RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – With weekly updates to keep content fresh, WRAL TechWire’s Triangle Startup Guide offers an up-to-date resource package for anyone looking to start or grow a business in the Triangle area.

Whether you just have an idea for a startup or have built a product and want to get started raising money, the Triangle Startup Guide has something for everyone. An essential set of resources are listed in the Accelerators & Mentorship Programs section of the guide, geared towards early-stage startups seeking expert guidance and a way to test their prototypes as they prepare to launch.

Today, we added another resource to the list: Becoming An Investor-Ready Entrepreneur, a program run by the Small Business and Technology Development Center (or SBTDC). The program recently expanded to cover pharmaceutical companies.

Becoming An Investor-Ready Entrepreneur helps startup founders enter their next stage of growth by engaging private equity investors. The program has been running for years, but its scope is broadening to serve pre-clinical stage entrepreneurs and university startups.

The next series of workshops, tailored for pharmaceutical-sector entrepreneurs, will be held virtually on Aug. 26 and Sept. 2.

Raising Equity Capital for Pharmaceutical Development

Other recent additions to the Triangle Startup Guide:

Every week, we update the guide with new resources for local entrepreneurs. If we missed something, please feel free to suggest it for inclusion. You can email me directly or use this contact form.

Here’s a review of the latest additions we’ve made in recent weeks:

  • In the Inspiration, Advice and More Resources section, we added the Angel Resource Institute’s 2020 HALO Report, which offers an inside look at the latest angel investing trends across the U.S. The 2020 report analyzes 2,198 transactions, focusing on seed and Series A-stage companies. It shows that the Southeast is the country’s second most active angel investor region, accounting for nearly 16% of deals. It also notes that early-stage life science and health care companies in the Raleigh/Durham area appear to be sourcing funds from outside investors in California, New York and Chicago.
  • We added Test Flight Pitch Practice to the Accelerators & Mentorship Programs section of the guide. Test Flight Pitch Practice is an opportunity for early-stage startups to hone their pitch and get valuable feedback from an audience of angel investors, funding groups, customers and other reviewers.
  • We added Duke University’s MEDx-Biomedical Engineering Medical Device Design Program to the Competitions, Grants & Other Funding Sources section of the guide. In this program, teams of undergraduate students from Duke’s Department of Biomedical Engineering will build out medical device concepts proposed by Duke University Medical Center physicians, nurses and other clinical professionals.
  • We added the National Venture Capital Association’s model legal document resource to the Inspiration, Advice & More Resources section of the guide. The organization provides legal document templates to free up time for entrepreneurs and investors to focus on growing their ventures. Designed to be used in venture capital financings, the legal model templates include items such as term sheets, stock purchase agreements, voting agreements, management rights letters, and more.
  • We added NEXT Venture Pitch to the Competitions, Grants & Other Funding section of the guide. Held in Greenville, South Carolina, this popular pitch event gathers entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and business leaders from across the Carolinas and offers an opportunity for startups in the southeast to refine their pitch and gain attention from new investors. This year’s NEXT Venture Pitch program will be held on Sept. 16.
    • We added Duke MEDx’s High-Risk, High-Impact Challenge. Run by the university’s cross-disciplinary innovation initiative, MEDx, this program provides up to three awards ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 to early career researchers for interdisciplinary projects tackling human health issues.
    • The Launch Place recently unveiled its upcoming Big Launch Challenge pitch competition, noting that the program has awarded $159,000 to 14 companies over its eight-year history. We added this milestone to Big Launch Challenge’s line in the Competitions, Grants & Other Funding section.