Profiles: What you need to know about the latest NC IDEA grant winners

DURHAM – Who are the companies that comprise the spring 2018 cohort of NC IDEA SEED grant program? Here’s a look at each.

Custom furniture via ecommerce

Cardinal Workshop LLC—Burlington, NC—$25,000

“Today’s furniture market is loaded with cheap, standardized imports,” said Dennis Blanco, co-founder and partner of Cardinal Workshop. “If you want a high level of quality and customization, you have to go to the high-end of the market, which is old-school and out of reach for most people.”

Blanco and his co-founder Bryce Williamson, both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, realized that they could leverage their backgrounds in ecommerce (Blanco worked for Bonobos in e-commerce for five years) and digital fabrication (Williamson), realized there was an opportunity in the marketplace.

Though the pair grew up together in the Lake Norman region of Charlotte and attended UNC-CH together, it took a few years before they began to work together. Both ended up based in New York City, and in 2015, the pair begin to design and produce furniture at night in Williamson’s workshop, later selling it on weekends at local events and markets.

Blanco quit his full-time job at Bonobos in September 2016. “I learned a lot about how to scale a customer-centric brand and knew I’d eventually want to use that knowledge to start my own,” Blanco said.

The company has bootstrapped their operations thus far, and had not previously applied for the NC IDEA SEED grant.

“The NC IDEA grant funding will enable us to run some real marketing experiments for the first time,” said Blanco. “We expect these experiments to drive revenue growth and put us in a strong position to raise additional capital in the next year.”

The company has built its first collection of custom products [see photo of a walnut bed at the top of this post], established their brand, and built their ecommerce website. Next up is completing a customization tool that will allow website visitors the opportunity to customize their own furniture pieces, which are made of mostly solid woods like walnut, white oak, and ash.

The company selected Burlington, North Carolina, in the heart of Alamance County, for the abundance of affordable manufacturing space and the strong community of makers, said Blanco. The proximity between the Triangle and the heart of the furniture industry in High Point and Hickory is also advantageous.

“We’re excited to help rejuvenate the furniture industry in North Carolina and bring quality furniture home,” said Blanco.

How is your health?

Elite HRV—Asheville, NC—$50,000

Elite HRV gives consumers rapid and personalized feedback on how well exercise, diet, sleep or stress management efforts are working. More than 200,000 people have used Elite HRV, said founder and CEO Jason Moore, with the goal of removing the guesswork in their health and fitness journey each day.

The tool makes it easy to know if your exercise, diet, sleep, or stress management programs are working, said Moore. The company was initially a side project, which Moore pursued in addition to his work as a health coach, where he would work with clients to identify better methods to achieve better results.

“Our advanced proprietary algorithms measure the state of your nervous system accurately and non-invasively, and give you feedback on how your body is responding to your health and fitness efforts,” said Moore. They’re also able to provide early detection when your measurables are moving in the wrong direction, allowing for course correction.

This is the second time that Moore applied to the NC IDEA SEED program. The funding secured through the grant will enable the company to launch a full business-to-business suite of tools that allow coaches and practitioners to optimize the health of their clients. The company has grown through the use of debt financing for certain projects, said Moore.

There are 4 main products:

The Elite HRV app—More than 200,000 people have chosen Elite HRV to measure heart rate variability (HRV) and improve their health and fitness.
CorSense—A finger sensor designed to make measuring accurate HRV easier than ever before. It takes as little as 90 seconds when paired with the free Elite HRV app.
Coach & Practitioner Dashboard—Coaches and practitioners can analyze their clients’ data and make fast, easy, and confident tweaks to their health or performance plans.
HRVcourse.com—Tracking HRV is about building self awareness and empowering the individual. The company provides top rated online coursework to educate coaches, practitioners, and serious individuals about the science, mechanisms, and real world application of HRV.

The company is based in Asheville, where the entrepreneurial community is thriving, said Moore. They’ve participated in the Elevate program of Venture Asheville and have identified mentors in the region that have helped prepare the company for growth.

Elite HRV is the tool of choice for doctors, coaches and high performing individuals looking to get better and more sustainable results in health, fitness and stress management, the company says.

“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak in me,” said Moore. “It’s time to launch the full suite, with the help of NC IDEA.”

Wealth management for those who aren’t wealthy

Freeman Capital—Charlotte, NC—$50,000

“When I closed out my web design company to move on to other ventures, I thought I had a good chunk of change to invest,” said Calvin Williams, Jr., founder and CEO of Freeman Capital. But many of the top rated investors wouldn’t even meet with him unless he had assets in excess of $250,000, even with a referral.

“The 1% should not be the only people with access to wealth advisement,” said Williams, who then set out to establish Freeman Capital as a wealth management firm that exists for the everyday, hardworking individuals that are overlooked by larger and more traditional firms.

Williams graduated from North Carolina A&T State University, studying computer science. In starting the company, he was inspired by his great-grandparents, George and Evelyn Freeman, who taught him that money was a tool to be used to build wealth—saving it wasn’t enough, he must invest it. The name honors his family, and all of the hardworking people looking for a better future.

Williams completed Atlanta’s Ascend2020 Accelerator, Greensboro’s Launch Program, and Charlotte’s City Startup Lab, where the company won an award for the best technology platform. They were also one of six companies to participate in the Capital Connects Venture event organized by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce earlier this year.

This was the third time that Williams applied for the NC IDEA SEED grant. “The grant award will assist my marketing team in taking a huge step forward,” said Williams. The company has already raised $200,000 in a friends and family round, and plans to seek angel funding in the third quarter of 2018.

