Karima Boukary

As March Madness college basketball heats up across the nation, Startup Madness is heating up the Triangle with college entrepreneurs pitching groundbreaking ideas in the realm of health, education and technology.  The fifth annual Startup Madness was hosted by the NC State Poole College of Management at the State Club in Raleigh, and the finalists went head to head last Friday night. Each entrepreneurial team came from a university in the ACC.  Modeled after the NCAA college basketball finals, the event began on Friday with the “Sweet 16” and judges voted it down to a final “Elite 8”—the founders then pitched their...

300 young women from around the nation traveled to the Triangle last weekend to participate in the second annual Pearl Hacks, a weekend hackathon at UNC-Chapel Hill created by a student with a mission to get more women excited about technology.  The event was designed to create a welcoming environment for women in high school, college or graduate school to work together and further their knowledge of computer science, coding and programming in multiple formats and platforms. Its brainchild was UNC senior in computer science and graphic design majors, Maegan Clawges. Clawges founded Pearl Hacks last year after a pivotal moment in her...

“This is the best time in the history of man to be in education.”   These are the powerful words of Pete Rau, shared with the 2015 Triangle Startup Weekend EDU audience during his speech at last Friday’s kickoff event. Rau is the director of technology for Cary-based learning innovator Thinking Maps, as well as former president and co-founder of multimedia educational flashcard maker BrainFlips.  An education entrepreneur himself, Rau encouraged the audience to pursue their ideas. He explained that major innovations have yet to be made in the field. “The environment now is ripe for change,” Rau said, “It is...

The second class of ThinkHouse Fellows is hard at work this spring mastering the art of entrepreneurship. ThinkHouse is a living community for young entrepreneurs established in 2013 by the same group who founded downtown Raleigh’s startup campus HQ Raleigh.    Last year’s ThinkHouse graduates went on to launch eight companies, create mobile apps, raise capital, partner with nonprofits—they were awarded thousands in grants. Seven of the graduates are still pursuing the entrepreneurial ventures they initially brought to ThinkHouse. This year’s class, meanwhile, is pursuing projects in robotics, music, fashion, cycling, social enterprise and mobile. They complete the program in June.   ThinkHouse...