Bull City Startup Stampede Program Launches Seven New Companies

Durham is a place with an entrepreneurial streak that goes back to when Durham actually became a place.  As the Civil War ended here, the tobacco and textile industries grew and now the place is home to some of the world's leading technology, health care and education.

It's these humble and unpretentious beginnings that shape Durham today where ideas and hopes become realities and businesses.

The Bull City Startup Stampede 3.0 concluded last night with the seven participating companies pitching in front of a packed house at Beyu Caffe in downtown Durham. Over 120 people from throughout the Triangle’s startup ecosystem, including early-stage investors, heard the companies’ final pitches, their progress made during the 60-day initiative, and their next steps. The Stampede gave the participating companies time to focus on launching their business while covering a significant number of basic startup expenses—from space to furniture to wi-fi.

While previous Stampede classes have focused primarily on technology and software, the third Stampede displayed the diversity of industry types in Durham and the Triangle. The Bull City Startup Stampede had companies in fashion and jewelry, financial services, social media and even a jazz non-profit.

“This was a special group of entrepreneurs that supported each other and built better companies because of their time with startups outside of their industry,” said Adam Klein, Startup Strategist for the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce. “We had non-software companies receiving help from the techies and vice versa. It shows the power of putting creative people together in a creative environment.”

Of the seven companies that participated in the Stampede, five are staying in Durham after the program ends. There were several highlights to the program this go around, including a seed round raised by Offline Media, a startup creating a social event platform that helps young professionals connect offline.  This is the second time a Stampede company raised money while in the Stampede. Another startup, Alekto, which works in the consumer credit space, will stay in Durham after moving from Washington, D.C. for the Stampede.

The Bull City Startup Stampede also partnered with Pruvop, a digital products lab in downtown Durham, to award one startup a prize package including $5,000 in custom software development & consulting. Pruvop co-founder Adam Schultz announced The Art of Cool as the recipient of the software package. The Art of Cool is a jazz presenting non-profit working to launch an international jazz festival in Durham.

“In addition to sharing the vision of a prospering, culturally vibrant Durham, we were personally impressed by Cicely’s (AOC founder) drive, hunger for feedback and the ability to pivot and grow rapidly based on the feedback she was given,” said Schultz. “It’s organizations like hers that we love to work with.”

Relevance Software, a software development company in Durham, provided software development consulting during the Stampede as well.

The Chamber and Downtown Durham, Inc. have partnered on two previous Bull City Startup Stampede programs which brought 28 companies to downtown Durham and leveraged over $100,000 in in-kind support.

“The Stampede is the launching ground for startups in Durham,” said Matthew Coppedge, Director of Marketing at Downtown Durham, Inc. “We are part of the pipeline developing in Durham that helps early-stage entrepreneurs go from concept to market quickly.” 

Of the 28 companies, 15 remain in downtown Durham and two Stampede companies participated in the inaugural class at the Triangle Startup Factory accelerator program. Other companies have raised seed investment rounds, won NC IDEA grants, and two companies, Bound Custom Journals and OrganicTransit, were recently featured in TechCrunch.

The following is a list of the 2012 Bull City Startup StampedeTM participants and their Twitter handles:

•    Alekto empowers consumers through innovative credit reporting management services. @AlektoCo
•    Directed Deposits helps individuals find and fund high interest, FDIC-insured savings accounts that are good for your wallets and the issues & communities you care about. @DirectedDeposits
•    Freshly Given embraces minimalist style, creativity & sustainability through accessories, handmade from genuine re-purposed leather. @FreshlyGiven
•    Offline Media is envisioning a world where "social" means more than just sitting behind a computer. @offlinemedia
•    Seam Happy designs and makes custom promotional products, decor, and apparel. For business, home, and general happiness. @SeamHappy
•    Social Media Phobia Solutions is a fearless digital media consulting and business management firm. @BreeLDavis
•    Sweeps helps you get just about anything done by motivated college students for $25 per hour. @SweepsJobs
•    The Art of Cool Project is dedicated to preserving, presenting, and promoting the local vibrant, varied, and surprisingly under-appreciated jazz and art scene in Raleigh-Durham.  @theaocproject

Durham leads the nation in the percentage of jobs in the creative class and leads the state in private sector salaries; it is widely regarded as one of the top places in the nation to start a business, and as a place for people to live and work.  Learn more about Durham's rankings online.

Really Small News?

The creators of the Bull City Startup Stampede are back at it with a new project.  It's a really big deal and a great opportunity for the winner.  The exposure will be massive and the financial value is big.  It's just that the space is, well, small.