The company provides a platform where customers can start investing for as little as $1,000, and offers a diverse portfolio of investment options. The company is currently offering their Tulsa program at a discounted rate, which Williams hopes will encourage customers to try out the platform and learn how investing works.

Of course, Williams must offer this disclaimer: “Investing involves substantial risk. Always consider a financial professional when investing. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.”

Reducing farm crop waste

Glean, LLC—Snow Hill, NC—$50,000

Glean vegetable flours. Copyright Liveglean.

Up to 40 percent of farmers’ crops are lost due to shape, size, or other imperfections. Yet many communities and individuals across the globe suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and food allergies.

Glean was founded by Laura Hearn in Snow Hill, in Greene County—part of North Carolina’s strong agriculture industry—to create value-added foods and reduce farm waste. The ultimate goal is to address growing food insecurity in communities across the world, including those in North Carolina.

“Our mission is to gather goodness, reviving produce and people for meaningful lives,” said Hearn in a recent interview.

The company offers three products, beet. sweet potato, and pumpkin flours, with plans to bring additional products to market. And, for every pound purchased, the company donates a pound to communities in need. Hearn’s background is in sweet potatoes, as Nash Produce’s marketing and business development director, a position she left to found Glean.

“We are committed to cultivating healthier lives across the planet,” reads Hearn’s LinkedIn profile. “Glean was created to deliver healthy and fresh foods made directly from fruits and vegetables.”

Contact management system for entrepreneurs

myBeeHyve—Hampstead, NC—$25,000

Jennifer Turnage and Megan Sumrell launched myBeeHyve in 2017 when they couldn’t find the systems they needed to support their growing network marketing businesses.

“We decided to build them ourselves,” said Turnage. “We knew we could bridge the technology gap in the network marketing industry.”

Turnage, whose background includes serving as the CFO of multiple investor-backed SaaS companies in the Triangle, including Spoonflower, Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems (CARS), Digitalsmiths, StrikeIron, ChannelAdvisor and AuctionRover. She also founded TechCXO RTP and served as the General Manager and Managing Director of ChannelAdvisor’s international operations and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Their product, myBeeHyve, is a simple and elegant contact management system, said Turnage. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs that are running their own business on their own, Turnage said.

This is the first time the company applied for an NC IDEA SEED grant. Turnage and Sumrell plan to deploy the funds to accelerate investment in product development and increase revenue.

The company, based in Hampstead, just outside of Wilmington, is also a member of the NC IDEA SOAR program. From an initial beta in June 2017 for 50 users, the company has grown to 3,000 customer accounts in seven different companies across 125 network marketing brands, said Turnage. “Our next milestone is seven-figure annual revenue.” To achieve this growth, the company closed a small equity round from friends and family in the first quarter of 2018.

Turnage and Sumrell also recently released a book, “Honey, You Got This! Technology Made Easy for Network Marketers”, which was recognized as a #1 New Release in the Business Marketing category on Amazon.

“We’re very excited to be selected as a grant recipient,” said Turnage. “We understand it’s very unusual for a first-time applicant to receive a grant of any amount.”

Phone performance management

SalesSync, LLC—Cary, NC—$50,000

“Medical practices are spending a ton on marketing to get their phones to ring but have no idea what is happening on those critical new patient calls,” said Brad Blaser, cofounder and CEO of SalesSync. “We are here to change that.”

The company’s phone performance management platform is an all-in-one solution for converting more new patient calls into in-office consultations. Utilizing call recordings and speech analytics, their technology categorizes 100% of a practice’s new patient calls. This provides unparalleled visibility into what is happening on the phones, as well as tools for improving staff performance, said Blaser.

“We can provide call-center level analytics at a price point that individual practices can afford,” said Blaser. That’s the true value proposition for the young company, who receives the NC IDEA SEED grant after their second application. The company was named a finalist with their first application. Now, they’re receiving $50,000, which Blaser said will be a game-changer.

“The funds will allow us to continue penetrating our end markets and build out our technology platform,” said Blaser. The company currently has 20 customers, and plans to scale to 50 customers, leveraging the grant money to do so.

“We got together to start a company because that’s what we have always dreamed of doing,” said Blaser.

Redefining asthma care

VitalFlo Inc.—Raleigh, NC—$50,000

Luke Marshall, founder and CEO of VitalFlo with mobile spirometer. Copyright VitalFlo Inc.

VitalFlo is redefining the standard of care for asthma management by providing actionable recommendations to patients when they need it most: before they have an asthma attack.

“VitalFlo’s vision is to build a future without asthma attacks,” said Luke Marshall, founder and CEO of VitalFlo. “Our lung health analytics platform, powered by its handheld medical device and digital health management app, enables asthmatic patients to track their lung health and asthma medications at home.”

There are 25 million Americans that suffer from asthma symptoms, said Marshall. “That’s 25 million Americans that aren’t sure about whether they’ll have trouble breathing today, whether they’ll miss school or work today, or about whether they’ll be one of the 10 Americans that will die today from asthma.”

The company’s VitalFlo mobile spirometer and smartphone application enables anyone with asthma symptoms or medications monitor their lung function. They company uses predictive analytics to determine whether a patient is at risk of an attack, and notifies them so they can avoid missed days, trips to the emergency room, or worse.

The VitalFlo mobile spirometer was invented by the company’s CTO, James Dieffenderfer, who recently completed a biomedical engineering doctorate degree at North Carolina State University. The company’s COO, Ravi Chilukuri, brings more than 20 years of experience in leading development teams, most notably serving as the vice president of product development at Phononic.

“It’s been a privilege to work with this great team,” said Marshall, “as we work to build VitalFlo into a company with enough scale to really make an impact for asthmatics everywhere.”