Next Matters Most

Brett Danforth is the co-managing director of NC State University's Wolfpack Investor Network, an angel network currently comprised of 150 NC State-affiliated angel investors that have deployed over $10 million into NC State-affiliated early stage companies over the last two and a half years. Prior to joining WIN, Brett was a Venture Banker at Square 1 Bank, lending to venture-backed early and growth stage companies in the Southeast. His career also includes experience with a family office investor and a financial consulting firm serving nonprofits. Brett is a graduate of the Poole College of Management at NC State University.

Personally, Brett lives in Raleigh, NC, with his wife, Lindsey and their three daughters. He enjoys playing golf, is a member at Providence Church and serves on the First Tee – Triangle’s Young Professional Board.

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From India, to Dubai, to Durham NC. A truly world class citizen, business owner, and architect, Vandana Dake and Nick Jordan sit down to discuss her career journey, her passion for helping empower and inspire women in developing nations, and finding your why. Vandana provides a broad range of experience in design and construction — both locally and internationally. Vandana is currently the Owner of Alliance architecture. Her technical expertise and strong design concepts inform her work, ranging from schematic design through construction administration.She has received numerous awards, including much recognition from Downtown Durham, Inc. for Best Projects in 2004 and 2005 and from the Raleigh Preservation Society for Best Projects in 2005.

Enjoy this personal discussion with Vandana and Nick Jordan!

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Madilynn A. Beck is a former actor and entertainment industry executive turned psychotherapist, entrepreneur, and podcast host. One of her current startups is Better Spot, which you can think of as We Work for wellness and wellbeing professionals.Founded four years ago, the company helps to set up and serve their retail clientele and run their practices. The startup is now extremely well positioned as the wellbeing industry has been thrust into the spotlight as a result of the pandemic and the toll it has taken on our mental and physical well being. 

Madilynn's intrinsic why is Equity & Access. She lives this daily through her products and platform. Better Spot helps small businesses in important industries gain access to a space where they previously would have been unable to. Her podcast, Fundraising While Black, highlights the unique and oftentimes unfair challenges that people of color face when fundraising for their business. Madilynn has an amazing energy about her and a true coaching mindset...this is a fun episode. Enjoy!

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Anna Shuford is an innovative, business professional with experience in campaign development, strategic partnerships, and content creation. Anna is currently enrolled in UNC Kenan Flagler's MBA program, Class of 2022. At UNC, she’s pursuing a concentration in marketing and enrichments in entrepreneurship and technology and innovation management. Along with being a full-time MBA student, Anna owns and operates her company, BoomRoom. BoomRoom simplifies the process for fitness instructors teaching live virtual workouts through one single integrated platform that gives them the tools and technology to host high-quality classes, connect with clients, and manage their business.

In episodes 15 and 16 of the Next Matters Most podcast series, Nick and Emily talk with Anna about starting a business while in school, how she manages her days, and what her next steps are after school. They also deep-dive into how Anna’s BoomRoom platform works and why it’s so important for fitness professionals and teachers. These episodes are great for anyone currently starting a business or having thoughts about starting their own business while in school. Please enjoy our conversation with Anna Shuford! 

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Anna Shuford is an innovative, business professional with experience in campaign development, strategic partnerships, and content creation. Anna is currently enrolled in UNC Kenan Flagler's MBA program, Class of 2022. At UNC, she’s pursuing a concentration in marketing and enrichments in entrepreneurship and technology and innovation management. Along with being a full-time MBA student, Anna owns and operates her company, BoomRoom. BoomRoom simplifies the process for fitness instructors teaching live virtual workouts through one single integrated platform that gives them the tools and technology to host high-quality classes, connect with clients, and manage their business.

In episodes 15 and 16 of the Next Matters Most podcast series, Nick and Emily talk with Anna about starting a business while in school, how she manages her days, and what her next steps are after school. They also deep-dive into how Anna’s BoomRoom platform works and why it’s so important for fitness professionals and teachers. These episodes are great for anyone currently starting a business or having thoughts about starting their own business while in school. Please enjoy our conversation with Anna Shuford! 

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What's holding you back from moving forward with the ideas swirling around your head? Venus Liles loves new ideas, whether thinking of them for herself or supporting those of other entrepreneurs. Venus has many passions, including law, entrepreneurship, and tech. Over the years, Venus is an active member of the Senior Legal Counsel for SAS Institute and has founded over three companies; including qcard, DanceHer, Liles Law, and others. She also wrote a children's book to support family conversations about the coronavirus and social distancing. While keeping a mission to help as many parents as possible have honest and loving conversations with their children about important these issues. 

