Rich has a 24+ year successful track record of working with technology companies of all sizes and all stages of growth.  As a venture capitalist, he has evaluated hundreds of businesses, made numerous investments, been responsible for dozens of rounds of financings, and achieved exits via both IPOs and M&A.  He has extensive experience with...

Carl Nordgren is a creative populist. He has been an entrepreneur, helping found two pioneer cellular telephone companies, two innovative marketing services firms, a semiconductor company, a software venture, a sport magazine publisher, and a new business incubator. He worked in four of the Creative Industries, and for ten years has been teaching courses in...

Houston Barnes is the founding member of The Barnes Law Firm in North Carolina. Houston is experienced and well seasoned with a background in both business and law. He has worked in a number of areas as varied as consulting for a Fortune 500 company, to serving as counsel for a number of start-up entrepreneural businesses....

Matthew has been the Director of Marketing & Communications with Downtown Durham Inc since 2004. Before joining DDI, he worked as a business and computer consultant in the triangle area, mainly at UNC Chapel Hill. Prior to that he was a marketing intern with the Charlotte Hornets. Since starting with DDI, Matthew has developed numerous...

Dorian Bolden, 31, owns and operates Beyu Caffé, a unique coffeehouse, restaurant, and bar with live music in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Beyu Caffé has been featured in over 20 publications and television shows such as My Carolina Today. It has received many awards including the Downtown Durham Retail Business of the Year, Triangle Business...

Bob Young is the founder and CEO of Lulu.com, the premiere international marketplace for new digital content on the Internet, with more than 100,000 recently published titles and more than 2,500 new titles added each week, created by people in 80 different countries. Lulu.com, founded in 2002, is Young’s most recent endeavour. The success of...

Rebecca Antonelli is the founder and CEO of AmericaPR, Market Smart, Inc. and Meet the New Media. She is a successful four-time entrepreneur and a highly sought-after keynote speaker, consultant, company and product launch specialist and publicist. Rebecca conceived and developed a proprietary Internet facilitated public relations firm, TrianglePR, to assist in the exchange of...

Donald R. Draughon has been in investment banking for over 20 years. Previous to opening KeySource as President and CEO, Mr. Draughon was Managing Director/Senior Vice President for Anderson & Strudwick, Inc., a full service brokerage firm headquartered in Richmond, VA. Mr. Draughon also previously served as a Director for Smith River Community Bank in...

In 1995, Heather Hesketh founded hesketh.com as an Internet technology consultancy working with corporate marketing, sales, graphic design, and public relations professionals. From the start, she attracted a steady stream of clients who relied on her ability to balance projects’ technical aspects with the strategic vision that energized her projects. hesketh.com quickly grew, becoming a...

David is the founder of S2Jeans. After the devastating January 12 earthquake, David travelled to Haiti on a mission trip with the Hope for Haiti Foundation. Based on this experience, David gathered a group together to discuss how to help the victims of this earthquake. Since textiles are Haiti’s primary export, the idea for S2Jeans...

The Director of Downtown Development is responsible for identifying and recruiting companies into the Downtown Raleigh market and works to promote Downtown Raleigh as a desirable location for corporate, divisional, and regional level companies, as well as national and international businesses. In addition, he is responsible for the retention of existing tenants and businesses in...

Bill is a founder of a number of technology and marketing companies such as PotsTek, a telecommunications equipment company, Global Data Networking System, a successful distributorship and consulting firm, and William L. Douglas Associates, a consulting and sales company focused on emerging technologies. He has been a director of sales, a national sales manager and...

Phillip Zucchino took one trip to Saint-Emilion, France and parlayed it into a three year winemaking experience. Through his inquisitive nature and love of travel, Phillip was able to learn firsthand about wine from almost every wine region of Europe during his stay. While he still maintains there is a lifetime left to learn about...

Vispi Daver is a Founding Partner at Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley bay area based venture capital firm with over $1.5 Billion under management. Vispi focuses on investments in the Software sector and on driving the Firm’s cross-border investments in India. Vispi serves on the boards of Parature, Revionics, Razorsight and CarWale (India) and is...

Zack Mansfield manages the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic operations for Square Roots, a program designed to establish value-added relationships with venture-track early stage companies from incorporation through Series A. Zack actively assists clients in business planning, investment preparation, talent evaluation, networking, fundraising strategy and execution. Prior to joining Square 1, Zack spent two years at the...

Bill Warner is the founder and Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a firm that helps executives create successful businesses by providing a broad array of executive services. He is co-founder and Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network that reaches throughout the southeast. Bill has forty years of business experience,...

Katrin Burt joined Intersouth from London-based HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world. At HSBC she moved through a series of roles, starting as a foreign exchange trader in London, managing portfolios of treasury products and equities in Tokyo and eventually moving to a business development role managing the...

James Avery is the founder of Adzerk and co-founder of TekPub, a site devoted to helping developers learn from high-quality screencasts. In addition to Max Foundry, James is also involved with DotNetKicks, Zerk Media, Infozerk, and Epic Win Hosting. James has been writing code and starting companies for the last 10 years, and has also...

