Happy Friday.
Ok, let's get it right this time.
We had record applications to the Accelerator this year. We are excited to see that the NC State entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. It wasn't an easy process, but we have our finalists that will be pitching our Committee for spots in the Summer Program.
Here are the finalists:
321 Coffee
Biohive Technologies
Fluid Solutions
Goodworks210
OpenGait Prosthetics
Proteinea
Sani
Simpliworks
Sol
Vetletics
Thought of the day:
“You can't make money with a consensus accurate prediction".
― Bill Gurley
TOP FIVE
🚀Vision / Marc Andreessen got a lot of praise and some heat for his latest post "It's Time to Build". The most candid rebuttal came from Ben Thompson, but still with an air of support. Anyway, I think the guy is right. If you missed it, please give it a read and to you I ask: What are you building? We're building the best entrepreneurship program in the country. We'll get there, together. So we're here to help you build.
🦄 Venture Capital / One of our program friends, Sunil Nagaraj, partner at Ubiquity Ventures, shared a post on the right way to approach networking."You’re Doing It All Wrong: 3 Mindset Shifts to Fix the Way You Network".
👍SaaS / B2B sales is like that mystical object no early founder seems to really grasp. It's ok, it's confusing. Luckily, Segment demistifies the process in"How to sell a B2B product".
🌵Trailblazing / Did someone say sales? Here is the best primer on how to compensate sales reps. Courtesy of A16Z here is the video. I was on a coffee session last week where Scot Wingo shared a note to our students reinforcing that top talent SDRs have been laid off and are now available for your startup. Make the most out of that opportunity.
🔢 1:1 / In case you're curious, this is what I jam to when I'm actually being productive. Send your productivity jams my way and I'lll feature.
EVENTS
GrepBeat - Today at 9am
Wingo, Colopy, and Lipson led the one last week. I think these sessions should keep happening after COVID! They're an amazing way to have thoughtful panels with top leaders.
Coffee & Conversation web panel on Covid-19’s Impact On Triangle Tech Employees. We’ve lined up the top HR execs at three leading Triangle tech companies—Rebecca Bottorff (Bandwidth’s Chief People Officer), Leslie Neitzel (Pendo’s VP of People) and Randi Seran (VP of Human Resources at ChannelAdvisor)—to discuss how to keep your teams safe and productive during Covid-19. Thanks again to our series sponsor, Pacific Western Bank, which is donating the full sponsorship fee to the NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund. Register here.
Coffee with Leaders
I was in the one with David Meeker this week and it was pure fire. So I highly recommend you join these. Join the Chamber online for our Coffee with Leaders series on May 5 for a candid conversation with Jon Hayes, founder and CEO of RewardStock. RewardStock is an online company that shows its users how to get more value from their reward points. Hayes is a successful entrepreneur who appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and secured a deal with Mark Cuban!Hayes will discuss what he has learned about navigating a startup through this global pandemic. If you want to begin your own startup but are concerned about starting it now, Hayes also will share his insight about knowing when it is the right time to make your vision become a reality.Our Coffee with Leaders series has been a great way for small business owners and entrepreneurs to hear inspiring stories and learn valuable lessons about running a successful business.Register today and you’ll receive a link to the webinar.
THE SCOOP
We are excited to officially announce The Scoop online. You can now share a gig on our website and students can share their resumes.
We'll do the matching process and facilitate the exposure to top talent coming out of our entrepreneurial realms.
Please, check out the Scoop.
Angel List
All jobs open in tech startups locally. Find them here.
See you next week,
Gabe
