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

One section of the guide lists dozens of accelerators and mentorship programs serving Triangle-area startups. The latest addition to the list is LaunchWENDELL, a new program from the Town of Wendell and Wake Technical Community College that aims to support entrepreneurs and small business owners in Wendell.

Applications for the first cohort are open through Dec. 1, and classes are set to kick off in January 2022. Participants will be assigned a mentor from the business community to guide their business development strategy through the 10-week program.

Town of Wendell and Wake Tech partner on LaunchWENDELL, set to run in 2022

Other recent additions to the Triangle Startup Guide

Every week, we update the guide with new resources for local entrepreneurs for our exclusive Triangle Startup Guide.

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 additions we’ve made in recent weeks:

  • We added the Southern Opportunity And Resilience (SOAR) Fund to the COVID-19 resources section of the guide. The program provides low-interest loans of up to $100,000 to small businesses and nonprofits in 15 states across the southeastern region, including North Carolina. To qualify, small businesses must be experiencing pandemic-related economic disruption and have 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees and annual revenues of less than $5 million.
  • We made an addition to our interactive map of incubators and coworking spaces: Raleigh’s The Wright Village initially opened in July 2020 as a coworking space for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to connect with like-minded individuals. Soon, it expanded into an incubator, providing one-on-one business coaching and mentorship. The space comprises a communal/coworking area, shared and private offices, dedicated desks, a conference room and a podcast studio.
  • In the “Inspiration, Advice & More Resources” section of the guide, we added links to all of the stories in our “Tomorrow’s Unicorns” series, which wrapped up in late-October. The six-part multimedia series covers Raleigh’s most promising startups with “unicorn” potential (a term designated for companies surpassing the $1 billion valuation mark).
  • In the “Competitions, Grants & Other Funding” section, we added Wolf Den, a popular pitch competition held every year during NC State University’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. A handful of student teams present their business ventures to a panel of judges and a live audience for a chance to win cash prizes. This year’s edition will be held on Nov. 12 at the Duke Energy Hall in Hunt Library.
  • In the “Venture Capital and Angel Groups” section, we added RollingSouth – a new rolling fund from South Carolina-based angel investor group VentureSouth. The fund launched earlier this month and targets early-stage tech startups across the Southeast. The team behind it has experience investing over $50 million into 82 companies through 190 investment rounds.
  • In the “Inspiration, Advice & More Resources” section of the guide, we added StartUp at Wake Tech, a new resource hub available from Wake Technical Community College. The program, which launched last month, offers free one-on-one business counseling, workshops and seminars, how-to guides and other content to help anyone start or grow a business.
  • In the COVID-19 resources section, we added RETOOLNC, which is re-launching applications for minority and women-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Grants ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 will be awarded to state-certified Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms. The program launched in 2020 but recently started accepting new applications. Business owners can apply and read more details here.