Charlotte Tech News

[KJHburg]

Charlotte based Sports Tank like a Shark Tank for sports related startups is going to be held at the Nascar Hall of Fame during All Star weekend.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/02/04/nba-all-star-game-brings-attention-to-sports-tank-event-from-charlotte-startup/?ssid=112928427

[KJHburg]

another rising star tech firm based in Charlotte raises more money.  Data analytics firm Stratifyd raises another $9 Million.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/02/11/artificial-intelligence-startup-stratifyd-raises-another-9m/?utm_source=Business+North+Carolina+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=e8d8d270ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2_6_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7ae5defd0d-e8d8d270ad-122553233#new_tab

[videtur quam contuor]

https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Amazon cancels NYC HQ plans

[hokiehigh]

12 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Amazon cancels NYC HQ plans

Looks like no plans to search for a replacement though.   Probably good news for NOVA and Nashville.   I bet Cuomo is pissed!

[KJHburg]

I am betting they end up across the river in Jersey probably Newark.  But in my opinion they should break this up and send 5000 jobs to various cities like Charlotte like Raleigh like Atlanta like Dallas because we all have strengths.   

[CLT2014]

Lillian won

[KJHburg]

Don Peebles in an interview this morning on FoxBusiness talking about Amazon's decision to pull out of NYC mentioned Charlotte.  He is of course involved in Brooklyn redevelopment and said Amazon should reconsider District of Columbia and Charlotte (again!)  I am not sure this was wishful thinking or he had NBA All Star weekend on his mind but mentioning Charlotte and Amazon on national business TV was interesting.  He was being interviewed by Charles Payne standing in on Maria Bartiromo's show. 

[J-Rob]

I imagine he was plugging Brooklyn Village, but regardless, it is nice to have Charlotte mentioned on national television in the same discussion as NYC and DC.

[KJHburg]

2 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

I imagine he was plugging Brooklyn Village, but regardless, it is nice to have Charlotte mentioned on national television in the same discussion as NYC and DC.

I thought about it some more maybe he is having talks with them since they are splitting those 25,000 jobs bound for NYC to many other cities where they have offices and I bet even a 500 person Amazon office in Charlotte would create big buzz here.  Something in finance or fintech.  Can you imagine Amazon with a 100-200K lease jumpstarts the office portion of Brooklyn Village. 

[KJHburg]

NC IT job openings surge 40% in last year compared to 27% for the US as a whole.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/02/19/information-technology-job-openings-across-nc-surge-nearly-40-from-a-year-ago/?ssid=112928427

[KJHburg]

Clean tech cluster developing in NC between Raleigh Durham and Charlotte and Charlotte is already benefiting from it. 

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/03/19/cleantech-corridor-from-triangle-to-charlotte-taking-steps-toward-reality/

[KJHburg]

Charlotte is the  fastest growing tech job market in the US over a 3 year period.  And believe it or not our rents are some of the lowest in the fast growing tech markets outside of a few midwest smaller markets.

https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/real-estate-news/it-hubs/

[KJHburg]

NC added more tech jobs in 2018 than all but 3 other much larger states and we added more tech jobs than NY!

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/03/26/report-north-carolina-among-top-high-tech-job-producing-states/

[J-Rob]

Citizens Bank, HQd in Providence, RI, is growing its presence in Charlotte.  They operate from Capital Towers, and the local team includes a technology innovation team.   Here is a quote from the article, "The Charlotte team is part of a larger network, called Green Pixel Studios, across Citizens' footprint. It's a threefold team with experts in user experience (UX), user interface (UI) and front-end development, says Lamont Young, head of digital at Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank."

My favorite quote from article: "Charlotte was an attractive place for Green Pixel Studios because of its reputation as a banking hub and as a growing tech hub..."