Brooks leads Brooks Bell Interactive to design creative solutions, online conversion strategy, and A/B test plans for clients including Chase Bank, Nickelodeon, ServiceMaster and AARP. She is a 2002 graduate of Duke University with a BA in Psychology. Prior to founding Brooks Bell Interactive in 2003, she was a Co-founder and Creative Director at novelProjects,...

Gary Hayes- Managing Director, Scale Finance. Gary is a seasoned financial executive with over 35 years of experience across multiple industries. He is currently Managing Director and Co-Founder of Scale Finance LLC which is a leading provider of part time CFO and Controller support along with transaction advisory services to small  businesses primarily In North...

Trevor Chambers is a husband, a father and an entrepreneur. He and his family own and run Raleigh-based Bella Monica Italian Restaurant and Bella Monica FlatBread Company – a frozen food wholesale business. As such, Mr. Chambers likes to say he has a passion for being in the “delicious business.” In 2003, Mr. Chambers wanted...

Gigi Karmous-Edwards is the owner and designer of Uvo Luxury. All of Uvo’s designs are infused with Gigi’s values of quality, modern aesthetics, functionality and her love of fashion. By applying her creative design skills accumulated during her 27 years spent as a research scientist in the technology sector, Gigi leverages her engineering mindset with...

Nicole Wicker is Vice President of Finance of TearScience, Inc., a RTP ophthalmic medical device company focused on the diagnosis and treatment of evaporative dry eye. Recently, Nicole financed TearScience through a $44.5 million venture capital raise and $15 million in venture debt, enabling the company to commercialize its products throughout the world. Prior to...

Erik is responsible for strategic direction of Argand Energy Solutions, its key initiatives and business and community alliances. Erik is the son of a solar installer and is active in renewable energy advocacy, education and advancement efforts. He brings a strong finance and management background to Argand Energy Solutions with a Bachelors of Science in...

Rich Kramarik is currently the Founder/Managing Partner for Research Triangle Business Advisors, which provides executive coaching and mentoring services to startup and small/medium businesses. His substantial career experience in managing all facets of a business, including strategic and tactical planning, funding, and total P&L responsibility provides RTBA clients with a ‘real world’ perspective on major...

The Power of We’s CEO, has over 15 years experience advising companies in CFO and VP of Treasury roles for both public companies and family-owned businesses. A Delaware licensed CPA, Bernie has worked with companies experiencing fast growth, reorganization, recapitalization, acquisition and divestiture. During his career, he has acquired extensive experience in forecasting, budgeting, strategic...

Jeff Singh is the founder of Vybee.com, a web and mobile platform designed to bring together our local communities with an easy, social way to find, share, and keep up with local interests and promote local business. Jeff grew up as an active participant in the Triangle arts and music communities and studied Design and...

Martin Sinozich, Managing Member of Venn Capital and Executive Committee Member of Piedmont Angel Network III, has held operational and information technology roles since 1984.  Before moving to North Carolina in 2004, Martin served in a variety of operations and problem-solving assignments with MBNA America Bank, Fidelity Investments, and Prudential Home Mortgage.  Martin is currently an active...

Chris Duke is a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, a technologist, a writer, a teacher, a speaker – someone that is passionate about learning and always seeking to live life on purpose. He is the co-founder of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, an online retailer of gourmet cookies and brownies serving customers throughout the United States and...

Mr. Harvey’s career spans more than 20 years and includes broad experience in business development, leadership and the management of complex commercial real estate transactions. He has served clients in diverse sectors to include technology, healthcare, biotechnology, telecommunications, service and manufacturing. Guy began his commercial real estate career in 1989 with a regional, full-service firm...

David joined SCV in 2004 and currently serves on the board of BrightContext Corp. Prior to joining Southern Capitol Ventures, David was with Deloitte Consulting where he managed strategic technology projects for the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. David was on the boards of SCV portfolio companies ArtusLabs (acquired by PerkinElmer – March 2011)...

Chris Carmody has spent over 20 years helping communities utilize sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy as catalysts for economic growth. Carmody currently serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Green Plus™, an alliance of universities and chambers of commerce that helps America’s smaller employers and their communities become more competitive through...

Andrew Schwab is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years experience building technology based startup companies. As a seasoned senior executive with proven management and startup skills, he has led two local companies featured in the Triangle Fast 50, which recognizes the 50 fastest growing, privately held companies in the Research Triangle area. His diverse...

Lister Delgado is a founder and general partner at IDEA Fund Partners. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and company formation, and has been an early stage investor and advisor to entrepreneurs since 2001. During his career as an investor spanning more than 10 years, Lister has led the evaluation of over 1,000 companies and has...

Freelance journalist Chris Penttila has covered employee management and leadership issues for more than a decade. Her work has appeared in a number of publications including Entrepreneur magazine, where she served as a contributing editor and monthly management columnist for ten years. Penttila has interviewed hundreds of small business owners, consultants, professors and other business experts, and...

Andy Albright is the co-founder and President/CEO of National Agents Alliance, arguably the country’s largest and most successful insurance marketing organization specializing in life event marketing and sales. Albright has appeared in regional North Carolina magazines and newspapers, and his company NAA was selected from a pool of 35,000 area businesses as the North Carolina...