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11/15/2024

Another week, another Friday Nooner episode to come! And this week's guest brings a new and interesting perspective on what you can achieve beyond what you majored in in undergrad.

Emily Foster is the Founder of Raleigh-based Alpacasews, an online e-commerce merchant that once only sold handmade plushies, but now sells dozens of cute and unique stuffed animals—ranging from cows to baby Bigfoots.

Emily was once a meteorology major at NC State, and began making plushies as a form of stress relief. Now after going viral on TikTok, she has closed 3 successful fundraising campaigns and funded thousands of plushies—all based off of her own drawings and handmade designs.

11/08/2024

As a nicer end to this seemingly stressful beginning of the week, we are happy to welcome Annie Combs of Raleigh-based ECPC Travel on to this week's episode of The Friday Nooner, which takes place this Friday at, well, noon!

ECPC (Eco-Conscious, People Centered) Travel originates from Annie's master's capstone idea, where she created a theoretical tourism business model that would strengthen locals’ economic power in struggling ecotourism destinations to increase funds for environmental conservation. ECPC Travel, as a company, developed a set of transparent criteria to spotlight businesses and communities committed to more sustainable tourism practices.

Annie has been an advocate of climate, eco-conscious, and biology fields since 2014, so she will definitely have much to say about eco-friendly and easy peasy (will definitely be a topic to discuss of the name was intentional) eco-conscious travel recommendations.

11/01/2024

Another week, another Friday Nooner to celebrate the first of November! Wait, it's already November...?

On this week's episode to kick off the penultimate month of the year is Rachel Cash, CEO and Founder of ELROI. This Durham-based startup provides a data privacy management solution for consumers and enterprises in order to bring data privacy protection back into the hands of people. Rachel and this company work with leading data providers to ensure that
data meets the highest standards of quality and compliance.

Rachel is also an attorney licensed in Michigan, specializing in data privacy, therefore making her the perfect candidate to speak on the importance of data privacy in this already unstable data collecting world.

10/25/2024

As we have started expanding our coverage into Wilmington, we couldn't have done it without the help of Heather McWhorter, director for the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at UNC-Wilmington. That's why we are excited to welcome her on this week's Friday Nooner episode!

Heather has a wealth of experience working with small businesses. Before settling at the beach, she has worked with Penn State College and Penn State University to develop their small business programs and support their entrepreneurs. She also lead an initiative formed to stimulate tech entrepreneurship in NC for SBTDC.

Obviously, we might have much to talk about this Friday. Tune in!

10/18/2024

To help celebrate the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's (CED) 40th birthday—on top of attending their birthday bash—we are excited to welcome back Jay Bigelow, head of founder engagement, to this week's Friday Nooner!

If you haven't heard of Jay and what he and CED are doing for the entrepreneurial ecosystem here, this Friday is a great time to hear all about it!

Jay has been a part of CED's 40-year history for about 12 years of it, working to organize local and national expertise to provide guidance, mentorship and capital to the area's budding companies. Jay has also been on NC IDEA's grant review committee for over 11 years, so safe to say he knows a bit about how to help startups.

Tune in live this Friday!

10/11/2024

As we are coming down from our post-Wilmington launch high, we are excited to get back up and welcome David Reeser of Wilmington-based OpiAid for this week's episode of The Friday Nooner!

OpiAid is a data science company on a mission to make addiction treatment safer and more effective. With over 20 years of experience under his belt working in radiology, medical marketing, business development and substance abuse programs, Reeser will bring an enhanced perspective of what he plans to do with OpiAid and his roles on multiple substance abuse organizations.

Join him, the GrepBeat Godfather and our professional side-host this Friday at noon!

10/04/2024

We are celebrating GrepBeat's official launch to Wilmington this month (and the end of the week) by inviting Wilmington-based, long time entrepreneur Daniel Summers to this week's episode of The Friday Nooner!

For over 11 years, Daniel has been the CEO and Founding Partner of Electronic Lab Logs (ELL), which provides a cloud-based software platform that gives laboratories the ability to track and report Regulatory Compliance.

Join him, the GrepBeat Godfather and the unofficial, professional side-host Melissa Crosby this Friday at noon to hear more about ELL and what they're doing in Wilmington!