During episode 14 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Nick, Venus, and Emily talked about how their journeys all had similar findings and thoughts on becoming an entrepreneur. From taking more risks, shipping ideas early, and getting strong feedback they each share stories of overcoming obstacles and finding peace with imperfection. This episode is full of awesome stories from the team! 

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We’d like to give a warm welcome to Maria Kingery! Maria co-founded Southern Energy Management with her husband in 2001. Since then, she has helped pioneer the residential energy efficiency and solar industries in North Carolina and beyond. Being deeply committed to sustainable business practices, Maria believes businesses have the greatest power to drive positive change. After a couple of years of implementing the EOS system at SEM, Maria was so inspired by the amazing work her team was doing that she decided to train professionally as an implementer in 2016 - wanting to help other entrepreneurs achieve the same kind of results. At her new company, 360Rocks, Maria works with impact-driven organizations and leaders by helping them align their values with their actions, their people with their bold vision, and their data with their accomplishments. Through her work, Maria has proven that, with the right tools, entrepreneurs can unleash their untapped potential while changing the world.

Please join Maria and Nick as they sit down to chat about entrepreneurial systems, watching after your team’s mental health, and expanding your employees to new heights.

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From Playing Soccer before he could walk to now a Venture Capitalist at one of North Carolinas leading VC firms, Lister Delgado has been a staple of the Durham and RTP startup, technology, and investment scene for the last 15+ years.  In this conversation, Lister and Nick talk about the path to VC, diversity, what they both like about our roles in the ecosystem, and how Lister looks at evaluating an investment in an initial 20 minute call, and more relating to the world of investing and Venture Capital! 

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From Playing Soccer before he could walk to now a Venture Capitalist at one of North Carolinas leading VC firms, Lister Delgado has been a staple of the Durham and RTP startup, technology, and investment scene for the last 15+ years.  In this conversation, Lister and Nick talk about the path to VC, diversity, what they both like about our roles in the ecosystem, and how Lister looks at evaluating an investment in an initial 20 minute call, and more relating to the world of investing and Venture Capital! 

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Let's welcome to the triangle, Jarrod Overson!

Jarrod is a Director of Engineering at Shape Security, where he led Shape's Enterprise Defense development, the industry-leading solution against imitation attacks like credential stuffing. After Shape Security exited for over 1B dollars, Jarrod now frequently speaks on modern web threats and cybercrime and has been quoted by Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, CNET, among others. He's the co-author of O'Reilly's Developing Web Components, creator of Plato, a static analysis tool for web applications, and frequently writes and records topics about reverse engineering and automation

In this episode, Nick speaks with Jarrod Overson about his new business, Vino Technologies. Vino is a low code platform that is more sustainable, extensible, and developer-friendly than previous generations.

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In this discussion with Chris Heivly about his ever evolving journey in the entrepreneurship space. Heivly is what he describes as a Lifelong Instigator, going from Entrepreneur to VC, to running an accelerator, to ecosystem building as a living, to current state as an author living full time on a lake. We also did a deep dive into Chris Heivly's first book, Built the Fort...the need for us to start small and simple, the future of his writing, and his experience as a first time author in an ever changing world of publishing.  Adults tend to over complicate and over think things, making something like building a business an incredibly difficult task.  Build the Fort is a metaphor that forces us to think about steps in growing the business the same way we used to think about building a fort as a kid...one step at a time. 

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Brandon Chaney is a lover of SaaS, startups, and customer/employee-centric businesses. He has helped build outstanding teams that go on to achieve award-winning projects and clients. He does this while solving real problems for amazing customers, clients, and people. Brandon shares his story of how he went from wanting to be a 5-star chef to becoming a startup leader, founder, and visionary. And what he had to do to keep himself focused on one thing rather than many projects at the same time. Brandon and Nick also talk about understanding your customer base before executing and falling in love with a problem are more important than falling in love with your solution. Episode nine is a great one, so get ready to learn! 

