The Friday Nooner

The Friday Nooner returned this week for one final episode. While more podcast/show content is coming in 2025, the Nooner as you've come to know it has now wrapped up its run. And what better way to celebrate said run than with some holiday cheer, old friends, and (as often comes with one such old friend) trivia?! Check out this final installment to test your knowledge of Nooners past, muse about plans for the holidays, and enjoy a certain someone being back on the air (ok fine, it was Pete). You'll even be treated to some old holiday special snippets, all of which have unimpeachable production value. (Important note: Despite the GrepBeat Godfather's prediction that—as befits a series finale—someone involved would die before the end of the show, we all made it out okay.) Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

The Friday Nooner returned today after a one-week break for Thanksgiving. GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy was joined by co-hosts Melissa Crosby and Kaitlyn Dang and the trio discussed Christmas decoration timing. More specifically, Joe revealed that his distaste for pre-Thanksgiving Christmas trees is… um… fiercer than we realized. The main event was an interview with Victoria Fritz, who beamed in from D.C. Victoria is the Founder and CEO of Chapel Hill-based Baby Bumps—a startup that connects couples with surrogates (sort of like “Hinge for surrogacy,” as she once framed it for us). She filled us in on her personal journey, the need for Baby Bumps, and how the service is helping couples—with a brief foray into Friends talk in the middle.

Today's episode of the Friday Nooner was triple-hosted by GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy, Kaitlyn Dang, and––making his Nooner debut, kind of—Cesar Romero. They opened the show with a few words on what they were all bringing to our midday “Grepsgiving” lunch. (We feasted immediately after the show.) Today's main course was American Underground Executive Director Tim Scales. Tim spoke about the difference between AU and other “coworking” spaces like WeWork, indulged us in a place-of-origin guessing game, and filled us in on his journey from theater major (fun fact, yours truly was a theater studies minor, but this isn't about me), to Duke MBA, to a career in Startupland.

Today on the Friday Nooner, co-hosting trio Joe Colopy, Melissa Crosby, and Kaitlyn Dang got us started with some conversation about CED's GRO Demo Day, which took place Thursday evening (and which you can read more about here). Somehow this led to the revelations that Joe believes he's going to die at 86 and Kaitlyn was a talented viola…ist… in high school. Evidently there's now potential for a future musical episode on which Kaitlyn plans her instrument and I honk through an oboe reed. Finally we got to the important part and welcomed this week's guest: Emily Foster, the Founder and CEO of Alpacasews. Emily took us through her journey: from a pursuit of meteorology driven by a love of clouds, through the Andrews Launch Accelerator program at NC State, and ultimately to adorable plushie designs that have fueled her startup (and earned her internet fame). She also teased some Black Friday activity and an upcoming “12 Days of Plushies” promotion you'll want to learn more about. It has to do with helping cats.

On today's episode of the Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy was back in the hosting chair alongside Melissa Crosby and new co-hosting addition Kaitlyn Dang—both of whom, to be clear, were in their own chairs. They started off with a bit of banter about Joe's brush with death (he nearly crashed his new “GrepBeat red” vespa). Then, our trio of co-hosts welcomed this week's guest, Annie Combs. Annie is the Co-Founder and CEO of ECPC Travel, which she describes as the “eco-friendly, socially conscious Expedia.” Annie filled us in on her startup's mission to facilitate conscious travel in a way that simultaneously helps travelers find what they want and uplifts destination communities. From there, it was a four-way conversation covering all kinds of travel experiences and goals (including the “sick girls trips” Annie finds a chunk of her customer base enjoying!).

On today's edition of the Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy and Co-Host Extraordinaire Melissa Crosby started off with a bit of conversation about the goings-on at HQ. Specifically, this meant a brief recap of the latest GrepBeat Book Club meeting and a look ahead to some pumpkin painting. Swing by in the coming days (I guess) to see Joe's rendition of ‘80s Melissa on a pumpkin. Last and most importantly, Joe and Melissa welcomed Heather McWhorter, who is the Director of the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at UNC-Wilmington. Heather filled us in on the history of CIE and what it's doing these days for the entrepreneurial community in and around Wilmington (including a focus on the blue economy). The group also worked in some conversation about ‘80s perm jobs and, naturally, Zanzibar.  

