Exactly one year and one day ago today we published our look at GrepBeat’s Top Stories Of 2024—wherein you, the readers, elevated a foster care solution, multiple fashion apps, the formation of LiLa, and, of course, those ELF vehicles (which dominated our top stories two years in a row).
(Cliche warning in effect) It’s hard to believe another year is already in the books (Warning reduced to watch) but as we prepare to shut the door on 2025, it’s time to look back at the stories that topped the site this time around. As a reminder, last year we tweaked the “Top Stories” format to focus not just on total views but on a combination of strength out of the gate, total views, and staying power. (This gives popular stories published later in the year a fair shake at making The List.)
Based on this vaguely explained pseudo-formula, the following stories were our top performers of 2025. (And once you’ve given them a look, read on for some more fun notes on all-time performance, sub-categories, GrepBeat readers abroad, and more).
Here now are the top 20 stories, with (as always) some added color for the top 10.
1. Durham-Based Counterforce Health Uses AI to Appeal Insurance Claim Denials (May 20)
Perhaps fittingly, the same startup that took the grand prize (a bunch of cash in a sketchy suitcase) at Grep-a-Palooza was also the most dominant on our website. Kudos to Neal Shah and the Counterforce Health team, who not only busted out of the gate with this one but drove a long tail for the story by generating buzz (which of course leads people to find our story) all year.
2. GrepBeat Is Now Officially A Nonprofit (September 11)
I promise this isn’t just self-promotion. Actually I almost knocked it down on the list lest it seem that way. You guys just really liked hearing about our nonprofitization. Hoping never to put list and lest back to back in a sentence again. Anyway, per the image, cheers everybody!
3. Bionic Health Acquired By Thrive: Robbie Allen On The Merger And What’s Next (September 4)
We’ve talked about Bionic Health quite a bit over the years (they were even one of our 2023 Startups to Watch; good call by us, no big deal). So it’s only natural that our readers were all over this story about the company’s acquisition by Thrive.
4. Want Better Sleep? Wilmington’s Nuream And Its Tech-Enabled Fabric Can Help (January 22)
I’m going out on a limb and suspecting that “Want better sleep?” was an attractive hook. But what Nuream is actually working on—designing pillowcases and other fabric to monitor and improve sleep habits—is well worth reading about.
5. The Download: Bill Spruill, Founder & Managing Partner, 2ndF (April 15)
For The Download in 2025, Brooks Malone made a decision to focus on influential figures who have passed through CED at one point or another. Each of these stories generated its share of buzz, but Bill Spruill came out on top.
6. Cary’s FYTT Brings Innovative Sports Science Software To Athletics (October 7)
Sports sells, so it’s no wonder so many of you clicked on and engaged with this story about a Utah-slash-Cary-based startup that’s aiming to revolutionize sports performance training through individualized athlete data. (The Chicago Cubs, University of Louisville athletics, and more agree with you that this is interesting stuff!)
7. Charlotte’s Dexit Is Revolutionizing Digital Estate Planning With DEXITPLAN™ (October 2)
Apparently a lot of you were very keen to read up on how to set up post-death plans for your digital accounts, assets, etc. Fair enough—it’s a useful service. But, you know… live your lives.
8. Raleigh-Based Afuse Helps Incoming College Students Connect (May 27)
Exhibit number 4,352,713 that people are eager to find ways to forge genuine connections. Afuse is helping incoming college students do it in a way that’s built to last.
9. Eight Startups Selected To Pitch For $5K Prize At Grep-a-Palooza 2025 (May 13)
This is a legitimate inclusion, by the numbers and aforementioned pseudo-formula. But it’s also a nice way to feature eight more startups among our Top Stories. Go check ’em out.
10. “Keurig for Pills”: Wilmington Startup Builds Automatic Medication Dispenser (January 29)
CareHome head honcho AJ Trelease has been among the most notably hustling founders in our network this year. The effort has kept his startup in conversations and kept this story busy. Hopefully rounding out our top 10 serves as a nice feather in the CareHome cap.
Here are stories 11-20:
11. Eye On The Ball: Durham’s Ver Coaching Trains Athletes’ Vision With VR (February 6)
12. Duke Startup Showcase Standout Personalizes Wealth Building (June 19)
13. Durham’s Focus Cubes Helps Employees Build Resilience And Avoid Burnout (February 20)
14. Venture Connect 2025 — Highlights, Takeaways, And Photos (March 28)
15. Charlotte-Based Path Creates AI-Powered Virtual Home Tours (July 2)
16. NEW’s Second Annual #910 Day Packs Ironclad Brewing In Wilmington (September 11)
17. Charlotte’s Capwave Helps Founders Secure Seed Funding (August 18)
18. Durham’s Trayecto Gives Young Tech Professionals Better Financial Advice (April 3)
19. Charlotte’s Auditrol Helps Banks Manage Regulatory Risks (June 19)
20. UNC Launches New AI-Enabled Accelerator With International Firm KPMG (April 3)
More Fun Facts
For the second year running, the top 20 stories you just read about came from a combination of seven writers. This time around those writers were Tori Newby, Taylor Motley, Michael Melton, Temiloluwa Alagbe, Kaitlyn Dang (“Legacy Kaitlyn” as she’s known at GrepBeat HQ), Brooks Malone (who contributes The Download), and myself (snuck in with a few event recaps and such).
Page views on the site were up double-digit percentage points—and more than 10,000 raw views—over 2024. The busiest month on the site was September, which you may have noticed produced two of the top-three stories of the year within a one-week span. May came in second, narrowly edging out June. You all seem to have listened when I scolded you for tuning out in July in last year’s Top Stories piece, because it got a little boost…. But August was the slowest month, so you still worked in your summer lull. Understandable I suppose, if you’re not into catching up on startup news from your beach blanket.
I should also acknowledge that this was our first full year covering the entire state. While we remain as focused on the Triangle as ever (there’s nothing we’re skipping in order to cover stories elsewhere), we were thrilled to see some of our Wilmington and Charlotte stories making the list above.
As for where people are reading from, the three countries that accounted for the most GrepBeat visitors outside of the U.S. were, in order, India, the UK, and Canada (same as last year). Exploring the map, we noticed that we also welcomed multiple verified intentional readers from countries all over the world, including Burundi, Cyprus, Latvia (they love us in Latvia) and the Cayman Islands, to name a few. There was even a lone reader in Gibraltar, which is the formal name of a Large British Rock in Spain.
In addition to looking at how this year’s stories performed and where our readers came from, we also take a look each December at some of the all-time numbers. This tends to reveal at least one piece from a previous year demonstrating unusual staying power, and 2025 was no different. Our 2024 story on the since-acquired startup Styl actually outstripped everything we posted this year (just as a 2022 write-up on Organic Transit was the most-read article in 2023).
The most-read story in GrepBeat history continues to be 2018’s Cary-based CEO Swam With Sharks and Lived to Tell Tale of Deal. Naturally the Shark Tank association helps, but at this point I’m throwing down a gauntlet: Somebody inspire an article that can shake up the GrepBeat charts. 2018 was a long time ago. (My money’s on Swift Alert, if they can secure The Greatest Endorsement In History.)
Here are the most-read stories from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
Thank you all for your enthusiastic readership and constant support. It was our pleasure to deliver these and many more pieces throughout the year, and we’ll bring you more terrific stories in 2026!