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Casey Steinbacher is an ecosystem-building pro. With over 20 years of experience, Casey has worked with multiple Chamber of Commerce teams to create long-lasting ecosystem solutions for developing areas in North Carolina. In episode seven of season two on the Next Matters Most podcast, Casey and Nick chat about how Durham is growing as a “well-known” location in NC and will continue to develop as many more companies start coming to NC. But how do they do this so it also serves the current community members? Listen in as Casey answers this and more! 

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Brandon King is a football star turned programmer and entrepreneur. While in the NFL, Brandon learned many lessons about staying focused, being one with your team, and understanding the opposite team. These teachings allowed him to go on to successfully launch his own startup based around music concert experiences. Although Brandon helped bring all the pieces together, he had a major lead ahead when he decided to teach himself programming and start developing his own app. 

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Whitney Marston Pierce has two decades of creative/marketing consulting experience. Originally advised established companies in connecting with a younger generation. Since then, she has continued to connect brand and audience through multiple industries. As CMO for startups spanning finance to art, fashion to music, and tech to medical devices, she turns exciting ideas into viable, vibrant businesses. Known for her uncomplicated aesthetic and innate knowledge of the human condition, she creates conversation and spearheads client conversion. She is dedicated to uplifting companies and discourse surrounding social good and corporate accountability. She and Nick chat about her upbringing and how she works with start-ups to create successful brands. 

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Tom Snyder is a senior-level manager with substantial experience building and leading global teams, technology development, product design, and introduction. He and his team have a  proven innovation skillset with over 25 US patents issued. Currently the Executive Director at RIoT, he has a highly developed skillset for budget and schedule management, staff development, and driving innovation. In episode 5 of the Next Matters Most Podcast, Tom and Nick talk about the impact data technology solutions have on business and why large companies like Google and Facebook want in on creating innovative solutions or finding the teams to do so. 

Daniel Scagnelli is a driven, results-oriented, customer-focused technology professional with diverse industry experience, strong business acumen, and an unbridled passion for building strong partner relationships and customer loyalty. Daniel has been a leader/executive in the startup technology scene for the past several years with a professional focus on the post-sale customer life cycle. Hear how he got into startups, life in the startup scene in non-Silicon Valley markets, as well as why the post-sale customer life cycle is important especially when you are selling APIs that are tech-centric. 

Will Barfield, is a seasoned builder of sales teams and is currently the founder and principal of Barfield Revenue Consulting which helps companies of all sizes identify talent, build teams, and scale the revenue side of their companies. In this episode we discuss our local ecosystem and what we are best at as it relates to scaling sales organizations, key tips for founders adding sales to their startups, and how to grow your LinkedIn connections from a few thousand to over 14,000 in less than 12 months by being authentic.

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It's been a long week, especially with all the noise and conversations centered around what is going on inside the U.S. stock market. Today, Will Breen and Nick Jordan talk about $GME, Robinhood limiting access to its users, and why all investments are risks. 

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In the first episode of season two of the Next Matters Most Podcast, we are talking with Ryan Kraudel, VP of technology at Valencell, an inventor and maker of wearable and hearable biometric sensor technology that can monitor and measure key vitals in the body such as blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and more. These readings and more can help us do a better job of preventing and managing such major health issues as Cardiovascular disease (CVD), Respiratory issues, and Hypertension which on it's own affects over 1B people globally.  Listen in as we discuss the future of wearable technology and its ability to profoundly impact the well being of the human race, where the adoption blockers are, and what the opportunity looks like as we look to the future. 

Leadership can have many different forms, but how do you know which one is right for you or your business? In episode 12 of the Next Matters Most Podcast, Walter Pinson, President of Smashing Boxes, talks with Nick Jordan about how he learned how to lead himself and his various teams through personal and business obstacles. Walter has a fair share of leadership experience, from building his own companies to companies like Microsoft and Unboxed. The two also discuss how CIO advisors can help businesses leverage expertise without paying large sums to accomplish their goals as leaders. 

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We all know that entrepreneurship is tough; their many challenges, headaches, and stress points to overcome before starting a business. Keeping these points in mind, add the detail that the entrepreneur is in college, and the challenge of starting a business goes up exponentially. Despite these oppositions, Nina Barnett overcame them while being a female within a male-dominated space. In episode 11 of The Next Matters Most podcast, Nina, the owner and founder of Grooop, talks about how she overcame the ultimatum of being a female business owner while completing her own goals of graduating college at the top of her class.

