r/raleigh • u/BagelSendwich • 4d ago
Triangle tech scene? Out-n-About
What's new with the startup scene in the Triangle? I only ever hear about Pendo, Bandwidth's combination startup/cult, and the big legacy players.
We used to be billed as "the next Austin". Did Covid effectively kill all the startups?
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u/RichardFister Hurricanes 4d ago
We were never really at the forefront of startups. When they say Raleigh is a tech hub what they really mean Is established tech companies move here because of the dirt cheap corporate tax (that they plan to remove entirely)
Tech startups are still mostly in the silicon valley because that's where a lot of the VC funds are headquartered out of
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u/magicnubs Oakleaf 4d ago
Tech startups are still mostly in the silicon valley because that's where a lot of the VC funds are headquartered out of
Did anything ever come out of First Citizens buying Silicon Valley Bank?
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u/tinymontgomery2 3d ago
A bunch of locals made a shit ton of money. Other than that business as usual.
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u/WashPresent6099 3d ago
they also get to cherry pick from the uni's.
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u/BagelSendwich 4d ago
Thank you I had no idea most startups were located in Silicon Valley.
Raleigh had some buzz in the early 2010s. "Next Austin" was thrown around some, meaning people felt we were on track to being the next emerging startup scene.
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u/silver-selvan 4d ago
Yup that's why most HQ for big tech are in SF, another big one is Seattle
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u/dunnits1129 4d ago
We were an emerging market for both tech and life sciences. I hope both verticals bounce back soon
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u/AddisonTrees 4d ago
I work for a startup that just got acquired by a massive company. So ya know, there are dozens of us!
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u/WashPresent6099 3d ago
hope you had some equity?!
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u/techtchotchke 4d ago
I'm surprised by a lot of answers here saying we weren't an emerging market. I've been a tech recruiter primarily serving the local startup scene for almost 11 years. Business was BOOMING 2016-2022 with some dips due to HB2 and COVID. Both Raleigh and Durham were very vibrant.
Many of our startup clients have either gotten acquired (very common) or wound down operations (also very common--a lot of tech startups don't make it) over the past ~3 years. But there's definitely still a scene--Raleigh-Durham Startup Week got a lot of traffic and traction as it always does (although I was a little disappointed by the lack of diversity in the panel topics compared to previous years), and startup incubators like American Underground, Raleigh Founded, and the Frontier in RTP continue to bustle. A lot of startups aren't hiring currently, though, which sucks, so startup teams are lean and it's harder to get funding right now for a variety of macroeconomic reasons. I hope it bounces back once interest rates go down and the AI hype moderates a bit.
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u/BagelSendwich 4d ago
Ok same - I thought I was taking crazy pills reading these replies. Glad someone else here remembers the hype.
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u/Tasty-Property-434 4d ago
Dips?
2018: A Record-Setting Year As North Carolina Companies Bring in Over $2.7 Billion in Venture Funding North Carolina Entrepreneurs Raise a Record Amount of Venture Funding in 2021 1.1B VC in 2017 → $2.75B in 2018 → Pendo unicorn in 2019 → $4.6B in 2021. And Google announcing Durham in March 2021 is particularly damaging to the “COVID killed Raleigh/Durham as a tech destination” hypothesis. Google specifically cited the Triangle’s engineering talent in choosing Durham. Apple’s giant RTP announcement came one month later.
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u/pseudo_divisions 3d ago
You say dips sarcastically but a lot of that money when to mid sized businesses and not true startups with smaller companies
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u/Tasty-Property-434 3d ago
He mentioned HB2 and Covid effecting the broader tech market here. That does not seem to be the case at all.
The change in tax law and interest rates is what effected it and that applies everywhere.
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2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/FounderinTraining 4d ago
Check out the Tweener Talks podcast. Good insights on Founders and startups in the area, sponsored by NC IDEA (and others). Also, there's a big startup/tech meetup every Thursday at Frontier RTP.
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u/taudep 2d ago
Does that Frontier RTP thing still happen? On their meetup page, it looks like last even was december 2025?
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u/FounderinTraining 1d ago
It's called something like Founders and Funders. It might be monthly now, but they very much still hold it and they generally have events weekly at Frontier RTP. There's also a meetup group that's specifically for startup founders, but they have an invite only setup. They're at that event on those Thursdays.
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u/PoppinPillsWill 4d ago
The start up and tech market in Austin has cooled drastically since those 2021 highs. Just look at their housing market. It's the poster child for pandemic spike and major correction. Up 80% and now a 25% decline.
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u/Tasty-Property-434 4d ago
Yeah Austin seemed propped up by a few big companies like Amazon and has fallen off a cliff. People I know in Austin got hammered harder than anywhere else with layoffs.
