The Friday Nooner GrepBeat

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.