Venture firm Red Rocket names several Triangle startups to ‘Best’ 2018 list

CARY – Venture capital consulting firm Red Rocket, which is based in Cary and suburban Chicago, is out with its seventh annual “Best Startups of the Year” list, and several emerging Triangle firms are on the list.

Among them:

RewardStock (CEO, Jonathan Hayes), which recently secured funding from Mark Cuban on ABC’s Shark Tank
Levitate under CEO, Jesse Lipson, described by Red Rocket as a “B2B word-of-mouth marketing platform”
Pryon (CEO, Igor Jablokov), a B2B augmented intelligence platform for enterprise

“Red Rocket gets introduced to hundreds of startups each year, in the normal course of doing business, or via our involvement with various startup groups or events.,” writes Red Rocket’s George Deeb.

“We wanted to honor the best of these startups that we met in 2018 … This list is not intended to be an all-encompassing best startups list, as there are many additional great startups that we are not personally exposed to each year.”

Here is the complete list:

Crowdstaffing (CEO, Sunil Bagai) – B2B on-demand talent platform

Direct (CEO, Wes Smithe) – B2B vacation rental management platform

Exit 7C (CEO, Blessing Egbon) – B2C gasoline on demand

FanFood (CEO, Carson Goodale) – B2C in-stadium food ordering app

Farmer’s Fridge (CEO, Luke Saunders) – B2C fresh meal vending machines

Furtrieve (CEO, Jordan Hetlund) – B2C smart tracking collars for pets

Garcon (CEO, Nick Miller-Sanchez) – B2B at-restaurant-table ordering and payment app

GiftCrowd (CEO, Eshed Doni) – B2C group gifting platform via PTAs

Goodwell Co. (CEO, Patrick Triato) – B2C non-electric motorized toothbrush

Lampix (CEO, George Alex Popescu) – B2B table top augmented reality platform

Levitate (CEO, Jesse Lipson) – B2B word-of-mouth marketing platform