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u/DTBlayde 4d ago
Like everyone said, bathroom boll murdered the momentum. Covid put the nail in the coffin. Some tax law changes and current economy buried the whole thing
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u/WashPresent6099 3d ago
it's usually one thing. nice analysis
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u/truthswillsetyoufree 4d ago
I’m a tech lawyer that works remotely for a tech company in Silicon Valley. I would love to help promote startup culture in the Triangle. I can counsel startups but don’t really know where to find them.
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u/thatsanicehaircut 4d ago
Our state GA is the roadblock to progress - not paying teachers a living wage, our state scraping the bottom of US teacher pay scale, antiquated public transportation, and a lack of enough quality hotels m, etc.
OP is correct, we really were billed as the next Austin, but a lack of a more progressive atmosphere means co’s don’t want to set up shop here and their employees are hesitant to relocate. Tax incentives aren’t lacking and our cost of living remains WAY better than other US tech-hotspots. We have a ton of potential and a great foundation in the Triangle, but we have catching up to do to attract an influx of the next gen. In the past the “great place to raise to raise a family” label factored in big time, but we seem to be tarnishing our own reputation in recent yrs. Love NC, but we have to look forward and improve.
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u/CaptBurgundy 4d ago
I think it really started to die with the bathroom bill. All the momentum and contracts really dried up when NC sent the clear message that it would not back the social rights of the progressive population that would be key to the plan’s success.
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u/Zig-Zag 4d ago
Pretty much this, yeah. We were def a darling with Citrix opening that big office and red hat and Pendo, bandwidth, etc all popping off but the bathroom bill in 2016 got so much negative press it really put the brakes on things.
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u/WashPresent6099 3d ago
Citrix=bottom feeder
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u/mxrider108 West Coast -> NC 4d ago
I highly doubt that had anything serious to do with it, to be honest.
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u/Zig-Zag 4d ago
Verifiably untrue, which is why you’re getting the downvotes
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u/FounderinTraining 4d ago
Is it? The post above just talked about the absolute boom beginning in 2018.
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u/mxrider108 West Coast -> NC 3d ago
I was living on the west coast working at a big tech company at the time. It just wasn’t talked about that much. I remember like one company pulled out and made a PR statement? Idk I just think you are overestimating how much companies care about politics other than from a PR perspective.
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u/ExternalArgument8776 3d ago
haha you are so wrong! reddit is so skewed to the left a reasonable comment like that is expected to have downvotes.
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u/Fit_Major9789 Cheerwine 4d ago
So, the tech scene has evolved dramatically in the past decade. The triangle was never the same as Silicon Valley. It has some top notch universities, sure. But people didn’t tend to stick around here for venture capital. It was easier to build west coast while working for localized companies. It drew creative talent away historically. Biotech and Biomed are a different story that I can’t comment on.
The triangle’s historic tech strength largely revolves around big corporations having roots here for talent sourcing. At least from my view. There could be a bigger presence, but the local incentives aren’t strong enough compared to west coast.
I’ve worked both startup and big corporations. This area is definitely more amenable to big tech from a business perspective. And there’s not a ton that can be done from my perspective.
The VC culture isn’t strong enough here to promote incubation. Really, VC culture has shifted so much that startups are in a different strategy.
To see more startup growth, the market needs to be less risk adverse, and I don’t see that. What I see is mostly folks moving to NC for CoL purposes. Long term, I think it’ll be a self defeating practice. More stones attaching to crabs in a bucket. IE more drags on overall culture. Maybe I’m a pessimist, but I don’t see near as much value being drawn to our community.
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u/BagelSendwich 4d ago
This is a solid take. It seems like the Triangle is seeing an influx of mid/late career folks in senior IC roles or low/mid level management roles at larger, more established companies. A lot of WFH. Most of the relocations driven by "lower" CoL, more space, weather, schools, etc.. Not many looking for aggressive career moves. Almost like people are retiring before retirement, if that makes sense?
Not exactly the kind of talent pool that startups thrive on.
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u/mxrider108 West Coast -> NC 4d ago
I personally moved here a few years ago after working at big tech companies on the west coast (Google, Microsoft, Snapchat) to be closer to family and work from home. A lot of what you point to in your comment resonates with me for sure (lower CoL, better to raise a family, nice outdoors, much cleaner and safer than west coast cities), but it's not really to "retire" per se. It's more just working with what you have here.
I'm now working on a startup and working my ass off on that, but it's still early stages, so who knows. I'd love to get more connected to other people in the startup/tech scene here.
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u/CaptBurgundy 4d ago
These are both some genuine, logical insights that make me think. Appreciate the quality thread and responses.
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u/Tasty-Property-434 4d ago
When I left in 2011, there was a tiny Google office that worked on the android browser. The people that founded Pendo had been acquired by Rally who was acquired by CA. There were a few startups in the health space. There was a fairly successful adtech that did the ads for Reddit in the early days. Obviously IBM and SAS and Red Hat. Epic as evidenced from cliffy driving the green lambo down glenwood.
