CED’s annual Venture Connect conference took place this week here in the Bull City, taking over the Durham Performing Arts Center for the first time. Following a handful of Monday kick-off gatherings, the bulk of the event was spread across a jam-packed Tuesday-Wednesday agenda.
GrepBeat was honored to be on site as a media partner, and while our team is still catching its collective breath (along with much of the NC startup and tech community, I’m sure), it’s now time to recap the action.
So without further ado, for those who want to relive the event or catch up on whey missed, here’s our look back at Venture Connect 2026.
Tuesday (Day 1)
Opening Remarks
After an hour or so of breakfast, coffee, and networking, attendees filed into the DPAC auditorium to see the program get rolling. That started by way of a chain of introductions and brief remarks: CED’s marketing maestra Katelin Wheeler (who will now presumably update her title on LinkedIn) welcomed the crowd and introduced (jokingly, a production of “Wicked” starring) Jay Bigelow, who, after a few words on CED and the conference, brought on Durham Mayor Leo Williams with a Bull City welcome for out-of-town guests.
New(-ish) CED CEO Alex Bloom next took to the stage to introduce himself at his own first-ever Venture Connect, as well as to go over a string of impressive conference numbers (over 1,000 registered, over 100 presenting companies, and roughly 200 investors and 400 founders on site). At roughly 8:39, nine minutes into the opening session, he mentioned AI, setting a verified* global record for restraint on such mentions at tech conferences since January 1, 2025.
*unverified
Opening Keynote
From there we rolled into the opening keynote, delivered by Robert Tercek and his resplendent silver mane, the likes of which even theatrical productions on the DPAC stage cannot hope to match. Tercek’s (excellent) talk revolved around the theme of dematerialization leading to rematerialization, and where in that process we are.
Key Insights:
- Whatever can be vaporized will be vaporized (he uses the word interchangeably with dematerialization)
- Current AI is a “brain in a jar,” unable to fully understand the world
- For forward-looking innovations in physical AI, he recommends the pitch, “We replace what is physical with intelligence and then we harness that to create a better world.”
Robert Tercek’s session continued with a conversation with Chloë Domergue, Principal Human Capital at Deloitte, who spoke primarily about human roles amidst AI integration, and the need for intentionality regarding the subject.
Startup Presentations: Human Health – Biotech & Medtech
- Baritone Health
- Corit Medical
- excelENT, Inc.
- Galaxy Diagnostics
- Redbud Labs
- RESTEC Solutions, LLC
- SonoVascular
- VC Biomedical
Startup Presentations: Early-Stage Technology Companies
- Afuse
- Trinitite
- Citrus Oncology
- DayOf
- FlightSuite.ai
- Home Dock
- Meridian Performance Systems
- Mindr
- Nearby Nearby
- Boundless Science
- Anatra
Startup Presentations: Software Innovation
- Beam Dynamics
- Futureproof
- Jobvious
- Kilsar, Inc.
- OneCare
- Roboro
- Scale Social AI
- Solvrays
Startup Presentations: Early-Stage Life Science Companies
- Artemis Immersive (VoxScan)
- Coprata
- Quellios
- Scyntek
- SonoVoice
- Tessefi Medical Solutions
- Totality Bio-Sciences
- Challenging Forces
- Nuvai Medical Technologies
Startup Presentations: Science for a Healthier Planet
- Druid Agriculture
- Rooted-in-Tech
- Soteria Formulations
- Upstream Biotechnology
- ALORA
- Atlantic Fish Co.
Speaker Session: “From Scale to Sale: Building Leverage Before You Need It”
This session was delivered in the DPAC President’s Club by five-time exited founder Tyson Nargassans, who most recently served as CEO of Slope Software (and is a Founder in Residence at CED). Presented as “One Founder’s Learnings,” the session was an opportunity to learn about that “scale to sale” process in the title, as well as simply to glean nuggets from Nargassans’s specific experience securing five exits.
Key Insights:
- “There’s a moment in every deal where I’ve thought it was going to fall apart.”
- “I celebrate the win for the night and then the next day I get up and get back to work,” Nargassans said, essentially recommending a common sports mentality (and, indeed, characterizing himself as a “sports guy.” Fun fact, Nargassans is also a basketball coach at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, a once hated rival of yours truly but that’s neither here nor there).