Grooop is simple: college students use an intuitive app to feel confident on campus.  Anytime, Anywhere. Grooop is a platform that serves universities, workplaces, friends, and families through our service contracts and mobile app to make safety more fun, inclusive, intuitive, and non-invasive. Grooop is the best way to share safety status instantly. Grooop makes sure you have power in numbers, even if you're alone. Set up safe zones, create grooops of your friends, and update your safety status to alert others if you need help.

In this episode of Next Matters Most, we speak with David Morris & Patrick Lineberry, attorneys at law, about Opportunity Zones, Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds, Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses, and what this means for investors, small business owners, and communities. Will this be just a rush towards faster gentrification, or will it be a reviving and renaissance effect on currently depressed communities? A tool for the rich to get richer, or for more underrepresented businesses to get funding? We discuss this and more. 

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Why are community ecosystems important? What can they provide to a community? Today, Jim Roberts and Nick Jordan talk about what an ecosystem can provide to large and small communities. Jim has been involved in community ecosystem building for many years. With notable success throughout North Carolina and the United States. In episode 9 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Jim and Nick talk about why an ecosystem is important for all communities, how entrepreneurs can improve ecosystems, and where to start when building a successful ecosystem! 

Pierce Freelon is a musician, director and Durham City Council Member. Pierce is the founder of Blackspace, an Afrofuturism digital maker space for teens in Durham. He is the writer, composer and co-director of the PBS animated series, The History of White People in America. He is a co-founder of Beat Making Lab, a PBS web-series, which won Best Video Essay for its episode Heartbeats of Fiji at the 2015 Daytime Emmy Awards. His latest project is a children’s music album, titled D.a.D, which has been featured on NPR and Today Show.   

In episode 8 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Nick Jordan sits down with Pierce Freelon about what is happening in the world today and what he wants to do about it. Pierce has always been a voice for change and does not have a stop sign in sight! Pierce talks about what everyone can do to help misunderstand and misrepresent groups in our businesses and community today.

We have an opportunity to create an entirely new ecosystem for the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship community that is responsible for driving innovation and change in business that puts diversity at the forefront of everything it does. The conversation in this episode will expand your thinking, articulate what is wrong, and provide proactive and positive solutions that will inspire us all. I end the interview w/ a Nobel Prize prediction. 

In episode 7 of the Next Matters Most podcast, you will meet (future) Nobel Prize Winner Doug Speight is a 5x entrepreneur, innovation commercialization expert, and current founder and CEO of Annex Tech Partners.  This man on a mission has lofty goals: to change the way the tech industry operates; close the wealth and opportunity gap for women and people of color; all while stabilizing our national economy. 

Our CEO & Chairman Nick Jordan recently sat down with business and mental health super guru, Don Azevedo, for an hour-long conversation for the podcast, Next Matters Most. 

Mental well-being is Don’s business, and he really knows his stuff. Nick and Don question why there isn’t more focus on the emotional well being of workers in the workforce, how to design the workplace and workforce of the future, and what it means to strive for authentic happiness. Can software or technology be built to assist in this movement towards better well being, or is this a process thing? Or is it just adoption and awareness? 

Jessica Mitsch is a major entrepreneurial powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with in the triangle. With a passion for education and equal access to the tools and resources people need to be job-ready, she is the CEO and Founder of Momentum Learning, a schooling system to provide coding skills training focused on the needs of the modern workplace. We are guided by the belief that education creates opportunity, and that knowledge has no bounds. We give career changers the skills and support they need to find meaningful work and see our role as a catalyst for positive life change.

Rewind a few months ago- Fresh off raising money, getting set up, and launching a new immersive code school, the pandemic hits, and everything gets thrown out the window. Luckily for my good friend and guest on our latest podcast episode Jessica Mitsch, she could get through the freak out moment and get her business pivoted to a highly active and successful remote service for her students. In the episode, we discuss many things, including but not limited to how to shift to remote even when you built your entire business around in-person interaction, the future of education, being an entrepreneur in the triangle, and more.

With the evolution of technology and the availability of information on Google, is using an attorney to help your business still important? Where does the balance exist between doing your own research to save money and paying a professional to save time? It turns out that, even in the midst of increased automation, sometimes the use of an attorney can be vital in any business plan. In episode 4, Nick talks with Jesse Jones, Founding Lawyer at Fourscore Business Law, about the evolution of the attorney’s role in business, and how businesses can best leverage this relationship to maximize efficiency and decision making.