Back from Maternity Leave and Straight into Raleigh-Durham Startup Week
Just 60 minutes of writing from a voice note I took about my biggest takeaway from Raleigh-Durham Startup Week
I haven’t published anything lately for a couple reasons. First, I moved back to the States from the Netherlands in 2024. Second, I had a baby girl at the beginning of 2025!
It’s been hard to sit down and write, largely because I have a bunch of thoughts bouncing around in my head and feel like I don’t have time to write. However, I’ve seen a growing trend of people simply writing and publishing, regardless of how long or cohesive the piece is.
So here I go, in the interest of spending more time with my daughter and getting more of my thoughts out there.
Raleigh-Durham Is an Under-resourced Opportunity
Last week was Raleigh Durham Startup Week, where various businesses and organizations hosted events in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh. Based on the panels and workshops I attended, I realized that this is a small pond ready for big fish. Shruti Shah put it perfectly during the State of Venture Capital Funding panel hosted by Ladies Investing/Local Angels (LiLa): there is an asymmetry of information in the Triangle.
Anyone could sit in a Peet’s for 15 minutes and learn something about startups or fundraising. Or learn the unwritten benchmarks for raising a series A while co-working in New York. Granted, you still need to know the right people to get the right deals, but most of those people—and the knowledge—are concentrated in the Bay Area or New York.
Meanwhile, early stage startups are still using convertible notes in the Triangle (according to a lawyer I spoke with), whereas SAFEs are more commonly used in tech hubs. At the LiLa panel, someone asked where to go to get their startup valuation (honestly, a pretty good question).
There is such a great opportunity for funds (especially emerging fund managers) to elevate Raleigh-Durham’s tech game. In addition to investing in amazing companies, I see two additional opportunities to become the go-to expert on:
A) the local startup scene for outside investors; and
B) how to fundraise for local founders
Of course, the investment thesis still has to align with what’s here. Many startups in the Triangle are science-heavy (like healthtech and biotech), which means they often require more upfront capital (both smart and monetary) to build the things.
So if you’re a fund manager who is interested in science tech and looking for a cheaper, happier place to live, I highly recommend visiting Raleigh. Everyone is eager to meet you.