On today's Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy and his co-host Melissa Crosby (who was good enough to beam in remotely despite being on the tail end of a bout with Covid) started off by chatting a bit about the tragic vespa heist that took place outside GrepBeat HQ earlier this week. They also discussed the State Fair and the bizarrely accepted practice of spending more money to win a gigantic stuffed animal than one would buying one directly.  After that we got to the highlight of the episode as the hosts were joined by Jay Bigelow, the Head of Founder Engagement at CED. Fresh off CED's aforementioned birthday bash, Jay discussed how the 40-year milestone applied not only to CED but to the entrepreneur community as a whole. Accordingly, he delivered a lot of interesting insights on how (and why) things have evolved over the years. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

On today's Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy and his sidekick Melissa Crosby recapped the GrepBeat and Primordial teams' Thursday excursion to Wilmington. The teams headed down to The Wine Sampler for a kickoff event where we enjoyed some networking, intros, and delicious refreshments with folks from the Wilmington ecosystem. Joe and Melissa also talked a bit about North Carolina joining a multi-state lawsuit against TikTok. Then they welcomed this week's guest: Wilmington entrepreneur and OpiAID Founder/CEO David Reeser (who joined us at our launch event in Wilmington Thursday evening!). David filled us in on OpiAID's ability to use data science to make addiction treatment safer and more effective. Built on the idea that everyone has “infinite and inherent worth,” the company combines electronic health records with real-time biometric data to provide clinicians with timely, actionable insights—leading to better outcomes for patients with substance use disorders.

For today's episode of the Friday Nooner, the GrepBeat Godfather and co-hosting maestra Melissa Colopy started off with some talk about storm-ravaged Western North Carolina, and some of the ongoing relief efforts we've seen in the community (special shout-outs to the folks at Raleigh Founded and Greenplaces). They also spent a few moments recapping the GrepBeat Happy Hour that took place this past Wednesday at Bull McCabe's. Then yours truly popped in with a quick update on the week at GrepBeat.com. We touched on this week's episodes of the Monday Mix and In The Soup, recapped our written features on local startups Brainery Labs and Roboro, and talked a bit about the Wednesday evening Happy Hour GrepBeat hosted alongside the American Underground. Rounding into the heart of the episode, Joe and Melissa welcomed this week's guest: Daniel Summers, the CEO and Founding Partner of Wilmington-based Electronic Lab Logs.

On today's Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy and “Survivor” Melissa Crosby opened with a few words about Hurricane Helene and the storms pelting the Southeast (and the very nice but occasionally porous GrepBeat HQ). Then Melissa recapped this week's Ladies Investing/Local Angels (LILA) meetup and Joe offered a few words on some of the latest with OpenAI. Joe and Melissa then welcomed this week's guest: Atlanta-based David Cummings, who has founded or co-founded 10 startups, and is the CEO of Atlanta Ventures. He was also one of the first, lead angel investors in Calendly! David—who fortunately managed to stay safe and dry as the storms rolled through Georgia—delivered some impromptu Atlanta history before talking us through some of his latest projects. Long story short, these involve buying up a significant portion of South Downtown Atlanta with the aim of turning it into a kind of sprawling startup campus. Somehow Melissa's old punk rock-ish phase came up, too.

On today's Friday nooner , the GrepBeat Godfather and Melissa Crosby opened things up with some discussion about a few miscellaneous goings-on around the Triangle. They also touched on a yoga studio sliding into some former Bronto space at the Tobacco Campus. (Joe seemed to have some thoughts.) Once all that was done, they got to the heart of the episode and welcomed in Mark Littlewood, the Founder and CEO of the Business of Software (BoS) Conference. (P.S: Mark was also generous enough to provide a discount code for our readers/audience...)

Today's Friday Nooner opened with the GrepBeat Godfather and Melissa Crosby discussing fond memories of video stores, short-versus-longer book chapters, and more. Then your friendly neighborhood editor popped in with a temperamental green-screen background and a brief update on all things GrepBeat.com. We covered the Monday Mix, our first Book Club recap, In The Soup, and, naturally, our (viral?) post on Taylor Swift update app Swift Alert. Once we wrapped up the internal recap, Joe and Melissa welcomed this week's guest, Ryan O'Donnell. Formerly Co-Founder and CEO of EmployUs, Ryan is now the Founder and CEO of Sunlight. This newly launched startup (which we wrote about recently) aims to “upgrade our social safety net's operating system,” beginning with an effort to reduce the amount of time kids stay stuck in foster care. Ryan—a former foster parent himself—explained how attorneys, case workers, and parents can use Sunlight's tool to navigate the process. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