09/27/2024

Another week, another Friday, another Friday Nooner! And we are bringing back Atlanta-based tech entrepreneur David Cummings, who has founded and co-founded 10 startups, including Pardot and Salesloft.

David is also the CEO and Founder of investment company Atlanta Ventures, as well as the founder of Atlanta Tech Village, the fourth largest tech entrepreneurship center in the United States. Join us as we welcome David this Friday at noon!

09/20/2024

What does it really mean to "get down to business?" We'll take a deep dive into this question when the GrepBeat Godfather and his co-host speak with Mark Littlewood, Founder and CEO of Business of Software on this week's Friday Nooner!

Business of Software is a multi-day event for software leaders, entrepreneurs and decision makers, with locations in Raleigh and in Europe. Despite being a software conference, the focus of the topics is neither on code nor finance, but rather on anything from marketing to leadership, hiring to mental health and everything in between. Mark will speak on why this conference is necessary and why he's decided to keep the USA version in the budding Raleigh ecosystem.

09/13/2024

Let's bask in this wonderful, hopefully not fake-fall sunlight and welcome Sunlight's Founder and CEO Ryan O'Donnell to this week's Friday Nooner!

Ryan is a seasoned entrepreneur and Triangle tech leader that has been in past GrepBeat news, having been the CEO and Co-Founder of EmployUs—which was acquired by national HR & recruitment platform Hireology—and the Founder of Raleigh-based RPO Ventures.

09/06/2024

Mark your calendars and tell your families! The Friday Nooner returns THIS WEEK and we have a lot in store for you coming up this Friday at, you guessed it!, noon!

This week's guest will be Chris Geiss, Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Seguno Software, an email marketing platform integrated into the Shopify platform. Fun fact: Chris is a Bronto alum and the GrepBeat Godfather is an investor in Seguno, which used to share office space with GrepBeat.

2021 was the last time we had Chris on The Friday Nooner, so make sure to tune in to see not only the changes he's had, but also some of the changes The Friday Nooner program has had too!

06/21/2024

For our penultimate episode of the Friday Nooner, Pete may or may not be joined by the GrepBeat Godfather, but he definitely will have a special host on to bring in our even more special guest: Rob Creighton, Founder and CEO of Windlift. This Durham-based wind energy engineering and computer software company uses machine intelligence and next generation power electronics to build airborne power generators.

Rob is well experienced in the field of engineering sciences, having earned his MBA in strategic management in life and engineering sciences and worked as a consultant and specialist for bio-based and sustainable industries. Rob founded Windlift back in 2006 and has been working on it since.

06/14/2024

Another week, another Friday Nooner... and this one is going to be one of the BEESE-T! Get it? Like the best? And because our guest this week is Sales HQ Founder & CEO Vince Beese? Ah, you'll get it later when you tune in to the episode this week to hear about Vince and his member-based co-selling (working) community for high performing sellers and sales teams.

Vince is no stranger to being an entrepreneur and being in the sales space, having founded two startups and having worked as a high executive salesperson in companies that were acquired by companies such as Meta, Experian and Equifax.

06/07/2024

After a successful and busy Grep-a-palooza 3, we are winding down by watching the Friday Nooner later this week, where our guest will be Charles Douthitt, Co-Founder and CEO of Virnika. The Chapel Hill-based startup provides an LLM-powered solution for answering calls at restaurants, including building takeout orders and facilitating transactions. They are also a portfolio company under our sister investment firm, Primordial Ventures.

Charles is no stranger to tech services to restaurants, as he was one of the Co-Founders of Takeout Central, a popular on-demand restaurant delivery app for local restaurants.

05/31/2024

Are you properly taking care of your skin? Do you know what to look for in skincare? Have you had enough chicken talk from Pete and Joe?

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you should tune in to this week's Friday Nooner, where we will hear from Modern Ritual Health co-founders Dr. Beth Goldstein and her daughter, Elianna Goldstein! Chapel Hill-based Modern Ritual Health offers a rapid online dermatology platform designed for primary care providers.

Dr. Beth Goldstein is an experienced doctor and founder in the dermatology space, having founded the Central Dermatology Center, one of the most comprehensive, full-service dermatology practices in central North Carolina. Elianna is also another seasoned entrepreneur, founding her first company in 2020 that helped to address rising concerns of skin cancer primarily in men.

