Early-Stage Accelerators & Mentorship Programs

• Groundwork Labs: An early-stage accelerator program that uniquely offers services for free to participating startups/teams, without taking an equity stake in the company. The focus is on establishing or growing a customer base, developing a solid business model and preparing founders to pitch and raise capital after graduating from the program.
• Soar Triangle: An organization that addresses the investment gap female entrepreneurs starting scalable businesses in North Carolina are facing today, doing so through methods of mentorship and advocacy. The program accepts around 10 women-led companies per year.
• Shaw University Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center is a new incubator and entrepreneurship center serving Shaw students with daily workshops, mentoring sessions, lunch-and-learns and a speakers series with experienced entrepreneurs. The space, located in Southeast downtown Raleigh, opened this year in partnership with the Carolina Small Business Development Fund. Read ExitEvent's coverage here.
• Startup Stampede: An American Underground mentorship program that helps selected startups get consumer-focused products and ideas off the ground.
• NC State Entrepreneurship Collaborative: An umbrella platform for the larger network of university programs designed to optimize growth potential for student or alumni-led startups, professionals, future entrepreneurs. It includes all of the relevant degree-seeking programs for students that want to take the startup path once they graduate. It’s also the root of NCSU’s Entrepreneurship Clinic, which embeds students at HQ Raleigh so they can get real-world experience in startup life working with other entrepreneurs outside of a campus setting.
• ThinkHouse: A live-learn accelerator space in Raleigh that supplies fellows with mentors, leadership training and meetings with an advisory board, resources from local universities and access to the HQ Raleigh network (among others in the Triangle.) The program is immersive, and lasts one year. Read about the most recent cohort of fellows here.
• NC State Andrews Launch Accelerator and Acceleration Fund: Includes equity-free grants up to $50,000 and a five-module program for business development over the course of three months. Applicant teams must have least one current undergraduate/graduate student or alumnus within two years of gradation.
• 1789 Venture Lab is a launch space for UNC students and recent alumni who seek support to develop their ideas, just steps away from campus in Chapel Hill.
• Bunker Labs RDU provides access to business services, mentorship with experienced entrepreneurs and introductions to investors for the area's military veteran community. The program holds an annual conference, The Muster RDU, to empower these innovators; it's free for veterans and active duty service members.

VC/Angel Groups to Pitch

• The Launch Place: This Danville, Virginia-headquartered organization expanded to Research Triangle Park a few years ago, offering local ventures pre-seed and seed capital, typically within nanotech, IT, greentech, materials and manufacturing, medtech and alternative energy. The organization also hosts an annual Big Launch Challenge, where startups pitch for a cash prize and capital opportunities.
• Bull City Venture Partners: A Durham fund that primarily invests in seed and early-stage software and internet startups. BCVP has a reputation for its early leads in some of the region's most fastest-growing startups, like Zift Solutions and Spiffy.
• Cofounders Capital: A Cary-based seed fund managed by local serial entrepreneur David Gardner. The group is made up of more than 70 advisors and mentors who are dedicated to funding promising startups, as well as supporting them with prototyping, vetting and discovering beta customers.
• Triangle Angel Partners: An active group of local angel investors who are also (or have experience as) executives, PhDs, successful entrepreneurs and professional investors.
• Full Tilt Capital: An early-stage venture firm setting out to “democratize access to opportunity for thousands of underserved founders.” It’s molded around a strategy to defy the norms of how VC investments are traditionally made, throwing out the return-based approach to investing and reshaping the way VCs hear/respond to company pitches in the first place. The firm has made more than 39 investments since its launch less than a year ago.
• Idea Fund Partners: A VC firm that focuses on seed and early-stage companies in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast, providing early investments from $100,000 to $750,000 per round. The firm will often revisit its portfolio startups as they develop, for even more investments in future rounds. This year, Idea Fund was named North Carolina’s most active venture fund by CB Insights.
• Inception Micro Angel Fund RTP: A collective of new and successful investors in the Research Triangle Park region from a diversity of disciplines. The fund supports seed-stage ventures primarily in the Triangle (but sometimes outside the region) with high growth potential.
• RTP Capital: A local seed and early-stage angel network that primarily supports tech-focused startups in North Carolina. Investments typically range from $100,000 to $500,000, and the group considers follow-on deals with startups that receive other investments from its members. The firm is recognized on The Angel Resource Institute's list of the top 10 most active angel groups in 2016.

