Scot Wingo's List Of Triangle "Tweeners"

Over my 20+ yr startup journey, I’ve built pretty deep networks of startup ecosystem people out West and in the NE tech corridors so am frequently connected to folks looking to move to the Triangle. These are really talented people that typically have a strong tenure at big brand name tech software companies (Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, etc.) or they’ve been involved in 4-5 top-tier startups.

Invariably as we discuss the Triangle opportunities, they have already found CED, NCTA and even sometimes The Startup Factory and HQ Raleigh. Meeting with those parts of our ecosystem whets their appetite and gets them excited, but they are left with one big question:

You see, these are VP and C-level executives moving to the area. They know that unless they can catch lightning in a jar and be a co-founder, they are over-qualified for a 0-20 person startup where VP and C-level folks wear anywhere from 2 to 10 hats at a time and don’t quite need specialized help from these execs.

I think we can all agree that there is a huge amount of early stage activity that has created a lot of awesome energy and buzz in the region.

What I tell inbound execs is that in my timeframe of the last 20 years, the Triangle also has more later-stage companies. But they’re different from the later-stage companies in tech cities where the term implies they’ve raised a $20m Series C and are well on the way to $100m. Note: In the Bay area now, it’s you’ve raised $2b and you are a Unicorn, but that’s a topic for another day. 😉

Instead of using the late-stage moniker, I call our ‘post early stage’ companies in the Triangle ‘Tweeners’. Tweeners are very interesting, because they tend to get so heads down focused on execution that they don’t generate a lot of public relations. They are just are too busy. One of the silver linings of the lower levels of VC in the Triangle region, is that our startups have to generate the bulk of their investment the ‘old way’—through customers and revenue.

These inbound execs are perfect for Tweeners. But because they are so busy executing, our Tweeners are harder to find. In a Boston or Silicon Valley, an inbound exec can meet with 2-3 VC firms and quickly have a lay of the land. In fact, most of these firms have a recruiting function that specifically markets to inbound execs and matches them with known openings at the firm’s investments – matching stage and experience level and industry. These efforts don’t happen at our small funds.

And so, I thought I’d use my virtual ink this month to shine a bright light on some of the region’s top Tweeners to hopefully serve as a resource for all of those inbound execs who’ve moved or want to move to the Triangle. I’ve done my best to be complete, but the chances that I’ve missed a great Tweener are high, so please let me know in comments and I’ll do my best to update this list quarterly if folks find it helpful.

But before jumping into the list of Tweeners, it’s important to share my definition of a Tweener.

Tweener startups are not seed and they are not at huge scale yet either—they haven’t had an exit and aren’t quite on the IPO path. In VC vernacular, they are post angel/Series A and pre-exit, so somewhere in the B, C, D fundraising. Or here in the Triangle, where we have some great boostrappers, we have to rely on other crazy metrics, like revenue and headcount.

A Tweener company has a wide range of revenues and headcount. For the purposes of this column, I went with $1-$50m in revenue. In an earlier article, I talked about the rule of thumb that an average start-up software company generates $100k/person. That yields a headcount from 10-500 for Tweeners.