05/24/2024

This week's episode of The Friday Nooner may get a little magical, as Pete and Joe sit down to chat with the creator of ELFs. And that's not a misspelling! Join us on Friday to hear from Rob Cotter, the CEO of Organic Transit and the inventor of the ELF, the world’s first commercially available solar/pedal hybrid vehicle—all of which were hand-built in Durham between 2013 to 2019.

Cotter's all about vehicles, as he has a seasoned background in working with not just cars, but eco-friendly cars before it became cool.

05/17/2024

Another week, another episode of The Friday Nooner! Tune in later this week to hear from Joe and Pete probably talk about chickens and Vespas—and, of course, from our guest Akash Ganapathi, CEO of Durham-based Opine, which automates pre-sales efforts for enterprise software vendors.

Akash has a well seasoned entrepreneurial and technical background, having co-founded an AI company (before it was cool) back in 2013 and having worked at companies like SAS and Cisco as a software engineer. He was also JupiterOne's 18th hire, a position in which he was in charge of sales engineering and overseeing all POC work.

05/10/2024

Let's end the week right, as we welcome Dr. Rachel Draelos as a guest on the Friday Nooner! Join us later this week as we hear from Dr. Draelos and her company Cydoc, a health tech startup building AI-powered healthcare software. The startup's first product is a smart patient intake form that saves time by enabling faster note writing and more efficient visits.

Dr. Draelos has a very unique background, being the first person to earn an MD and a PhD in Computer Science from Duke University. Before attending Duke, she worked at and attended Cornell University for Biological Sciences with a concentration Computational Biology.

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Videos

The Friday Nooner with Emily Foster

Another week, another Friday Nooner episode to come! And this week's guest brings a new and interesting perspective on what you can achieve beyond what you majored in in undergrad. Emily Foster is the Founder of Raleigh-based Alpacasews, an online e-commerce merchant that once only sold handmade plushies, but now sells dozens of cute and unique stuffed animals—ranging from cows to baby Bigfoots. Emily was once a meteorology major at NC State, and began making plushies as a form of stress relief. Now after going viral on TikTok, she has closed 3 successful fundraising campaigns and funded thousands of plushies—all based off of her own drawings and handmade designs.

The Friday Nooner with Annie Combs

As a nicer end to this seemingly stressful beginning of the week, we are happy to welcome Annie Combs of Raleigh-based ECPC Travel on to this week's episode of The Friday Nooner, which takes place this Friday at, well, noon! ECPC (Eco-Conscious, People Centered) Travel originates from Annie's master's capstone idea, where she created a theoretical tourism business model that would strengthen locals’ economic power in struggling ecotourism destinations to increase funds for environmental conservation. ECPC Travel, as a company, developed a set of transparent criteria to spotlight businesses and communities committed to more sustainable tourism practices. Annie has been an advocate of climate, eco-conscious, and biology fields since 2014, so she will definitely have much to say about eco-friendly and easy peasy (will definitely be a topic to discuss of the name was intentional) eco-conscious travel recommendations.

The Friday Nooner with Rachel Cash (Elroi)

Another week, another Friday Nooner to celebrate the first of November! Wait, it's already November...? On this week's episode to kick off the penultimate month of the year is Rachel Cash, CEO and Founder of ELROI. This Durham-based startup provides a data privacy management solution for consumers and enterprises in order to bring data privacy protection back into the hands of people. Rachel and this company work with leading data providers to ensure that data meets the highest standards of quality and compliance. Rachel is also an attorney licensed in Michigan, specializing in data privacy, therefore making her the perfect candidate to speak on the importance of data privacy in this already unstable data collecting world.

The Friday Nooner with Heather McWhorter

As we have started expanding our coverage into Wilmington, we couldn't have done it without the help of Heather McWhorter, director for the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at UNC-Wilmington. That's why we are excited to welcome her on this week's Friday Nooner episode! Heather has a wealth of experience working with small businesses. Before settling at the beach, she has worked with Penn State College and Penn State University to develop their small business programs and support their entrepreneurs. She also lead an initiative formed to stimulate tech entrepreneurship in NC for SBTDC. Obviously, we might have much to talk about this Friday. Tune in!