Really small.

The Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Durham, Inc. are partnering once again to bring entrepreneurs to downtown Durham, this time through an initiative called The Smoffice. A national competition, The Smoffice will provide one startup with six months of free space in “The World’s Smallest Office” as well as  a free six-month lease on a downtown condo.

The Smoffice will be located in the storefront window of Beyu Caffe, a prominent coffee shop on Main Street. “We are excited to be working with Dorian (owner of Beyu) as we think entrepreneurship and coffee make a great pair,” said Adam Klein, Startup Strategist at the Durham Chamber. “We like the energy of the crowd that spends time at Beyu Caffe and think this location will give the winning entrepreneur an easy opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow entrepreneurs and Durham’s business leaders.”

The Smoffice design was created by Center Studio Architecture and constructed by McDonald York. The winning entrepreneur will enjoy a custom built desk as well as free furniture from CBi and a tablet. In addition to the commercial space, the winner will get to enjoy downtown Durham around the clock with a free condo at Mangum 506.

“Downtown Durham powers startups and we want to give The Smoffice winner as much exposure and time in Durham as possible,” said Downtown Durham Inc.’s Director of Marketing Matthew Coppedge. “We are quickly becoming a significant startup hub and The Smoffice gives us a great chance to continue to feature entrepreneurs and the kind of energy and creativity they drive in a downtown environment. This initiative will show that one does not need the best or fanciest space to launch a successful company, but rather be surrounded by a stimulating environment and people.”

The Smoffice winner will also receive technical assistance from startup experts in legal, accounting and marketing. Perhaps most important, the winner will be networked with the 70 other startups that call downtown Durham home.

 Applications for The Smoffice open on Leap Day, February 29 and close Friday, March 30. Interested applicants can learn more at www.thesmoffice.com or on Twitter @thesmoffice. Applications should include a one page business plan along with a 60 second You Tube video detailing why the startup should win The Smoffice space. The Smoffice winner will be announced on Friday, April 13 and the winner will arrive in Durham and open The Smoffice on Monday, April 30. Website design for The Smoffice was provided by Kompleks Creative.

Durham is a great place for big ideas, big personalities and big businesses...but they all started someplace (ugh.) small.

Start to Finish - Entrepreneurialism in Durham, NC

Imagine a community welcoming to people with ideas, passion and the desire to start a business; a place where when people hear the ideas of others they respond with “How can I help?” instead of “Good luck;” a place where even failure is ok as long as the road there is lined with integrity.

That place is Durham, NC.

Durham, a city with deep entrepreneurial roots, has been garnering national attention for its progressive and innovative nature for hundreds of years. Durham is home to Research Triangle Park (RTP), the largest high-tech research and science park in North America.  In addition, Downtown Durham is home to over 60 startup companies employing more than 500 people.

The startup culture is hardly new. Durham has always been a hotbed of entrepreneurialism - the Great American Indian Trading Path ran through here; a route that was an early manifestation of entrepreneurial activity.  In the 1860s, Washington Duke started what grew into the mega-giant American Tobacco Company from pocket change.  Businesses like Durham-based Cree and Quintiles grew from a handful of employees 25 years ago to their current status as multinational companies with thousands of employees.   

More recently, in 2011, Durham was the first stop on the US Small Business Administration’s national tour of roundtable discussions called Startup America: Reducing Barriers. In other words, entrepreneurism is an essential part of Durham’s DNA. 

With the startup landscape flourishing in Durham, the future looks brighter every day.  An influx of small business incubators and accelerators has drawn entrepreneurs to Durham from around the world, all of whom have a dream and the drive to succeed.  Organizations like JoyStick Labs, LaunchBox Digital and Bull City Forward, to name a few. 

Much of the success of these small businesses can be traced to organizations and programs that help entrepreneurs thrive.  The Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Durham Inc. have hosted The Bull City Start-up Stampede, a competitive initiative matching start-up companies with free office space and technical assistance.  CED, the regional council for entrepreneurial development located in Downtown Durham also provides entrepreneurs with the necessary resources and tools to start and grow their businesses.  

Duke University recently launched a major campus-wide initiative in innovation and entrepreneurship led by Kimberly Jenkins.  A Duke alumna, Jenkins’ resume includes working with Microsoft’s Bill Gates back when it was a start-up company, leading the marketing department for Steve Jobs at NeXT, as well as stints advising companies such as Sun, Oracle and Cisco.  This effort will help keep bright graduates close by and further expand the societal impact of Duke innovations. 

