Where can startup ventures focused on tech, mental health, talent development and North Carolina-made products all come together and grow in the same space? Launch Chapel Hill, an international award-winning startup accelerator, bolsters all types of early startups in many ways. By encouraging innovative thinking, individual empowerment, community outreach, economic development and impactful change through its community of innovators, Launch offers its founders a little bit of entrepreneurial everything. The accelerator – formed through a partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill, the Town of Chapel Hill and Orange County – puts mentorship and educational programming at the forefront. But it doesn’t stop there. It also offers tech resources, a connected community and other amenities to innovators and entrepreneurs who need a steady foundation to grow their startups.

First-generation sisters Niki (right) and Ritika Shamdasani started Sani to cater to the 82% of South Asian Americans that wait to go abroad to shop for Indian weddings. In 2020, Sani became the first South Asian brand on Rent the Runway, selling out in 48 hours.

Applications are now open for Launch Chapel Hill’s 21st startup accelerator! The application period runs until January 5, 2023, and the accelerator will begin in early February 2023. Questions anytime to tim@launchchapelhill.com

DURHAM – NC IDEA has awarded $150,000 in grant money to 15 North Carolina startups in the ninth NC IDEA MICRO grant cycle, the organization announced earlier on Tuesday afternoon.

The $10,000 grants are intended to be small, project-based grants awarded to “young companies looking to validate and advance their idea,” according to NC IDEA.

Initially piloted in 2018 as an expansion of the nonprofit foundation’s long-standing SEED grant program, the organization has now awarded a total close to $1.5 million in small grants to companies.

Sheryl Waddell has been named director of economic development and innovation hubs for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this role, Waddell will lead the implementation of

Sheryl Waddell is the new face behind UNC’s Innovation Hub, which plans to open a space on East Rosemary Street in early 2023. As Innovate Carolina’s newly anointed Director of Economic Development and Innovation Hubs, Waddell hopes to foster an even greater spirit of innovation and economic prosperity in Chapel Hill, which in recent years has sometimes been a bit in the shadow of the entrepreneurial growth in Durham and Raleigh.

But for those who came out to the Launch Demo Day event one early May evening to hear from one of the most diverse sets of companies you’ll find anywhere, the startup accelerator offered a different kind of focus. This event was less about what the companies were doing, and more about where they’re going.

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.

Think of all the text we see on any given day in countless forms on our computers and phones—a virtual fire hose of words. It’s hard to recall what we saw a few hours ago, never mind a few days, weeks or months ago. And trying to go back to find something in particular? Good luck.

When one of her therapy clients began crying and Tasha Holland-Kornegay, zoned out and unaware, realized she didn’t have a clue why, it was a defining moment for her. It was the moment that forced Holland-Kornegay to admit she was burned out, and that this burnout was keeping her from helping her clients.

One Cary-based family is looking to bring something more to the plant-based food market.

Dojo Fresh Founder Oliver Pau spent most of his career in environmental management consulting, but as he looked ahead to his future more than a year ago, he started to think about what the next chapter could hold. He wanted to try something new, something he really enjoyed—and see if he could make a business out of it.

Humans have been using cannabis for around 2,000 years and up until around 100 years ago, it was widely used as a natural therapeutic.

But the process for medical marijuana treatment has been anything but standardized. There’s very little science-based research on how to prescribe it to patients. Doctors typically decide that medical marijuana is the best treatment option, give patients a medical marijuana card and leave it up to the patient to choose their own therapeutic.

CHAPEL HILL – Named one of the most innovative universities in the world by Reuters, it’s no surprise that Carolina is home to hundreds of startups and growing businesses.

In the past six decades, nearly 800 companies have been founded by Tar Heels taking their ideas from classrooms and research labs to the marketplace to earn a profit, make a social impact and create jobs.

But a thriving business doesn’t just happen overnight.

That’s where Launch Chapel Hill comes in. A startup incubator and coworking space on Franklin Street, the program is helping local entrepreneurs and young businesses get their ideas off the ground.

What if there was a way to hear your great-great-great grandmother tell the story of her upbringing and all the most pivotal moments in her life? Now, with Chapel Hill-based startup Audible Ancestry, there will be a way to hear those priceless stories—both today and for future generations—in their own voices.