- Nargassans also offered some advice that’s wise for everyone—not just scaling founders: Don’t mentally spend money before it is in your account.
Speaker Session: “Is Your Board Keeping You Up at Night?”
Held at NanaSteak (connected to DPAC), this session took the form of a conversation with and between Teamworks Co-Founder Mitch Heath and Jenn Summe, of our own (sister company) Primordial Ventures. From the founder side and the investor side, respectively, they offered their advice to founders and investors on how to run an effective board. Each of them provided a “top five,” with some of the most interesting takeaways being the following:
Key Insights:
- In addition to setting up your board to add value, Heath recommended questioning why they’re involved and playing to their reasons strategically.
- Summe noted that if founders are enthusiastic and don’t raise red flags, she’ll not only be personally interested but also more likely to keep you top of mind when speaking with other investors.
- “Invest in board member onboarding.” (Heath)
- “Reward honesty, don’t bark at people, and respect and be okay with them telling you things that are hard to hear.” (Summe)
Startup Presentations: Next-Gen Hardware & Deep Tech
- AxNano
- Blue Sky Robotics
- Carolina Instruments
- CrossFire Technologies
- Extellis Incorporated
- iOrganBio
- MITHRILAI CORP.
- Natural Negative Ltd.
Startup Presentations: Early-Stage Technology Companies
- NexStratus
- OpenScope
- Path Intelligence
- REAP AI
- Luxar AI
- Swik AI
- Valuable
- VS Connects & Virtual Storefronts by USpace
- CareHome Health Solutions
- Genesis 1
- Squadies
Tech Investor Panel
This was an insightful session moderated by Peter Franconi (Fulcrum Equity Partners) and featuring four investors: Kevin Mosley (Jurassic Capital), Colin Connolly (Singlewire Software and PSG), Paige Soya (K Street Capital), and Nolan Young (Nashville Capital Network). These panelists went layers deeper than the generic or surface-level bits of advice one often hears, speaking from experience and revealing, ultimately, what they do and don’t want to hear from founders they’re assessing.
Key Insights:
- “If you have all the answers, you probably don’t have all the answers.” (Our old pal Kevin Mosley)
- “Founders try to imply that the amount of time they’ve spent on something is why it’s better.” (Soya, explaining that this is something founders often harp on that is not a relevant factor to her)
- “We’re looking for a founder type who can be the primary salesperson [for the product] for the foreseeable future.”
- “TAM. Spend a little less time on that slide.” (Mosley, responding to the question of what founders think investors care about more than the investors actually do)
Speaker Session: “Early Exits & Transaction Ready”
This session in the DPAC President’s Club was run by Kelli Luginbuhl (former CEO of Isolere Bio, Founder in residence at CED), Giles Shih (former CEO of BioResource International Inc.), and Sara Townsend (Founder, Willow Tree Strategic Life Solutions). The three of them tapped into their combined professional experiences to discuss, not only exits in general but, as Shih put it, “selling your life science company with intention and clarity.”
Key Insights:
- “My team had to navigate not being able to come to me directly with problems and instead had to deal with it. That’s the shift in culture you need to be ready for.” (Luginbuhl)
- Shih shared that it was jarring, following an exit, to suddenly not have a job, and to watch the company culture evolve from the outside. He also discussed having had a “number” going in that he wanted to sell for in order to secure his family’s future.
- “I felt like I had two jobs: I was running the company and was also embedded in the suite of another,” Townsend said, discussing what she learned about handling post-transaction integration.
GrepBeat’s Venture Connect After-Party
Following all that Day 1 action, it was time for GrepBeat to play its part by hosting the After-Party just around the corner at Tobacco Road Sports Café. We were thrilled to see 200-plus of you show up (most straight from the conference but some simply joining us for the Happy Hour).
A final thank-you to the sponsors who helped us organize (and covered the first drink for many of you), Big Pixel, JP Morgan, and Lavoie CPA. Thanks as well to Corey Truesdale, who was once again on hand to photograph the event. Here’s a look at some of the excellent, as always, photos he captured (Day 2 recap below).
