odd, because the same month accounted for exactly zero of the top-20 stories. (I suppose it’s fitting that October just gets on base.) June came in second, narrowly edging out February, when the mighty ELFs made themselves known. July was the slowest month; everyone make a note to read more in July.
Outside of the U.S., the three countries that visited GrepBeat.com most frequently were, in order, India, the United Kingdom, and Canada. And evidently we have fans—or at least accidental visitors—from Comoros (on the left, alongside co-archipelago Mayotte), Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and New Caledonia, among other places. Gotta shout out the fans.
Finally, we have to note once more the indomitable click magnetism of Rob Cotter’s Organic Transit and its ELF vehicles. Following consecutive years in which Where Are They Now: Organic Transit’s Pedal-Powered Vehicle Had Quite A Ride was the most-read story at GrepBeat, our ELFs Off The Shelf feature was neck-and-neck with Swipe For Styl atop the 2024 leaderboard. Time will tell if any 2025 updates can keep the momentum going….
And finally, the most-read story in GrepBeat history as another year comes to a close remains: 2018’s Cary-based CEO Swam With Sharks and Lived to Tell Tale of Deal.
Here are the most-read stories from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
Thank you all—from downstairs at HQ, to homes and offices around the Triangle and Wilmington, to New Caledonia—for your readership. We’re excited to bring you more terrific stories in 2025!
