DURHAM – Sustainable building materials company Plantd recently announced a $10 million Series A funding round. The three co-founders, CEO Josh Dorfman and engineers Huade Tan and Nathan Silvernail, have said they plan to use this round of funding to “establish their agriculture supply chain.”

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) released its annual Venture Report of equity funding today, reporting that North Carolina-headquartered companies raised $4.2 billion in 2022, a slight decrease from 2021 but still the second-highest year on record.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – We’ve seen the headlines—companies are reacting to economic uncertainty and financial pressure with big layoff announcements.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Since the dawn of the “dot com” and internet boom 30 years ago, Triangle and North Carolina startups have lusted after Silicon Valley investors where venture capital has always been abundant. In 2022, proof emerged that the West Coast gurus are at last heavily paying – literally – attention to N.C.

WAKE FOREST – Wake Forest-based entrepreneur Helen Whiteley founded Women+ in Climate Tech (WiCT+) in 2020, and the organization has grown to over 2,000 subscribers worldwide.

RALEIGH – According to Shirnetta Harrell, 80% of young women in North Carolina go without soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, or feminine hygiene products. She founded No Woman, No Girl (NWNG) in 2021 to help women and girls access those everyday essentials—and has already served over 1,200 women since the nonprofit’s inception.

It’s not even spring yet, but I’m already feeling pressure to create summer. And the pressure is exhausting.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – A potential client called me recently to ask if I’d travel to meet her team in person. When I said I’d be happy to, she sighed with relief.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – As CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) unfolds in Las Vegas with the world’s biggest tech party, Lenovo is there with a huge presence as usual – and with new cutting-edge toys. Especially important to the world’s top PC manufacturer is the emerging metaverse virtual world.

WAKE FOREST – House of Blueberry recently raised nearly $6M to support its goal of dominating digital fashion in the metaverse. So how will that be done?

WAKE FOREST – If you plan to journey to a virtual world such as the metaverse, you need something to wear on your avatar, right? You want to look good, too. So where do you shop? Make a journey to the House of Blueberry.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Cynthia Barnes, the Founder and CEO of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals (NAWSP), a professional organization providing education, mentorship, and networking opportunities for over 15,000 members, has found a new home for herself and the organization. And she says the move is paying off.

CED had an opportunity to sit down with Cirrus Insight’s current CEO Phil Dixon on critical lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur. Cirrus Insight is a growth-focused startup that equips Sales Teams with Salesforce automation and Sales Acceleration tools.

So often in communication training, people tell me that they don’t feel like they’re taken seriously. They tell me they think they’re too friendly or too informal. They tell me they struggle to communicate clearly, so people don't listen. They want more executive presence. (Big buzzword right now.)

A dear friend recently asked me to attend an event with her. My first instinct was to say YES! But the event fell on an already-busy weekend. So then I started to say MAYBE. (“I’d love to! I’m a bit busy that weekend, but maybe I can move things around…”). Then I stopped myself. In the moment, “maybe” feels kinder than “no”—but a straightforward “no” is usually better in the long run.

Last week, I was writing an article for a client—something they would use in their corporate newsletter. But I was stuck. The deadline’s shadow started to darken over me, and the article was nowhere near done. A feeling close to panic began to creep through me. Then, there was that familiar doubter voice. “Maybe I’m not good enough. If I were, I would be able to…”

A few weeks ago, a woman approached me after a speaker skills workshop to say that she didn’t think she “had it” in her to lead meetings in the way she saw others leading them. Most of the leaders at her company were, in her words, “bubbly" — and she didn't see herself that way.

A frequent theme in our 8&21 newsletters is SAYING NO. I like to think of it as rebellious calendaring. Being more rebellious with your calendar — scheduling blocks of time to think, protecting your availability to protect your energy, and saying no to opportunities that aren’t a perfect fit — is a way to protect your ability to say YES to things that will be a better fit.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The Research Triangle Foundation is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony this week for “Horseshoe at the Hub,” a 125,000-square-foot mixed-use development project in RTP.

CARY – In an exclusive interview with WRAL Techwire, Blush Cowork co-founder Alison Rogers discusses North Carolina’s first coworking community for women that offers childcare.