Welcome back! Today's Friday Nooner effectively marked a season premiere, as well as the beginning of a new chapter for the show sans longtime co-host Pete McEntegart. GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures brought the show back on air, comfortably seated in front of the awesome new mural at HQ (special thanks to summer artist-in-residence Xiomara Colopy!). Joe and Melissa provided a general update on all things GrepBeat, a few takes on the news, and a bit of banter. Then they welcomed the season's first guest, Chris Geiss of Seguno, who last Nooner‘d with us in 2021. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

Today's season finale episode of the Friday Nooner was a mini-celebration of Pete on his final day with GrepBeat. The GrepBeat Godfather beamed in from the Costa Rican mist, video tributes were shown, and multiple fun rounds of trivia taught us a bit more about both Pete himself and the standup comedy world he's diving into. For those who may not have heard, there will be a more extensive farewell party for Pete, dubbed GrepBeat Pete's Irish Goodbye, at Bull McCabe's Irish Pub on July 11 from 5-7pm. You can register here. In the meantime, you can watch this latest episode of the Nooner on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

Today's Friday Nooner had a little bit of a different vibe. With the GrepBeat Godfather on vacation with the GrepBeat First Family in Costa Rica, Pete was joined by first (only?)-time guest co-host, Not Joe (Kaitlyn). After a vague tease of special material on next week's Nooner season finale (tune in!), the pair provided a rundown of new Colopy Ventures employees' annual gifts—which, despite Kaitlyn's admitted abuse of her new-employee gift card to the ForeverGrep store, still culminate in personalized bobbleheads after a few years. Pete and Not Joe were then joined by Rob Creighton, the Founder and CEO of Windlift, who beamed in from his ocean sports equipment's retirement suite. (It's the equipment that's retired, not Rob.) One of GrepBeat's 2023 Startups to Watch—and the subject of a past feature—Raleigh-based Windlift is introducing a new approach to harnessing wind energy. Specifically, the startup is using autonomous, tethered aircraft to fly hundreds of feet into the air and function somewhat like wind turbines—only without the giant, expensive pillars in the ocean. Rob filled us in on the journey up till now and what's next for Windlift. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

It was a busy first segment on this week's Friday Nooner. We heard from The Super Real Version Of GrepBeat Pete Who Has Lovely Things To Say About Joe; we got an update on Durham's resident Vespa “gang”; and we found out that one of the chickens you may have heard about on a past episode several past episodes is, in fact, a rooster. Sadly, this means it will need to be re-homed (any takers outside the Durham city limits?). Then Joe and Pete welcomed Vince Beese, the Founder and CEO of Sales HQ. This RTP-based startup, which was the subject of a GrepBeat feature earlier this year, has developed a “co-selling” space as a twist on the co-working concept. Vince gave us a fresh update on Sales HQ and explained the need for a community for sellers today—particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

On this week's Friday Nooner, Joe and Pete spent a bit of time recapping Grep-a-palooza 3 (with special acknowledgment of all our volunteers) before delving into breakfast routines. In the end it was established that despite a regular regimen of plant-based breakfast smoothies and Saturday-morning Eggo waffles, Pete is not, in fact, a professional athlete. Once that was determined, Charles Douthitt joined in from the green room-slash-mythical nap studio downstairs. Charles is the Co-Founder and CEO of Chapel Hill-based Virnika, which is using an AI-powered call system to improve the restaurant ordering process. The startup, which received an investment from our sister company Primordial earlier this year and was the subject of a GrepBeat feature, is taking some of the weight off restaurant owners' shoulders by providing a seamless way to handle high demand—without burdening employees. To hear more about Virnika's approach as it nears the launch of its beta customers, watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

It was a well-caffeinated crew on today's Friday Nooner, which made for a bit of a roller-coaster intro. Pete tapped into his glory years as a “celebrity juror” to lend us some perspective on jury procedures, and then the GrepBeat Godfather took us through various stages and sub-stages of investment (proving that he is not, in fact, “just a pretty face riding a Vespa”). Then they welcomed Dr. Beth Goldstein and Elianna Goldstein to the show. This mother-daughter duo co-founded Modern Ritual Health, which applies a telehealth approach to dermatology. The Chapel Hill-based startup—which GrepBeat profiled earlier this year—uses a network of dermatologists to assess patients remotely and expedite care if recommended. To learn more about the Goldsteins' approach and hear the latest on Modern Ritual Health, watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

