Happy Tuesday!
Quick reminder that with Raleigh-Durham Startup Week right around the corner (we’ll have some preview material on Thursday), we are exactly one week out from the RDSW GrepBeat Happy Hour.
We’ll be hanging out at Bull McCabe’s on Tuesday the 21st from 5-7pm and would love to see you all there! Register here to let us know if you can make it. For this happy hour (and moving forward) we’ll be showing our appreciation to official GrepBeat supporters by covering their drinks.
What exactly is an official GrepBeat supporter? Our first blurb below is so glad you asked.
Your friendly neighborhood editor,
David
Join Us!
A bit of internal news to lead off with today: As of this week, GrepBeat has officially launched its “giving programs.”
As many of you may recall reading, GrepBeat officially became a nonprofit last fall. The move was made with an eye on growth and with full intent to double down on our mission to tell the stories of North Carolina’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today’s announcement represents a chance for our readers and those who believe in our mission to help us sustain our efforts.
You can read more here about how to become an official GrepBeat Supporter (or Founder’s Circle member) and what comes of that support.
Bots in the Bazaar
Lucid ones, as it happens. In case you’re not privy to our social activity and missed yesterday’s announcement, we’re thrilled to be welcoming Charlotte’s Lucid Botsinto the “Startup Bazaar” at the upcoming Grep-a-Palooza (fresh off a $20M Series B no less).As we’ve discussed, the Bazaar will be an interactive demo space giving attendees the chance to witness some of NC’s most innovative emerging tech up close.
For those not familiar with Lucid Bots, they’re essentially using AI and robotics to tackle challenging (and sometimes dangerous) exterior cleaning tasks. It’s pretty awesome to watch in action.
Many more Bazaar announcements to come! Grab your Early Bird Grep-a-Palooza tickets here.
Find Your Mentor
Speaking of Charlotte success stories, here’s a chance for the next one to take a leap forward: Applications are now open for the next iteration of the LaunchCLT Mentor Program. This program connects founders with teams of mentors who provide all kinds of support that can help start your startup up*
Details and applications here (applications due by April 30th).
*Retiring this phrase immediately.
Demo Night
Tonight (already!) is Demo Night for the spring cohort of the Launch Powered by KPMG accelerator. In case you’ve missed some of our coverage of this cohort up to this point, we wrote about all of the startups involved after the kick-off event (and a handful of them again as part of our recap of CED’s Venture Connect, where Launch/KPMG had a showcase).
If you want to see these founders pitch in person (and you should), the event tonight will be at the Innovate Carolina Junction in Chapel Hill from 5-8pm.
Details and registration here.
Real Funds
Yesterday, we learned that The Chernin Group has led a funding round in Real Sports—a popular sports app fusing real-time statistics with social interaction, co-founded by Duke University’s John Antonelli. TCG joins a number of high-profile individual investors from the sports world, including Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton and former Duke basketball standouts Tre Jones and Grayson Allen.
Financial specifics weren’t disclosed, but Antonelli said partnering with TCG will help them “accelerate growth and double down on the product and community.” He also mentioned that Real will be expanding into tennis, Formula 1, and global soccer.
Congrats to all, and you can see Antonelli’s announcement here (and read about Real Sports in GrepBeat’s past feature here).
Apple vs. Epic
There isn’t really any breaking news in the ongoing legal dispute between Apple and Cary’s Epic Games—which, for those who need a refresher, is basically about where in-game purchases should take place (and how much Apple should be able to incentivize a system that benefits Apple rather than developers). Nevertheless, Brian Gordon at N&O posted an interesting rundown of the case so far.
This resurfaced in part because Epic CEO Tim Sweeney invoked the case (in battle terms no less) in a recent memo announcing significant layoffs.
Good read at N&O.
New NEW Event
The Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW) and Jim Roberts have announced their next event with the colorful title, “How the HELL do you sell an AI product that changes every morning?” Four AI experts (Brandon Walker of HOA.AI and Vantaca, Nick Jordan of Smashing Boxes, Wayne Hippo of PS Solutions, and, moderating, Isabel Barnett of Get Proof Lab will bat that question around.
The event takes place at Wrightsville Beach Brewery on Thursday, April 30th from 4-6:30pm and you can register here.
In The Soup
I would never tease you with soup and then not give you soup. Accordingly, after last week’s pseudo-launch April Fools’ episode, In The Soup is indeed back for a fresh season on the GrepBeat Podcast. In today’s episode, co-hosts Jenn Summe (Primordial) and Melissa Crosby (GrepBeat) cover the topic of how founders should navigate expectations once they become portfolio companies. They’re joined for the conversation by Mahati Sridhar of Revolution and Dr. Shante Williams from Black Pearl Global.
Tune in to hear what they look for in their portcos, and as always catch those interesting opening notes—in this case concerning National Look Up To The Sky Day, pecans, and a bizarre concentration of historical tragedies.
Listen and subscribe here.