And here are some university-affiliated angel and venture groups:

• Triangle Venture Alliance: A network of alumni angel groups that formed in partnership with Duke, UNC, NCSU and NCCU. The organization connects funding sources to startups founded by students, alumni, staff, faculty and families.
• Wolfpack Investor Network: A group that helps provide seed and Series A equity capital to companies with some sort of NCSU connection, whether it be a founder, executive, donor or board member who is an alumnus, faculty or staff member, student or parent, or has licensed NCSU intellectual property.
• Carolina Angel Network: An alumni base of 70,000 angel investors who are dedicated to linking UNC Chapel Hill’s entrepreneurial community with early-stage funding. The network facilitates financial transactions through a screening process, connecting student teams and companies with outside investor contacts and opportunities.
• Duke Angel Network: Funds student startups, so long as the ventures are led by founder(s) who are either Duke students, or part of the university's alumni network, faculty or staff.

Challenges, Grants & Other Funding Opportunities

• NC IDEA Foundation: A Durham-based funding source that offers grants to around five startups in grant cycles that take place twice per year. Each select company receives up to $50,000 in non-dilutive funding.
• Duke Startup Challenge: Three student teams compete in three rounds for a year-long entrepreneurship competition that leads to an accelerator program. Read about the most recent cohort here.
• UNC’s Carolina Challenge is a venture competition that provides students the opportunity to win seed funding for early-stage ideas. Every year, the challenge distributes around $50,000 to promising startups in both profit and nonprofit spaces.
• NCSU Chancellor’s Innovation Fund: An arm of the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization and New Ventures that provides up to $75,000 to short-term research projects that focus on commercial results. Last year, the fund awarded $2 million to 35 projects, helped launch 12 startups and facilitate 17 commercialization agreements.
• Lulu eGames: An annual pitch competition for NCSU student-led ventures within five categories—new venture, design and prototype, arts, social impact and built on cloud. Read about the 2017 winners here.
• Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange: Black Founders: A week-long startup program focused on building and funding local startups led by black founders. It's held in conjunction with the annual Black Wall Street Homecoming, a three-day event that celebrates the entrepreneurship and innovation sourced from Durham's diverse, multicultural communities. Check out last year's coverage.

People to Know & Follow

Derrick Minor serves as the City of Raleigh's in-house innovation and entrepreneurship manager, where his job is to get to know local entrepreneurs of all stages in their companies, from just an idea or venture to large-scale businesses. He helps connect them to various resources and outlets, and introduces them to peers and potential co-founders/team members. His task is to champion the city's growing base of entrepreneurs into opportunity and, eventually, widespread success.

Tatiana Birgisson is the founder and CEO of Durham beverage startup MATI Energy. She’s well-known in the startup community as a resourceful startup leader, landing a spot on Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 list this year. She first created her healthy, tea-infused energy drink brand out of a Duke dorm room and went on to find innovative ways to compete in the beverage industry, while building her high-growth business at the same time.

Scot Wingo is a four-time serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor to local startups across several industries. He specializes in the e-commerce and on-demand services sectors, and always has his eyes on emerging companies and founders. Every year, he rounds up and updates a list of promising local startups which he calls "Triangle Tweeners."