Today's Friday Nooner guest was Rob Cotter, the Founder, CEO, Re-Acquirer, and CEO again of Raleigh-based Organic Transit—and the inventor of solar-powered pedal hybrid vehicle, the “ELF.” We covered Cotter as part of a “Where Are They Now” series back in 2022, and more recently highlighted his triumphant rescue of the previously shelved ELF. Once Joe got stretched out and he and Pete reflected on the (hopefully-not-too-prescient) 2013 Joaquin Phoenix movie Her, they brought Rob on to talk about the past and future of Organic Transit. Rob recapped the story of how he sold and eventually reacquired Organic Transit. Then he delved into the ELF, with a particular emphasis on the safety of the unique vehicle. For bonus content, we also learned what defines a bike, and even heard teases of some new, forthcoming Organic Transit vehicles. To hear those teases yourself, and get a full update on Organic Transit and the future of the ELF, watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here.

We learned several things about today's Friday Nooner guest, Akash Ganapathi, the Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Opine. He met his wife when they were both students at the North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics.He met his two Opine co-founders—Charlie Duong and Austin Kelleher—when they were all early employees at Morrisville-based unicorn JupiterOne.He and the other Opine-rs are the reason there are bottles of Solyent in the downstairs fridge at GrepBeat/Colopy Ventures/Primordial World HQ, which they work out of once or twice a week. For much more on Akash and Opine—such as what the startup does—you should watch the full episode here.

Following a few GrepBeat updates and reminders, this week's episode of The Friday Nooner really got going with a “reintroduction” to GrepBeat Pete—who is both definitely real and definitely the actual Pete. Please feel free to reach out to him if you'd like to learn more about the native recipes and general lore of the remote island from which he hails. Which is Long Island, by the way. Following said check-in, Joe and Pete welcomed Dr. Rachel Draelos, Duke's first-ever dual MD/CompSci PhD and the Founder and CEO of Durham-based healthtech startup Cydoc. Cydoc aims to enable AI in healthcare, with a specific goal of addressing the inefficiencies of outdated medical software. The startup's first product is an AI tool that can save doctors more than 30 hours a month on history-taking and note-writing, and by extension improve the quality of patient care. You can watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

It was a big episode of The Friday Nooner sponsored by Whitley Recruiting for those who had “Joe talking about his chickens” on your Friday Nooner bingo card. Surprisingly, the chicken talk made our guest feel nostalgic rather than run for the hills. It turned out that today's guest—Ardis Kadiu, the Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based Element451—grew up on a farm in Albania that included some chickens. Though he wanted to make it clear that it wasn't a “chicken farm” per se. Element451 is a CRM (customer relationship management) and engagement platform for higher education, helping colleges and universities market themselves to and communicate with prospective and current students.  You can watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Pete's on vacation in Myrtle Beach this week, but that doesn't mean he couldn't join the GrepBeat Godfather for this regularly scheduled episode of The Friday Nooner, sponsored by Whitley Recruiting. Pete's mom even made a late cameo. This week's guest was Dr. Jared Pelo, a, ER doc by training and a serial entrepreneur with a successful exit under his belt from his previous startup, iScribes, which is what first brought him to the Triangle from Lynchburg, Va. He is now the Co-Founder of RTP-based Bionic Health alongside fellow serial entrepreneur (and Grep-a-palooza 3 panelist) Robbie Allen. Bionic Health uses AI and other tech to help patients optimize their health, rather than just treat illness if it arises, like much of traditional health care. Of course, Dr. Pelo explains it much better than that, as you'll see. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Grammar nerds will especially enjoy this week's episode of The Friday Nooner—sponsored by Whitley Recruiting—with its discussion of the difference between farther/further. (Pro tip: Think of the “far” in “farther” as indicating distance, as in “to run far.” That leaves “further” when you mean a difference of degree, not of literal distance.) After the break, Joe and Pete welcomed guest Will Bowen, the CEO of Raleigh-based Givebacks, a platform for schools and nonprofits to manage fundraising and charitable giving. We first profiled the startup (under its previous name, MemberHub) in November, 2019, and named it to our inaugural Startups To Watch list in 2021.