Turns out, Durham is also a great place to be to work on stepping away from a business that has grown to great success, too.  Two of Durham’s entrepreneurs, Jess Eberdt and Doug Townsend, did exactly this and maneuvered away from the daily operations of their hugely successful business Parata Systems.  They started Tempus Durham, a firm that helps successful entrepreneurs do exactly as they have done, devise an exit strategy from a successful business to have freedom to pursue other things. 

Durham has myriad stories of dreams that became ideas that became realities that grew into great successes.  It’s really a city to be reckoned with when it comes to starting a business, routinely being named in the same breath as Silicon Valley.

Considering that more than 80% of relocating executives visit a location first before deciding to move their companies, the success of Durham as a visitor destination can only further encourage the natural evolution and current momentum that made Durham such a highly sought-after business climates in the U.S. 

Startup Stampede 2.0

One of Durham's many well-ingrained brand values is entrepreneurialism.  It is not surprising then, that Durham has achieved national recognition as a place for new businesses start-ups. 

A variety of incubators and accelerators have cropped up in Durham to help those nascent companies get going...Launchbox, Joystick Labs, Bull City Forward and American Underground, to name a few. 

Then in April, the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Durham Inc. hosted the "Bull City Start Up Stampede" where 15 entrepreneurs were selected through a competitive process to come to Durham for 60 days to work on their business idea. 

The offer came with free office space, wi-fi, a community of peers to work with and a chance to learn from some of the most successful start-up founders in Durham.  The event worked so well, a second Stampede is in the planning stages for September of 2011. 

This time around the community has a chance to engage and actually pick one of the companies that get to participate. For a minimum support commitment, contributors get to vote on the 20 finalists. The top vote-getter gets an automatic invitation into the fall Stampede. It’s a very "Durham" way involve the entire community in supporting future entrepreneurial success stories and attracting top talent to the Bull City.

As a matter of fact, the company helping the stampede garner additional support is Ripple, a local Durham start-up that markets itself as a "A better way to fund and support entrepreneurs."   What's really cool about that is Ripple just happens to be one of the 15 companies chosen to participate in the first stampede, proving indeed, that what goes around comes around.

 Click here to participate in the effort.

Accion Emprendedora to Serve Hispanic Micro-Entrepreneurs

Durham's community diversity is one of this place's most valued attributes - right up there with being entrepreneurial.  So the announcement of a new source of support to the Hispanic community is pretty big news in the place where great things happen. 

Durham is already home to several business incubators.  Bull City Forward, American Underground, Startup Stampede and more recently The Cookery, provide the necessary support to bring new business ventures and social enterprises to life. Through this network of innovators and social change makers came a empower an underserved set of entrepreneurs – Acción Emprededora, an incubator targeted to assist Hispanic micro-entrepreneurs.

Under the direction of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business Graduate, Alenjandro Snachez  and with the support of Bull City Forward, El Centro Hispano and the Latino Community Credit Union,  Acción Emprendedora will help entrepreneurs in the Hispanic community achieve some major goals.  The non-profit is dedicated to developing the Hispanic small business sector through trainings, technical assistance, networking and support through the process of obtaining financing.

Acción Emprendedora’s mission is to overcome poverty through entrepreneurship - they will launch their first round of classes in September.

The Cookery joins Durham Food and Entrepreneurship Community

The newest addition to Durham’s food and entrepreneurship communities opened its doors to an eager crowd of local food enthusiasts on Thursday night. Visitors got a first look at The Cookery, a for-hire commercial kitchen space which will operate both as a commercial kitchen for food trucks and catering businesses, and as a small food-business incubator.  Culinary entrepreneurs will be provided the tools they need, both intellectual and practical, to start and run their operation. Clients contract use of the facility on a monthly basis or by the hour where the kitchen is open 24 hours per day and 7 days per week.

Durham is routinely considered the Silicon Valley of the South Eastern US with incubators such as American Underground and Bull City Forward, and the Start Up Stampede as drivers of the growth.  Durham is also one of the country’s most vibrant and celebrated food markets and was on the NY Times list of the top 41 places in the world to visit in 2011 with its food culture highlighted as a component. The Cookery’s business model serves both markets by fostering creative culinary minds as they set out to become the next Durham’s local food scene success story.

Companies Selected for Bull City Startup Stampede

The Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that 11 companies have been selected for the Bull City Startup Stampede to be held in downtown Durham April 1 through May 31.

