In The Soup will continue in your earbuds through The GrepBeat Podcast, where we will continue to share the latest and greatest stories, advice, and news for the tech startup communities—all from one place.

The podcast includes several of our shows every week. Not sure what they are? Give it a listen and find out for yourself.

See you over at The GrepBeat Podcast!

In this special holiday edition episode of In The Soup 🍲, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures explore the different kinds of new year resolutions you can pick up whether in your professional or personal life.

They're joined by a few Triangle ecosystem leaders and founders to talk about how they plan to ring in the new year. On today's final episode of the year, Haley Huie of NC State, Parker Mayes of Inbound Revenue and Allison Wood of Davinci Education break down their goals for 2025.

And per the words of Melissa in this episode, I can't believe that 2025 is a real year.

For this live edition of In The Soup, they sat down with Jay Bigelow, the head of founder engagement at CED (Center for Entrepreneurial Development), who has not only been with the entrepreneurial support organization for over a decade, but has also been a part of the ecosystem's history for over 30 years.

For their penultimate episode before the end of the fall season, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures discuss why startups should think about creating a talent pipeline with graduates from local universities.

The Triangle is home to some of the nation's top research universities and high-performing technical community colleges. That's why our hosts are joined by experienced graduate talent pipeline builders, Haley Huie of NC State's Entrepreneurship Clinic and Jared Sokolsky of Chapel Hill-based Well, to talk about the importance of utilizing these high potential talent coming out of these schools.

In today's episode, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial Ventures and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures are talking about what kind of and how to utilize product feedback as an early stage company. They especially ask the question of how does feedback change and evolve as your company changes and evolves.

On to answer these questions are Jonathan Rollman of ProdUx Design and Scot Wingo of previously Spiffy.

Life as a one-founder startup has its pros and cons, but at the end of the day, it's always going to be a little difficult running a company by yourself. That's why in today's episode, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures hear from founders who are running their companies solo. 

They are joined by solo founders Dr. Sarah Glova of Reify Media and Jeff Soplop of Nimble Energy to break down the good and bad challenges as a one-founder company. 

In today's episode, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures are taking a deeper dive into one route your company might take: pivoting.

What exactly defines a pivot? When and how would you know to take one? These are the questions they answer with the help of Brandon Kashani of Raleigh-based TRAKID and Lauren Goodell of Charlotte-based Zinnia.

Whether you are a very early-stage startup or a far off company, you are always having to discover what your customers need as they (and your business) evolve. That's why in today's episode, hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby of Colopy Ventures are joined by local customer discovery experts to break down customer discovery and what it consists of.

They are joined by Rob Cotter, the Founder and CEO of Environmental Transit Authority and the creator of the eco-friendly, solar/hybrid-powered ELF, and John Austin, who is currently a mentor/coach for startups since having graduated from being a Senior Director at NC IDEA for over six years.

In today's episode, they'll be discussing equity crowdfunding as another option in case VCs aren't writing enough checks. Joining them are crowdfunding experts Will McGuire of Incolo and David Shaner of Offline.

One of the reasons a VC might pass on a early stage startup is because they don't think it is a "venture scale" business. What does it really mean to be venture scale? Our hosts hear from Kevin Mosley of Jurassic Capital and Doug Kaufman of Belongly to answer that question.

They are joined by local Triangle investors Jan Davis of RTP Angel Fund and Scot Wingo of the Triangle Tweener Fund.

In this week's season opener episode, hosts Jenn Summe and Melissa Crosby of Primordial are stirring the pot on how to build your brand with early markets and adopters.

Helping them cook are Lauren McCullough of Tromml and Susan Wall of (previously) Corevist.

Recommendations come from Dr. Sarah Glova of Reify Media, Jason Gillikin of Earfluence, Austin Armstrong of Syllaby and Akash Ganapathi of Opine.

That's it for this season folks! Check back in early September when In The Soup returns for its second season.

For this live edition of In The Soup, they are joined by the GrepBeat Godfather himself, Joe Colopy. In case you didn't know, Joe is also a partner in our sister investment companies: Jurassic Capital and Primordial Ventures.

