Durham-based Tempo Brew Co-Founder Gauri Rege is a lifelong coffee lover. But she noticed the products in the cold-brew market were missing something compared to the cold brew she would make at home.
They weren’t as flavorful because they were pasteurized. While pasteurization increases a product’s shelf life, it can diminish the taste.

The downtown Chapel Hill accelerator launched its 20th cohort of companies – with nine new tech, food and health ventures primed for growth.

During Launch Chapel Hill’s Demo Day, nine early-stage startups pitched their companies to the audience Thursday evening at the Launch headquarters on Franklin Street. There was a wealth of networking, food and drinks to go around as the Triangle community learned about the new startups in their own backyard.

It was the culmination of a journey that the founders took along with Launch Chapel Hill leaders like Sheryl Waddell, Launch’s Director of Economic Development.

“We bring those cohorts through 10 to 13 weeks and really work with them,” Waddell said, “share the love and really surround them with the resources from the town, the resources from the university to make them thrive.”

One of Jim Kitchen’s earliest memories is sitting on his mom’s lap and watching the launch of one of the Saturn rockets—which powered the Apollo space program—off the coast of Florida on their black and white TV. It literally shook the Earth, he said. That was the moment it became Kitchen’s lifelong dream to become an astronaut.