The Friday Nooner GrepBeat

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.