Cindy Whitehead has risen to the forefront of the Triangle’s startup community since the billion dollar exit her former pharmaceuticals startup, which developed the first-ever drug to enhance women’s sex drive. Whitehead championed the drug and overcame several hurdles to eventually earn FDA approval. Now she runs a member community and coworking space in Raleigh called The Pink Ceiling, where she serves as a figure many in the community look up to as an example of perseverance. Her accelerator, called The Pinkubator (mentioned above) mentors and funds women-led businesses or women-focused products in various industries.

Joe Procopio is a local serial entrepreneur (and founder of ExitEvent). His current venture, called Teaching Startup, educates founders on the 25 most important foundations of growing a company. Lessons are presented in an engaging multimedia bundle, complete with written pieces, a podcast and a TV show-style video series.

Jan Davis is an extremely well-connected individual in the local startup scene, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who’s also an active board member for a number of Triangle startups. She’s also an investor within the Triangle Angel Partners network, as well as a member of The Launch Place’s seed fund advisory board. Learn more about Jan in this cool interactive story of her life and work, by Female Funders.

Lewis Sheats is a major asset to NCSU’s entrepreneurial network, a faculty member who has led the university’s Entrepreneurship Clinic as director since its launch. Earlier this month, his role expanded with another title: assistant vice provost for entrepreneurship. His leadership at NCSU stems from a long background in the startup world, a serial entrepreneur who founded companies in multiple industries—from oil change businesses to mobile security devices.

Phillipe Charles is the director of communications and member experience for American Underground, where he serves as a sort of go-to middle-man between startup teams and all sorts of resources, advice, information and connections they might need while growing their businesses. He writes a blog on American Underground’s website and Medium page complete with tips and tricks for entrepreneurs to adopt for their workflow. And he hosts a podcast called Connectricity, featuring interviews with local members of the startup community.

Liz Tracy is the director of HQ Raleigh, where she ensures growth within the innovation hub that’s home to hundreds of startups. She also serves as a connector to local entrepreneurs, while helping each achieve their goals and grow within the Triangle’s impactful startup ecosystem. Aside from her HQ Raleigh job, she’s a facilitator and co-instructor at the Citrix-Red Hat Startup Accelerator where she works with B2B growth-stage companies. And she also teaches entrepreneurial development classes at Leadership exCHANGE Global Leadership Programs.

Chris Heivly is an author, speaker and investor who previously founded MapQuest and Durham seed accelerator The Startup Factory. He's a well-recognized face in the Triangle startup scene as one of its first champions years ago, and his longtime advocacy is a major contributor for why the community has risen to its current levels of growth. He’s currently an entrepreneur-in-residence within the national Techstars program.

Justin Miller, the founder of photo sharing app WedPics, is a prominent figure in the Triangle startup community—he has become a major proponent in promoting the area’s entrepreneurial growth over the years. He’s always open and honest about startup life and all its inevitable twists and turns, and is a popular personality within the local startup scene for doing so.

Inspiration, Advice & Other Resources

• Scot Wingo's Guide to the Triangle Startup Ecosystem + an annually updated "Tweener" list of promising companies. Check out the latest edition if you want to get your feet wet in startup without taking the plunge yourself.
• Helpful startup tips and tricks laid out in a blog by Phillipe Charles of American Underground.
• 24 Hours with Startups in Raleigh, NC, a guide to finding capital, coworking and community in the city, written by Atlanta VC Lisa Calhoun.
• Our compilation of more than 30 startup books, video series and podcasts produced in the Triangle.
• The Duke Entrepreneurship Manual, a detailed guide that walks through the steps of starting a venture.
• A quick guide to Getting Started in the Triangle, by American Underground Chief Strategist Adam Klein.
• Get to know some local names in startup through this series of 20 cartoons inspired by Triangle entrepreneurs, created by Chris Lysy, a content design/digital marketing expert who works out of RTP’s co-working space The Frontier.
• The Interbrew is a web series where Raleigh entrepreneurs Kyle Sheats and Jared Childs sat and drank local beer with fellow NC startup founders to hear tales of their journeys.