Their guests this week are two Primordial-invested founders who both have AI as integral parts of their businesses: Tina Tang of Bristles and Austin Armstrong of Syllaby. 

They are joined by local numbers experts (aka an investor and chief marketing officer) to talk about specific metrics that matter for growing your company, whether it's business or marketing metrics.

This week's guests are Kevin Mosley of Jurassic Capital and Dan London of Adwerx.

They are joined by Tai Huynh of Acta Solutions and Lauren McCullough of Tromml.

If you have your own experiences that you felt were pressured by ageism, whether younger or older, feel free to send your thoughts and comments to soup@grepbeat.com or on our GrepBeat social media.

They're joined by Venus Liles of Liles Law and Trevor Schmidt of Hutchison PLLC.

Make sure to subscribe to the rest of the show so you never miss out on an episode!

Being a founder holds many hats that come with many responsibilities that lead to many stresses. That's why they're joined by Doug Kaufman, the CEO and Founder of Belongly, a free, secure space for mental health professionals to collaborate with, meet and support new colleagues. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and has an experienced educational background in psychology, so that's why in this episode, he takes a deeper dive into managing mental health and stability as a founder.

For this week's episode, they discuss with Akash Ganapathi from Opine and Lucy Kosturko from Social Cascade about how they balance their companies with, arguably, the hardest thing in life: babies. Not that babies always equal stress, but they're a lot of work—and these founders can agree. That's why they offer tips and advice on how to manage both your business and your baby. 

That's why hosts Jenn Summe from Primordial and Melissa Crosby from Colopy Ventures are joined by experienced startup leaders to relay some lessons learned before and after working with VCs.

This week's guests are Brian Reale of ProcessMaker and Susan Wall of Corevist. 

If you enjoyed the episode and want to submit your own questions or topics, send them over to soup@grepbeat.com. Thanks for listening and make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss an episode!

That's why they are joined by Cara Marin of Stashpad and Lauren McCullough of Tromml to talk about what it's like being a female founder in tech spaces and industries that are normally male dominated.

In this last part of their special edition conference season tips series, they are joined by Lucy Kosturko of Social Cascade and Austin Armstrong of Syllaby to hear how they network and build connections.

They are joined by familiar local investors: Abby Phillips from Wolfpack Investor Network and Jason Caplain from Bull City Venture Partners.

In this week's episode, they are joined by Jason Gillikin from Earfluence and David Mayer from Elemmir to talk about how to pitch your startup when the business or idea is complex.

Hosts Jenn Summe of Primordial and Melissa Crosby are joined by Chris Geiss of Seguno and Brian Reale of ProcessMaker.

They are joined by Tina Tang and Anthony Alers from Bristles.ai, Cara (Borenstein) and Theo Marin from Stashpad and Andrea and Charles Inokon from Cadence Cash.

Joining them are Venus Liles from Liles Law and Trevor Schmidt from Hutchison PLLC.

They are joined by some familiar voices from the local VC community: Jason Caplain from Bull City Venture Partners, Abby Phillips from Wolfpack Investor Network and Lister Delgado from IDEA Fund Partners.

They are joined by Lister Delgado from IDEA Fund Partners, Jason Caplain from Bull City Venture Partners and John Hagy from Carolina Angel Network. The trio discuss some red flags and green lights that investors keep in mind before, during and after an investment process.

Jenn and Melissa will be joined by DeShawn Brown, founder & CEO of Coworks; and Tai Huynh, co-founder & CEO of Acta Solutions. (Fun fact: Tai recently got engaged! Congratulations!)

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law!

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law!

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law!

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law.

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law.

Have an idea for a topic? Send them to soup@grepbeat.com

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law.

Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Liles Law.

Thanks to our sponsor, Liles Law.

They are joined by two local entrepreneurs, Meghan Corroon of Clerdata and Chris Geiss of Seguno, who both bootstrapped their companies and delve into the pros and cons.

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, Liles Law.

This week’s question: At what point do I quit my full-time job to pursue my startup? How long can I keep doing both?

Local experts: Anil Chawla (Founder of ArchiveSocial) and Meghan Corroon (Founder of Clerdata)