The Friday Nooner with Jay Bigelow

To help celebrate the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's (CED) 40th birthday—on top of attending their birthday bash—we are excited to welcome back Jay Bigelow, head of founder engagement, to this week's Friday Nooner! If you haven't heard of Jay and what he and CED are doing for the entrepreneurial ecosystem here, this Friday is a great time to hear all about it! Jay has been a part of CED's 40-year history for about 12 years of it, working to organize local and national expertise to provide guidance, mentorship and capital to the area's budding companies. Jay has also been on NC IDEA's grant review committee for over 11 years, so safe to say he knows a bit about how to help startups. Tune in live this Friday!

The Friday Nooner with David Reeser

As we are coming down from our post-Wilmington launch high, we are excited to get back up and welcome David Reeser of Wilmington-based OpiAid for this week's episode of The Friday Nooner! OpiAid is a data science company on a mission to make addiction treatment safer and more effective. With over 20 years of experience under his belt working in radiology, medical marketing, business development and substance abuse programs, Reeser will bring an enhanced perspective of what he plans to do with OpiAid and his roles on multiple substance abuse organizations. Join him, the GrepBeat Godfather and our professional side-host this Friday at noon!

The Friday Nooner with Daniel Summers

We are celebrating GrepBeat's official launch to Wilmington this month (and the end of the week) by inviting Wilmington-based, long time entrepreneur Daniel Summers to this week's episode of The Friday Nooner! For over 11 years, Daniel has been the CEO and Founding Partner of Electronic Lab Logs (ELL), which provides a cloud-based software platform that gives laboratories the ability to track and report Regulatory Compliance. Join him, the GrepBeat Godfather and the unofficial, professional side-host Melissa Crosby this Friday at noon to hear more about ELL and what they're doing in Wilmington!

The Friday Nooner with David Cummings

Another week, another Friday, another Friday Nooner! And we are bringing back Atlanta-based tech entrepreneur David Cummings, who has founded and co-founded 10 startups, including Pardot and Salesloft. David is also the CEO and Founder of investment company Atlanta Ventures, as well as the founder of Atlanta Tech Village, the fourth largest tech entrepreneurship center in the United States. Join us as we welcome David this Friday at noon!

The Friday Nooner with Mark Littlewood

What does it really mean to "get down to business?" We'll take a deep dive into this question when the GrepBeat Godfather and his co-host speak with Mark Littlewood, Founder and CEO of Business of Software on this week's Friday Nooner! Business of Software is a multi-day event for software leaders, entrepreneurs and decision makers, with locations in Raleigh and in Europe. Despite being a software conference, the focus of the topics is neither on code nor finance, but rather on anything from marketing to leadership, hiring to mental health and everything in between. Mark will speak on why this conference is necessary and why he's decided to keep the USA version in the budding Raleigh ecosystem.

The Friday Nooner with Ryan O'Donnell

Let's bask in this wonderful, hopefully not fake-fall sunlight and welcome Sunlight's Founder and CEO Ryan O'Donnell to this week's Friday Nooner! Ryan is a seasoned entrepreneur and Triangle tech leader that has been in past GrepBeat news, having been the CEO and Co-Founder of EmployUs—which was acquired by national HR & recruitment platform Hireology—and the Founder of Raleigh-based RPO Ventures.

The Friday Nooner with Chris Geiss

Mark your calendars and tell your families! The Friday Nooner returns THIS WEEK and we have a lot in store for you coming up this Friday at, you guessed it!, noon! This week's guest will be Chris Geiss, Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Seguno Software, an email marketing platform integrated into the Shopify platform. Fun fact: Chris is a Bronto alum and the GrepBeat Godfather is an investor in Seguno, which used to share office space with GrepBeat. 2021 was the last time we had Chris on The Friday Nooner, so make sure to tune in to see not only the changes he's had, but also some of the changes The Friday Nooner program has had too!

The Friday Nooner with Rob Creighton

For our penultimate episode of the Friday Nooner, Pete may or may not be joined by the GrepBeat Godfather, but he definitely will have a special host on to bring in our even more special guest: Rob Creighton, Founder and CEO of Windlift. This Durham-based wind energy engineering and computer software company uses machine intelligence and next generation power electronics to build airborne power generators. Rob is well experienced in the field of engineering sciences, having earned his MBA in strategic management in life and engineering sciences and worked as a consultant and specialist for bio-based and sustainable industries. Rob founded Windlift back in 2006 and has been working on it since.