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/03/29/how-citizens-bank-is-driving-tech-innovation-with.html

[J-Rob]

CoverHound is headquartered in San Fran, but is opening an east coast operation in Charlotte.  While the CEO mentioned they don't want to be considered the "LendingTree of Insurance", that is basically what they do.  CoverHound provides quotes and comparisons for property and casualty insurance, and the CEO mentioned several executives may move to Charlotte.

My favorite quote: "There's not many places in the country you can say have it better than Charlotte. The only other area you can say is New York and San Francisco. We're already in San Francisco, so Charlotte is the next logical step."

Also: "I think only New York could rival what Charlotte brings as far as the (financial services) talent level," Moore says. "We thought about having an office in New York City, but the fact that we can be in New York so easily. ... We could take day trips to New York and go in the morning and come back in the evening. That's an easier commute than a lot of people that actually live in New York have."

CEO also mentioned Charlotte could be the largest office in a few years.  Great news for Fintech, and CLT tech in general.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/04/01/why-a-san-francisco-insurance-technology-company.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline

[KJHburg]

Here is an insurance journal article about CoverHound as their other 2 offices are in San Fran and Westlake Village near LA both high cost places of businesses.   the CEO's comments sound very like what the Credit Karma exec said about Charlotte too.  That is a previous post in this thread.   Great news for Charlotte's FinTech industry.  

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2019/02/05/516820.htm

Edited April 1, 2019 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Levvel's new offices uptown in 101 Independence Building.  They are really nice and love the sheep.  Subscriber article but I think everyone can see the photos

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/04/03/photos-inside-it-consulting-firm-levvels-new.html

[KJHburg]

Charlotte based MapAnything continues to grow greatly.

http://businessnc.com/mapanything-charts-speedy-growth-with-mapping-services/?highlight=mapanything

[KJHburg]

the Carolinas lead the growth in software tech jobs in the southeast.  Just saw this report.

https://www.us.jll.com/en/views/snapshots/looking-for-a-software-job-in-the-southeast

[KJHburg]

Charlotte founded and based MapAnything is being acquired by its partner in its mapping software Salesforce.   Article does not say what will become of the Charlotte office but I would think they would keep it as Salesforce has done that with most companies they can acquire.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/17/salesforce-is-buying-mapanything-a-startup-that-raised-over-84-million/

 

[KJHburg]

One thing about this Salesforce buying  out of partner MapAnything of Charlotte may lead to more jobs here in Charlotte.  Salesforce in Atlanta has grown from a small office to anchoring an office tower in Buckhead and they found lots of good employees there.  Just a hunch but I believe this could lead to future growth in Charlotte with Salesforce.  They can ask Credit Karma based in San Fran too how they are growing an operation in Ballantyne.  Every tech company seems "surprised" as the quality of talent in NC because I have read the same things up in the Raleigh Durham area.  Watch this as I believe this will lead to more tech jobs here. 

Edited April 18, 2019 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Verizon rolling out 5G in 20 cities including Charlotte. 

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/04/25/verizons-latest-5g-rollout-list-includes-charlotte-but-not-triangle/

[Nick2]

23 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Verizon rolling out 5G in 20 cities including Charlotte. 

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/04/25/verizons-latest-5g-rollout-list-includes-charlotte-but-not-triangle/

Fantastic! And for those who don't know, this is REAL 5G, or getting very close to it. Not that crap at&t tried to pass of as 5g a little while ago.

The only downside is that the 5G capable phones and the plans will be a good bit more expensive. 

[tozmervo]

I can't figure out who 5g is targeted at. Since 4g rolled out, I have literally never thought my connection was slow, even streaming good quality video.

[SouthEndCLT811]

24 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

I can't figure out who 5g is targeted at. Since 4g rolled out, I have literally never thought my connection was slow, even streaming good quality video.

It's a good marketing tool.  Similar to 4K which unless you're viewing at optimal distances commensurate to the size of the screen you don't really get much benefit from.  Just the latest and greatest thing people to buy into.  Coming from someone who used to be an early adopter to any sort of tech!

Edited April 25, 2019 by SouthEndCLT811