Wednesday (Day 2)
Day 2 Kickoff: Dealroom Sizes Up the Triangle Ecosystem
Fresh off his Day 1 production of “Wicked,” Jay Bigelow was back on the main stage to rally the crowd (a portion of which may have been a wee bit snoozy following what may have been some late-running after-parties the night before). He also offered an introduction of Dealroom before welcoming the company’s Founder, Yoram Wijngaarde, and Bill Spruill (First Speaker, 2ndF) for a kind of info session-slash-fireside chat.
Wijngaarde jumped right into a breakdown of some of the Triangle growth figures measured by Dealroom, covering some general statistics and trends before sitting for a chat with Spruill and welcoming a little bit of audience Q&A.
Key Insights:
- “We would put this region in the breakout stage… on part with Seattle and Los Angeles, kind of on its way up.” (Wijngaarde)
- Wijngaarde listed space, defense, robotics, energy, and cybersecurity as sectors breaking through in the Triangle.
- “Startups are companies designed to grow fast.” (Wijngaarde, in response to Spruill’s prompt to define what exactly differentiates a startup)
- “The conversion from startup to scale-up to breakout is really good here.” (Wijngaarde)
- “The number of allumni startups [in the Triangle] that ultimately start a startup is extremely high; it’s basically in the top eight in the country.” (Wijngaarde)
Startup Presentations: Next-Gen Hardware & Deep Tech
- Morphos AI
- Onda Vision Technologies
- PolyPV
- NALA Membranes
- SwabBot Solutions, Inc.
- Utilyst
- Uviquity
- Windlift
- SkyMul
Around the same time that this startup presentation session was going on, there was concurrent programming in both the DPAC President’s Club and at NanaSteak. In the former, CED facilitated a meet-up between attending students and startup talent; in the latter, Chloë Domergue returned after her Day 1 opening chat to lead a discussion titled “Collaborative Intelligence: Designing the Human x AI Workforce for Maximum Value.”
Startup Presentations: Software Innovation
- Clinware
- Coworks
- Ooga Technologies
- PETE
- Rozie Synopsis
- Sunlight
- Theralinq
Speaker Session: “How Fundraising Actually Works”
This session took place in the DPAC President’s Club and was led by Quantified Ardor Founder Lesley Ross. She offered advice for fundraising founders from a number of different angles, but spent the bulk of her time on some of the fundamentals, right down to the nuts and bolts, of presenting your startup’s case.
In simple terms the overarching messages were to present with clarity and to keep the audience (and desired relationship with said audience) front of mind. Specifically, here were the….
Key Insights:
- Keep live presentation materials light on text so that you aren’t competing with your own slides. (Have a separate, more text-heavy version available after the fact—and perhaps a third that’s most minimalist to function as a teaser.)
- Don’t hide from investors; show them the warts (the thinking being that they’ll catch them eventually and, to call back to Jenn Summe’s points from a few session descriptions ago, honesty makes an impression).
- “An investor on your cap table is someone you have married without the option of divorce.” So, you know… think about it.
KPMG & Launch Chapel Hill Showcase
If you’re a regular GrepBeat reader, you’ve likely seen some of our past coverage on the Launch Powered by KPMG. This collaboration behind Launch Chapel Hill and, you guessed it, KPMG, started in early 2025 and is, as of this writing, working through its third cohort of primarily (but not exclusively) North Carolina startups.
This session in the DPAC President’s Club functioned as a showcase for that program as well as a specific presentation opportunity for a handful of founders from across all three cohorts to date:
- Blue Sky Robotics
- Layer IQ
- Loom3D
- Trinitite
- Beakpoint
- Pellucid
- NavAlytix
- Saku Biosciences
- Swarm
Startup Presentations: Human Health — Biotech & Medtech
- Lindy Biosciences
- Oncurie
- Phase Advance
- Selsym
- Tellus Therapeutics
Presentation Session: North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
As one with Holmesian deductive reasoning skills could glean from the title, this main stage session provided an opportunity from students from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics to present their own ideas, research, and/or budding startups. Attendees in the auditorium heard from four students in particular:
- Julianna Jones (presenting a startup revolving around 3D-printed braces for treating scoliosis)
- Anne Boafo (creating markers using fruit fly hearts to research cardiac arrest)
- Caroline Wang (working on gynecologic cancer research and therapies)
- Lucas Rodriguez Chiappetta (psoriasis research)
Startup Presentations: Science for a Healthier Planet
- Eupry
- Innatrix
- Meiogenix
- Phytoform Labs
- RCOAST
- TNT Eco Materials
- Verdia Diagnostics
- Rooted-in-Tech
Speaker Session: “From Lean Startup to the One Person Unicorn”
This was another session in the DPAC President’s Club, led by Erkang Zheng. And though Zheng is primarily known for founding JupiterOne and building it to unicorn status, the bulk of the session revolved around some of the things he’s doing with his new startup, Ariso (which GrepBeat recently wrote about).