It's been a long and busy week in the Triangle tech startup ecosystem that we capped—as usual—with an episode of The Friday Nooner sponsored by Whitley Recruiting. This week's guest was Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill, a Senior Associate at Chapel Hill-based IDEA Fund Partners. We talked about how her varied background—everything from dancing for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks to running a business to train aspiring dancers for pro teams—affects the way she evaluates founders and their businesses. We also talked about her (multiple) names and the names of Joe's kids, her daughter and her soon-to-be-son scheduled for a June arrival.

This week's Friday Nooner—sponsored by Whitley Recruiting—provided a look into the near future, at least once the GrepBeat Godfather finished talking about his chickens. (A new chick was allegedly eaten by a hawk.) Joe and Pete welcomed guest Archie O'Connor, the Co-Founder (with Chris Heivly) of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week. RDSW returns for Year Three next week as a four-day, all-free event from Tuesday-Friday, April 9-12. The first two days are in Durham before shifting to Raleigh for the last two days. Archie recommends checking out the RDSW site and then downloading the event's Whova app to make the most of your time. You can also check out our full preview of the event here. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Welcome to the Good Friday edition of the Friday Nooner—though in truth, any Friday with a new Nooner episode is a good one. This week, Primordial's Jenn Summe sat in Joe's chair (literally) because the GrepBeat Godfather is on a Spring Break trip with his kids to the nation's capital. Our guest was Susan Mahlburg, the Founder and CEO of Durham-based DiffyQ, an edtech platform that helps teachers better focus on the needs of individual students. We first profiled DiffyQ last October, shortly after she earned a $10K MICRO grant from NC DEA and shortly before we saw her pitch as part of CED's GRO Incubator Demo Day. Also in 2023: Mahlburg participated in the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator and finished her MBA at UNC's Kenan-Flagler, to go with her doctorate in education. Big year!

With this past week's Venture Connect 2024 now in the books, it's no surprise that we discussed it plenty on this episode of The Friday Nooner sponsored by Whitley Recruiting. That included with our guest Ivan Barajas Vargas, the CEO and Co-Founder of Raleigh-based MuukTest, which automates software testing for B2B customers; we first profiled them in August, 2019. Vargas was one of 120-some founders who pitched at Venture Connect. (See our Day One highlights stories from the morning session, including a picture of Vargas onstage; and the afternoon session.)

In a Friday Nooner first, this week's episode featured a live concert. Sort of. MyMatR Founder and CEO John Starke (briefly) played the bagpipes, which he does as part of two groups. This is their busiest season with St. Patrick's Day celebrations and then various Highland Games. John also talked plenty about MyMatR, of course. The Raleigh-based startup (we first profiled them in June 2021) is putting the finishing touches on its next-generation version of its smart waste container that automatically separates recycling from regular trash while providing customers with valuable data. MyMatR is a cohort startup of GrepBeat sister company Primordial. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Warning: Alexa owners might want to be careful watching this week's episode, especially around 13-15 minutes into the show, when GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy may or may not instruct your Alexa device to play a specific song. Fortunately, guest Nate Branscomb popped in shortly after that to get this episode of The Friday Nooner—sponsored by Whitley Recruiting—back on track. Nate is the Co-Founder of Cary-based BCombs, which is a CRM (customer relationship management) software platform designed for nonprofits, especially those that mentor youth. BCombs has won both a MICRO ($10K) and SEED ($50K) grant from NC IDEA. We first profiled the startup in December, 2022.

Pete and Joe welcomed guest Lee Whitley, the Founder of Raleigh-based Whitley Recruiting. Not coincidentally, Whitley Recruiting is the sponsor for the next 10 Friday Nooner episodes. Lee talked about how he first got into recruiting, then out of it, then back into it for good, as well as how his firm specializes in recruiting sales professionals for SaaS and technology companies in the Triangle and Southeast.

After talking Nvidia's rocket-ship rise, Techstars changes and the newly redesigned Toyota Prius that the GrepBeat Godfather drove to the office today, Joe and Pete welcomed this week's guest. She is Andrea Inokon, the COO of Raleigh-based startup Cadence Cash. The fintech helps small businesses—especially those owned by minorities and women—access capital quickly. The startup was founded by Andrea's husband, Charles, and his two sisters, Angel and Cheryl.

