Articles by Michael Melton

About Michael Melton

Michael is a 2025 UNC-CH graduate who majored in Psychology and Environmental Studies. He loves trying new restaurants and cafes, going hiking, snowboarding, and going on long road trips to seemingly random states. You can also find his work in the Daily Tar Heel, where he is an editor on the Lifestyle desk.

Wilmington’s RCOAST Provides a Living Data Layer for U.S. Coastlines

August 18, 2026 Michael Melton

Wilmington startup RCOAST is a coastal data layer and analysis company that collects high-resolution 3D data to track how coastlines change and help governments evaluate and plan resilience efforts. The […]

Raleigh’s Utilyst Is Creating A “Brain” For Utility Companies

August 13, 2026 Michael Melton

Utilities such as water and electricity are responsible for some of the most critical and costly infrastructure in society. They collect enormous amounts of information from pumps, valves, sensors and […]

The Alchemy Lab is a Durham Startup Built to Help Your Organization Mature

July 28, 2026 Michael Melton

It’s reasonable to say that most every executive inherits problems they don’t immediately see while attempting to guide their organizations toward greater operational maturity. Startup co-founders Dr. Mike Lee and […]

Cary’s Insight Twin Builds Digital Twins to Guide Companies’ AI Transformations

July 22, 2026 Michael Melton

After spending more than two decades helping large enterprises navigate digital transformation—working at companies including Bank of America, Accenture and EY, and later writing a book on the subject—Michael Schank […]

Charlotte’s Fixxr Brings Transparency to Auto Repair

July 6, 2026 Michael Melton

Colton McComas grew up around his grandfather’s Rocky Mount repair shop, and by age 15, launched his own mobile repair business. Later on, while studying mechanical engineering at UNC-Charlotte, he […]

Triangle’s RDU Labs Aims to Increase AI Fluency in North Carolina

June 16, 2026 Michael Melton

Mark Bavisotto, Founder of RDU Labs, believes the gap between what artificial intelligence can do and what people know how to do with it is huge—especially in small business leadership. […]

Wilmington Startup IQExit Targets a Blind Spot in Business Succession Planning

June 4, 2026 Michael Melton

Wilmington startup IQExit is aiming to change the way banks prepare for business ownership transitions by surfacing exit signals years before a company is sold. At its core, IQExit is […]

Charlotte’s Build-A-Bookie Offers No-Money Social Gambling Platform

May 18, 2026 Michael Melton

Charlotte founder Vincent Durham studied computer science in graduate school at the University of Dayton and now runs Durham App Designs, where he builds apps, websites, and AI workflow systems […]

Chapel Hill’s Swik AI: An Intelligence Layer For Small Business Loan Underwriting

May 8, 2026 Michael Melton

Yogi Nishanth spent much of his career in financial services, working for banks such as JP Morgan, Chase, and Capital One. In the back of his mind, he always wanted […]

Ashe County’s HiveTracks: From Beekeeping to Environmental Monitoring

April 30, 2026 Michael Melton

When Max Rünzel was working at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, he saw firsthand how difficult it was to track and manage natural systems. Data collection was expensive, […]