Triangle Tweener Fund
118 episodes listed below
North Carolina startups under practical pressure.
Triangle Tweener Talks tracks the Triangle and wider North Carolina startup scene from the ground level. Its recent run centers on Tweener Madness, where founders pitch, judges press for numbers, and local context matters as much as vision.
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Triangle Tweener Talks is a founder-and-investor conversation series centered on the Triangle and the broader North Carolina startup scene. Its recent episodes are dominated by Tweener Madness, a bracket-style competition built around early-stage companies pitching for a $25,000 investment prize. The format has a clear rhythm. A company is introduced, a pitch runs, judges ask questions, and the discussion narrows from excitement to execution. That pressure is where the show becomes most useful. Founders are asked to explain who buys, what changes for the customer, how the market sizes up, and whether the next hire or next sales push actually matches the opportunity. The show can move quickly. It also leaves room for local texture, sponsor reads, founder backstories, and side comments about the Triangle’s open networks. Recent matchups include Marla Amplification, Build a Bookie, Druid Agriculture, HuVia Technologies, Iguana Cyber, HAM, Utilyst, and BeneDoc. The range keeps the series from feeling like one startup category repeated with different logos. One episode may turn on ag tech productivity. Another may shift into structured AI memory, cybersecurity, regulatory intelligence, utility-operator training, or the economics of making guitar amplifiers in the United States. Scott Wingo’s presence gives the show continuity, especially when the conversation needs to move from friendly encouragement to sharper questions about value and scale. Judges including Carly Connell, Zakiya, and Greg Boone add different angles without turning the show into a formal investment memo. The tone stays conversational. The substance is still grounded in customer problems, dollars saved, market reach, and go-to-market decisions. It is particularly strong for listeners who want to hear how founders explain themselves before every assumption has been sanded down. There is repetition in the competition framing, but it also makes the stakes easy to track. The show is less about polished startup mythmaking than about watching local companies get tested in public. For anyone following North Carolina entrepreneurship, it offers a practical, energetic window into the people, products, and judgment calls shaping the region’s startup pipeline.
Made for: Best for founders, operators, investors, and startup-curious listeners who want a grounded view of North Carolina company-building. It especially suits people who enjoy pitch competitions, local ecosystem context, and questions that turn ambition into measurable business mechanics.
What sets it apart: The show pairs local founder access with a bracket competition that forces clear comparisons between very different companies. Its edge is the mix of warm ecosystem support and practical scrutiny around sales, market size, customer value, and scale.
A podcast for builders by builders in the Triangle. We explore the startup journey and stories with local Triangle founders, from the idea to the exit and everything in between. Triangle Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by Triangle Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West. We couldn’t share posts like this without our amazing sponsors: Gold Sponsors: Balentine: https://www.balentine.com/triangle-entrepreneurs EisnerAmpner: https://www.eisneramper.com Robinson Bradshaw: https://www.robinsonbradshaw.com Silver Sponsors: Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co Bank of America: https://business.bofa.com/en-us/co...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Scot Wingo makes startup economics legible by pushing founders from persuasive pitches toward measurable value, credible markets, and workable growth plans.
Triangle Tweener Talks turns early-stage company building into a working session, with Scot Wingo pressing founders and operators on how their ideas function as businesses.
A founder's saved training hours meet a judge's dollar question; your pitch deck just got nervous.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A bracket-round founder faceoff that keeps returning to numbers, not slogans.
North Carolina Twinger Madness frames this bracket round as a grounded founder comparison, pitting Druid Agriculture, a Charlotte ag-tech team, against Marla Amplification, which sells guitar amps through clear price bands, demand, and durability.
A founder bracket that turns startup claims into the numbers investors care about.
Triangle Twinger Talks uses its fabulous four bracket to frame a practical conversation about what early-stage B2B software has to prove. The episode works best when it moves past pitch polish and asks for measurable value: fewer manual hours, faster training, lower error risk,…
A high-stakes startup showdown where regulatory paperwork feels like the real battleground.
Triangle Twinger Madness plays best as a high-stakes startup showdown, with eight companies competing for a $25,000 investment prize and a selection committee that presses hard before choosing who advances.
A North Carolina startup bracket turns early-stage founder selection into a public, scheduled process.
The episode turns a bracket reveal into a concise view of how an early-stage fund is trying to scout North Carolina founders. The Season 2 selection show places eight founders in a March Madness-style format, with $25,000 at stake and an in-person championship still ahead.
A clear take on workflow friction in sales research and outreach.
The discussion treats BDR work as a problem of friction. Research, intent, tabs, systems, and logins all slow things down before a campaign really gets moving.
A clear case for backing local startups as a diversified basket, not a single bet.
This episode makes a plain case for treating North Carolina startup investing as a basket, not a single swing. The strongest thread is the idea of backing local companies while keeping capital close to home, with risk spread across biotech, ag tech, health tech, robotics,…
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Fabulous Four gets tight.
The Fabulous Four round opens with the founders in a bracket-style pressure test.
This episode features the fourth match-up of a startup pitch competition where Marla Amplification and Build-A-Bookie present their consumer-focused businesses to a selection committee for a $25,000 investment prize.
This episode features a startup pitch competition where Druid Agriculture (ag tech) and HuVia Technologies (data systems) compete for a $25,000 investment prize.
This episode features a startup pitch competition where cybersecurity company Iguana Cyber competes against AI company HAM for a $25,000 investment prize.
Scott Wingo opens the 2026 North Carolina Twinger Madness bracket and frames the episode as a high-stakes matchup for a $25,000 investment prize.
Eight founders, one bracket, and a $25,000 prize drive Triangle Twinger Talks' Twinger Madness 2026 selection show, recorded live by Scott Wingo on March 18 at 2 p.m.
A guest joins the show for a plainspoken conversation about BDR workflow design.
Scott Wingo and Robbie spend the episode thinking out loud about the Triangle startup scene.
Kevin Gehsmann, CEO of Durham-based PROTECT3D, explains how a 3D-printed brace for Duke quarterback Daniel Jones's clavicle fracture led to a company he co-founded with a fellow Duke football player.
This episode features a startup pitch competition where founders from two companies, including Deliveri, present their businesses to a selection committee for a chance to win a $25,000 investment prize.
This episode features a startup pitch competition where founders from Civic Reach and Valuable present their businesses to a selection committee for a chance to win a $25,000 investment prize.
This episode features an exclusive interview with Inn-Flow CEO John Erhart discussing the company's recent $45 million financing deal and his background in the hotel industry.
This episode features a startup pitch competition between two edtech companies, Moxie and TutorSmith, where founders present to a selection committee for a chance to win a $25,000 investment prize.
This episode features the first round of Triangle Twinger Madness, a startup competition where founders John Starke of MyMatR and Robert Fu of ZW LLC pitch their companies to a selection committee for a chance to win a $25,000 investment prize.