The GrepBeat Godfather is out of town so Pete is joined by guest co-host Melissa Crosby! On this week's episode, they spoke with Matt Schmidt, the Founder and CEO of Durham-based Peoplelogic. Typically selling into the HR departments of organizations with between 100-1,000 employees, the startup bills itself as the AI for more effective scaling. Matt was also a Co-Founder of Triangle-based DZone/Devada, where he spent 15+ years before leaving to start Peoplelogic.

This week's episode had something for everyone. For viewers who tune in for the greatest hits, the GrepBeat Godfather brought up his Vespa unsolicited less than 10 seconds into the show. For those who like something new and different each week, guest Dezbee McDaniel more than fits the bill. He's the Co-Founder and CEO of RTP-based CliniSpan Health, a 2022 GrepBeat Startups To Watch selection that we first profiled in March of the same year.

Pete and Joe today welcome guest Scott Babweh Brennen, the Head of Online Expression at the UNC-based Center on Technology Policy. It was an especially fitting time to discuss potential regulations in the tech world as four tech CEOs—including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg—were raked over the coals at a Capitol Hill hearing on Wednesday. Before coming back to work at his alma mater, Brennen previously lead research about dis/misinformation concerning coronavirus, 5G and AI at the University of Oxford. You can watch the full live episode on Youtube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

On this week's Friday Nooner episode, the (post-Jackie) GrepBeat crew chatted with Doug Neumann, the Co-Founder and CEO of Arpio, a fully automated disaster recovery solution for workloads that run in AWS. The Durham-based startup was named to our 2023 GrepBeat Startups to Watch list. Before founding Arpio, Neumann previously worked for Cary-based Bandwidth and Microsoft. You can watch the full live episode on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.

This week, the GrepBeat crew chatted with Neal K. Shah, the founder and CEO of CareYaya. CareYaya is a health tech and homecare company that connects pre-health university students with families for on-demand care. This show is also, sadly, Jackie (Sizing) from GrepBeat's last, as she ventures on to the next part of her career. The GrepBeat crew misses her already.

This week, the GrepBeat crew chatted with Jeff Soplop, the CEO of Nimble Energy, on the Friday Nooner. Located in Pittsboro, Nimble Energy helps building managers lower utility bills, reduce operating costs, and improve occupant comfort and productivity with real-time data. Previously, Soplop worked at Brightly Software and Recurve. You watch the episode live on Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn.

The Friday Nooner gang returned for 2024 with guest Ben Wingrove, who is the Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based SchedulePop, a scheduling software platform that was named to our 2023 GrepBeat Startups To Watch list. Designed originally for scheduling staffs at music venues and restaurants, just before the pandemic the startup found a niche with senior care facilities that it has leaned into fully and now accounts for about 80 percent of SchedulePop's revenue. Ben's career took plenty of twists and turns before then as well. We get into it all. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

The Friday Nooner closed out its 2023 programming today with a holiday special. It included the world premieres of the soon-to-be-classic song Grep The Halls; and the new GrepBeat holiday mockumentary The Making Of: A GrepMas Carol. This is definitely a show to watch visually!! The GrepBeat team put a lot of work into these and really hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them. Or even more! You can watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

This week's Friday Nooner might as well have been an episode of Car Talk, covering everything from classic British cars of the 1950s to Toyota minivans from the 2010s. That's because our guest was Lauren McCullough, the CEO and Co-Founder of Chapel Hill-based Tromml, an ecommerce analytics startup geared to drop-shippers of aftermarket auto parts. (We first profiled Tromml last December.) We also discussed last night's GrepBeat Happy Hour held at Lonerider's Durham location and sponsored by Fourscore Business Law; see pictures from the event and take a crack at our holiday-themed trivia questions here. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here and Facebook here.