The Bull City Startup Stampede is an initiative of the Chamber, Downtown Durham, Inc., and their economic development partners that is geared toward attracting and scaling more startup companies in downtown Durham. The Stampede offers 60 days of completely furnished, free space at 201 W. Main St., a Self-Help building. Participating companies will have access to technical assistance from startup experts as well as opportunities to network with founders of successful Durham startups. In total, 78 applications were received for the Stampede.

“We were overwhelmed and thrilled by the response to the Stampede,” said Adam Klein, the Chamber’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. “The applications were wide-ranging and inspiring. It made the selection process difficult, but we are thrilled to bring these 11 startup companies and 30 employees downtown.”

The companies that were not selected for the Stampede have already been connected to the many business resources available in Durham such as Bull City Forward, N.C. Institute for Minority Economic Development, Durham Technical Community College Small Business Center, CED, LaunchBox Digital, Joystick Labs and the Small Business and Technical Development Center.

“We want to make sure all the companies that showed interest in the Stampede are engaged in Durham and the business opportunities here,” Klein said. “We have a wealth of resources and partners who can help these companies start and grow in Durham.”

About the Bull City Startup Stampede participants:

AcuMedSoft – revolutionizing healthcare delivery with secure cloud based web applications.

Appuware – provides a cloud-based suite of tools and services that enable mobile publishers to offer trial and subscription based pricing within various app marketplaces.

Blink Coupons - customer loyalty cards for small businesses. Blink aims to become the Google of the collegiate market and their ultimate goal is to make the collegiate experience more enjoyable for college students, professors and advertisers, alike.

Bound Custom Journals - delivers uniquely customizable journals for travel, sketching, writing, planning, anything--because only you can create the perfect journal.

Clinical Ambassador – a cultural attaché that connects science and minority communities to advanced medical discovery and reduces disparities through cultural competence, research literacy, outreach strategy, community-driven, creative marketing and patient recruitment in clinical trials.

Finger Puppet Games, Inc. - develops 3D games with cutting-edge technology that are social, tactile, and collectible; built for mobile devices and monetized through microtransactions.

Fitsistant - a service of on-call physical training coaches & scheduling assistants combined with personally tailored fitness software.

Haiti Hub - a for-profit social enterprise dedicated to providing the highest quality Haitian Creole e-language learning solutions to native English speakers invested in Haiti’s future.

LearnVC – VCHub.com (operated by LearnVC) simplifies raising capital by modeling investment scenarios to educate entrepreneurs and collaborate with potential investors.

Little Green Software - develops apps for smart devices including smartphones, tablets, game systems, and the web.

Rippple – an online platform that empowers communities to support entrepreneurs in building successful businesses.

Durham a Hotbed of Entrepreneurial Activity

Durham, a city with deep entrepreneurial roots, is again garnering national attention for its progressive and innovative community. Currently, the Chamber estimates that downtown Durham is home to over 50 startup companies, employing more than 500 people. Also home to the Research Triangle Park, Durham really is a city to be reckoned with.  

These facts make it easy to see why the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce announced the Bull City Startup Stampede at vertically the same time the federal government announced its intention to begin a series of roundtables aimed at reducing barriers and regulations to build a more supportive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation right here in Durham on March 3. Here is more information on each program.

The Bull City Startup Stampede, will provide startups access to 3,500 square feet of office space at 201 W. Main Street in downtown Durham for 60 days. During the Stampede, entrepreneurs will have time to focus on launching their business, receive free technical assistance from attorneys, accountants, and other service providers and meet with several successful entrepreneurs located in downtown Durham. Entrepreneurs will get to use the state’s fastest Wi-Fi connection courtesy of Time Warner Cable Business Class and receive free parking compliments of the City of Durham. Local companies nBaxter Design, Edge Office, Preation and Smashing Boxes have provided additional support for the project – assisting with logistical aspects of the Stampede. This program is courtesy of courtesy of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Durham, Inc. and Self-Help Commercial Real Estate.

The Startup America: Reducing Barriers roundtables are in response to President Obama’s issuing of an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to identify and take steps to reduce regulations that are outdated or overly burdensome to entrepreneurs. The roundtable series will build on this directive and is part of the Administration’s overall Startup America efforts to support for startups and entrepreneurs with tools and resources to grow America’s economy and win the future. Entrepreneurs and small business owners in Durham interested in attending any of the events can learn more by emailing reducingbarriers@sba.gov or by visiting www.sba.gov/startupamerica.