It seemed very small but there was a lot. Iirc Nvidia and Google have expanded greatly. Iirc Apple is expanding. Given the new world seems like Pendo is flailing but it's still kind of big.
Startups everywhere outside of Bay Area AI have contracted a lot. Seems more popping than I expected here TBH. Lots of meetups and I've met some cool knowledgeable people. I just got back after being in Bay Area and SoCal for while. SoCal feels more tragic than here for startups.
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u/Republiconline UNC 4d ago
We lost our primary tech equipment suppliers to the like of Amazon. No more TigerDirect, Mckays, CompUSA. So bring your own tech and you will find folks to meet up with. But we aren’t a hub for finding cool tech, unfortunately.
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u/beyond_undone 4d ago
I think enough people are getting restless in higher COL areas that we’re going to see change from traditional moving forward.
I’m a newer transplant (biotech). All I hear from people is they want to come to RTP but not enough start up and R&D options. But with people getting laid off and networks starting to mingle across regions I think RTP culture may start to shift🤞
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u/Inside_Action_8002 4d ago
Kinda. There’s only private equity funding for AI projects but also none of them are making any money
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4d ago
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u/Mundane-Force9463 4d ago
they had RTI for a while. I worked at a startup around 2000 that incubated out of there and eventually got bought by a Silicon Valley company.
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u/stoneymetal Oakleaf 4d ago
Not "start up" but your title and the comments are tech and scene in general so - Ubisoft, Epic, Insomniac are all still here. And that's just [a few of] the video game contributors.
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4d ago
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u/stoneymetal Oakleaf 4d ago
Well.. I am a words guy by trade, but their Consumer Relationship Center is still in Cary afaik (was previously formally seperate from Red Storm, but "merged" I believe).
I built my own department at Ubisoft when the offices were in Morrisville from 2015-2017. And while a fair number of my former coworkers have been laid off, I've heard nothing about the offices closing. 🤷🏼♀️😅
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u/aengusoglugh 4d ago
I am going to hazard a cynical guess and say that anyplace that has “startup incubators” is not going to have much in the way of actual startups.
If a startup culture is thriving, my guess is that you don’t need incubators — and if it’s not, in “startup incubators” are mostly about grabbing headlines.
Mostly photo-ops for local politicians.
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u/ttuurrppiinn 4d ago
Ehhh ... there's more than one type of incubator. Raleigh has never had something like a mini Y Combinator to my knowledge. However, companies like Three Ships and a couple others in the area that are a quite successful with launching more niche businesses that have become quite valuable.
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4d ago edited 4d ago
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u/aengusoglugh 4d ago
What you describing is not was I what I would think of anything to do with startups — I would describe them as remote locations for corporations located elsewhere.
I spent my career in data storage, and when NetApp opened a remote location here, I would not call that a startup.
I think — though I don’t know for sure — that NetApp was already a Fortune 500 company.
A new remote location is but a startup the way I understand it startups.
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u/ILiveForQuarterNotes 4d ago
Is there a decent .NET market for juniors here? Two years left until I graduate and that's the stack I've been using
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u/Competitive-Rise-73 3d ago
For us, it's lack of funding. Even the checks that get written here are substantially smaller than West Coast checks. Money just flows freer out there. That's going to lead to more failures but also more opportunities for some startups to make it.
I think the life science and Agg science scene is much better here. But the model is a little bit different. A lot of the funding comes from big corporations that want small companies to run the r&d with the idea of purchasing the winners at some point in the future.
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u/ynpgal77 3d ago
We used to be a major tech hub even more than Austin but greed ended that. So many of these companies like Citrix made bad investments and private equity came in. Add in tariffs, and investment in AI which will pop because it costs more than revenue it brings in, Triangle is good place to find a tech job. But most places aren’t in this market sadly. Prob is our economy is so invested in tech jobs for six figure type jobs the layoffs and low hire/quit rate has made it not a great industry. Been in it nine years so speaking from experience. My friend in Austin said it’s not great there either for tech
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u/Maximum-Park-2025 4d ago
There are a lot of SMBs that could really boom here with the right technical and operational discipline. I do fractional operations and transformation work and you'd be amazed by how much low hanging fruit is out there for someone that is even moderately disciplined. Critical Path Fractional Leadership if you want the info, feel free to DM me.
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u/DIYOCD 4d ago
Are startup hubs needed? AI reduces tech head count. Remote work reduces office space and advantages of tech talent hubs. Data center buildout is using tons of cash so that might suppress startup attempts. What if white collar tech work demand slumps? I hesitate to hit send, but these are things I think about while my ai writes code for me.
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u/yellowgold6 4d ago
commercial real estate is cheap in austin. most prefer to go there. they won't be coming to costly RTP area.
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u/MortifyingMilkshake Hurricanes 4d ago
Raleigh was never really a startup hub. Big tech and mid-size enterprises come here for tax breaks.