Are you smarter than an AI designed for a first-grader? That was (sort of) the question that today's episode set out to answer. GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy has souped up a program for our internal admin site that uses ChatGPT to summarize GrepBeat stories in a few bullet points that are set at a first-grade level of reading comprehension. The results can be pretty cute. We then tried it live with the Sept. 21 profile story we wrote about Durham-based Keebler Health, the startup led by today's guest, Isaac Park. In this case the summary was pretty far off what Keebler Health does, but that's less because it wasn't an accurate summary of the story and much more because Keebler Health—which is less than a year old—has already changed quite a bit in the past few months. For all the details, you'll need to watch/listen to the episode. You can watch on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Joe may be back down to one Vespa after selling his yellow scooter this week, but The Friday Noonermust go on. Fortunately the gang was joined by a great guest: Bernard Worthy, the CEO and Co-Founder of Durham-based fintech LoanWell, a 2022 GrepBeat Startups To Watch selection. Bernard discussed how LoanWell—which bills itself as the “Squarespace for lenders”—pivoted from its B2C roots to its current B2B SaaS solution for community-based lenders; how the startup has benefited from the support of NC IDEA and other ecosystem members; and whether he might buy GrepBeat gear from the ForeverGrep store as a birthday gift for his daughter, who is turning four tomorrow. (Spoiler: he was decidedly non-committal on that last point.) You can watch the full live episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

This week's Friday Nooner featured Eric Boduch, the founder of 24&Up, CEO of Revcast and the co-founder of local unicorn Pendo. Tune in to learn more about Eric's career, latest ventures, etc.

Today, Made Trade CEO Cayley Pater joined the GrepBeat crew on the Friday Nooner. Eighteen years ago, Pater and Andy Ives met at a Fair Trade Club meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill. Much has happened to them since then including getting married and, over the past five years, turning their goal of creating ethically sourced goods into their own startup called Made Trade.

Austin Armstrong has built three million followers on social media who looked to his videos for tips on SEO and other ways to get their name and message out to the world more effectively. Less than a year ago, he turned that expertise into a startup, Durham-based Syllaby, an AI-aided platform to create video marketing content. That all makes Austin an ideal guest for this week's episode of the Friday Nooner, sponsored by Big Pixel. Of course before welcoming Austin, the GrepBeat team had to “settle” an in-office dispute over the recent creation of three new holidays: Grep-o-ween, Greps-giving, and Grep-mas. Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

Today, we chatted with John Gordon, the founder and CEO of Whomi, a local career development platform. John has been helping people shape their future for many years, working with esteemed companies such as Lenovo, Bose, GE and IBM to develop new strategies and open up new doors for their businesses.

Where's Pete? Nope, not at some random coffee shop in the Triangle. He has been sailing around the Caribbean with his family this past week. Joe and Jackie had to hold down the fort today on The Friday Nooner (sponsored by Big Pixel). They were joined by Keith Daniel, the co-founder and managing director at Resilient Ventures. It's an early-stage capital fund that invests in African American founders of high-growth businesses. Based in Durham, Resilient Ventures' mission is to close the wealth gap, achieve economic justice and racial equity in venture.

A Facebook message that Tai Huynh sent to fellow UNC students while a first-year—seeking others interested in working on a project to use tech to help local governments—ultimately blossomed into Durham-based startup Acta Solutions, which we named to GrepBeat's 2022 Startups To Watch list. That was one big takeaway from this week's Friday Nooner, sponsored by Triangle dev shop Big Pixeland hosted by Pete and two other people who don't even have a Wikipedia page. (OK, their names are Joe and Jackie. And yes, Pete really does have a Wikipedia page.)

Attention spans can certainly be addled by Friday afternoon, so it was fitting that today's Friday Nooner (sponsored by Big Pixel) welcomed guest Belden Long. She is the Co-Founder of justb, a movement and mindfulness platform designed for teachers to help elementary school-age students manage their energy and attention levels. [We first profiled justb in May.] We were also reminded today that Joe certainly doesn't lack for focus on Vespas. He spent most of yesterday picking up his second Vespa in Virginia; apparently he needed to drive out of state because it was one of only two available Vespas in the country in a new blood orange color. You can—and should—learn about all about the above and much more by watching or listening to the full episode. You can watch on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.

The Friday Nooner (sponsored by Triangle-based dev shop Big Pixel) returned with its regular crew in their customary spots today, though a few things were a little different. One change was easy to spot: Joe was tuning in from his iPad rather than his computer, so he had a totally different camera angle. Meanwhile Pete was wearing a red GrepBeat T-shirt per usual, but this wasn't one of “his” but rather a new shirt he took out our box of swag—and was planning to put back in after the show. That created all sorts of controversy. Jackie had a cool-looking background that seemed random, but she somehow cleverly connected it to our guest: Henry Woodbridge, the Founder and CEO of the Undecided App. Undecided helps high school students and their parents navigate the college selection and application process. (We first profiled the Durham-based startup in June.) You can watch the whole episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.