Described on its LinkedIn profile as “your day-to-day AI player-coach,” Ariso is essentially designed to provide AI productivity assistance that enhances human performance rather than replacing it. For the latter half of this session, Zheng essentially demonstrated some examples of how “Ari,” the startup’s AI work partner, could help with day-to-day busywork. A few of those examples included handling performance reviews and recalling connections.
“We’re going to stop celebrating how busy we are and we’re going to start celebrating being human,” Zheng said as he wrapped up. “Because of AI, we can truly amplify what humans do best.”
Panel Session: “What AI in Biotech is Actually Worth“
This main stage panel was moderated by Dave Ousterout of Cape Fear Biocapital and featured three panelists: Pae Wu (General Partner, SOSV), Marcel Frenkel, PhD (Co-Founder and CEO, Ten63 Therapeutics), and Jason Burke (Chief AI & Strategy Officer, Creo).
They discussed broadly the impact (and to some extent the future, as they see it) of AI in biotech. And somewhat to the surprise of this writer, at least, they revealed some skepticism—not that AI is useful or will have an increasingly vital role in biotech, but in the utility of some of the most popular mainstream tools we see today.
Prompted toward the end of the discussion to name their favorite AI tools—outside of Claude, ChatGPT, or tools they’ve personally helped build—the panelists offered less-than-glorifying responses. Wu described the “nonsense” she’d seen generated in a recent foray into Perplexity and said she has “low trust” for a lot of the models; Frenkel half-jokingly said his “little chess AI robot” was probably his favorite (understandable, to be honest); and Burke said it was hard to choose a favorite but then singled out Cursor for content development.
Ask Me Anything: Go-To-Market
This was a session hosted by Kelly Breslin Wright (Founder and CEO, Culture Driven Sales) and Jed Carlson (CEO, RoundUp—recently covered by GrepBeat) in the DPAC President’s Club. With plenty of success in go-to-market efforts behind them, the pair took questions and ultimately supplied a number of valuable pieces of advice for attendees.
Specifically, they spent a significant portion of the session discussing how AI is changing strategies, and providing opportunities for those thinking ahead.
Key Insights:
- “The biggest thing AI does for product led growth is iteration. It lets people iterate quickly. Everyone’s smart, AI gets you ahead.” (Carlson, on AI as a tool for product development and growth)
- “With AI, switching costs are zero. If you have something someone else has, they can catch up with you more quickly now. Need to think more about customer retention alongside acquisition.” (Wright)
- “If you can’t differentiate, it’s a race to the bottom.” (Carlson)
Once this session concluded, the second full day of programming was down to concurrent “reverse pitch” sessions, during which investors take the stage to offer, in a sense, the flip side of what attendees see during startup presentations. DPAC’s main stage was devoted to early-stage investors, while the President’s Club handled the biotech side of things.
From there it was time for closing remarks. CED CEO Alex Bloom returned to the stage to cap off the conference and, crucially, thank the CED team that put it all together. That meant individual shout-outs to Preet Mankad, JP Maloney, Hunter Young, Yash Mehta, Abha Bowers, Sanjana Bharadwaj, Katelin Wheeler, Jay Bigelow, and, most crucial of all to the conference, Elaina Bade.
Cheers to all of the above for putting on a seamless conference. I talked to way too many a lot of people, and every one of them got a lot out of the experience.
As for the rest of you, it sounds like the plan is to run it back. Per Bloom, we’re looking at something in the March 22-25 range—back in Durham—for Venture Connect ’27.
