Insights

This week marks the beginning of CED’s newest entrepreneurial education program, GRO Incubator, building on an almost 40-year history of educating and connecting entrepreneurial companies with high-value resources to accelerate business growth. Through their program, CED leverages their expansive network to provide specialized coaching and support.

“For all these years, the secret sauce of CED is the network we can activate to support these companies,” says Jay Bigelow, CED Vice President of Entrepreneurship.

About the Program

CED’s nine-week fall cohort focuses on technology and features a range of topics and core content from iContact Founder, Ryan Allis’s Ecademy – Entrepreneurship Course. Content includes design thinking, go-to-market, marketing math, raising capital, the importance of company culture and more. In addition to its core content, each week guest speakers, domain experts and experienced entrepreneurs will speak with the class and one-on-one coaching. Each coach will work one-on-one with a company to help guide them through their unique questions and challenges.

“When we reached out to our network for coaches and speakers, it was an easy yes from just about everyone,” Bigelow adds.

The inaugural Incubator welcomes 12 companies to its fall 2020 cohort:

• Active Defender: Teachers make good decisions based on what they know and where they are. Active Defender makes sure they can instantly know exactly what and where the problem is anywhere on campus in the midst of a campus emergency.
• Clever Education Solutions: A comprehensive, integrated and user-friendly SaaS platform specifically designed for Montessori schools.
• Equity Shift: Equity Shift is the simplest, fastest, and cheapest way to process private securities transfers.
• Ghost Delivery: A contact-free, multi-order food delivery service.
• IMAMA: A digital health tool that can help decrease the risk of breast cancer by 4% by increasing breastfeeding rates among postpartum nursing women.
• Rachit: A mobile app that provides customers with a virtual online experience allowing them to connect face to face, in real time with a certified automobile mechanic.
• Secmation: A innovative cybersecurity company providing high assurance, embedded security solutions for Industrial Internet of Things, Industrial Control Systems, Unmanned Systems, Manufacturing, and Defense.
• rXperius: Collects and analyzes in real-time a continuum of consumer insights to enable Pharma better evidence-based decision making.
• SnapPicFix: Instantly provides a match to a service professional in your area and an estimate for your home repair.
• Sunder Networks: A complete redesign of Kubernetes and infrastructure networking to meet the critical latency, performance and security requirements of 5G and Mobile Edge Computing.
• Truentity: Building trust between individuals and organizations while giving users the ability to take control of their personal digital data and allowing them to select who to share with.
• YouEmbark: Helping students make informed choices about their future by providing them with interactive content that shows them every pathway they can pursue after graduation.

About CED (Council for Entrepreneurial Development)

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development was formed in 1984 by a group of business leaders wanting to empower the successful creation and growth of entrepreneurial companies in the North Carolina region. CED acts as the connective center for all of this to happen. Through high-touch support, education, access to capital, and crucial connections, CED brings entrepreneurs together with the optimal resources needed to turn a new company into a success story.

For more information about the program visit the CEDNC or subscribe for the latest updates for GRO’s spring 2021 cohorts.