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About
A new approach to investing in early-stage NC based companies.
Our Story
In 2015, serial entrepreneur Scot Wingo launched the Triangle Tweener List to spotlight high-growth companies in the Research Triangle Park generating $1M+ in revenue or employing 10+ people.
After seven years of tracking the data, a clear pattern emerged: these “Tweener” companies had remarkably low failure rates and produced many of the region’s most meaningful exits.
In 2022, we launched the Triangle Tweener Fund to invest in these companies using an index-style strategy.
In 2026, in partnership with , we expanded statewide and became NC Tweener Fund, Powered by NC IDEA, bringing our capital, content, and community model to founders across all of North Carolina.
What’s a Tweener? It’s a fun story! Tune into the first episode of for an inside look at how the name came to be.
Our Team
Scot Wingo
General Partner
Scot has a Computer Engineering degree from the University of South Carolina and a Masters from North Carolina State University. He is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of ReFiBuy.
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Robbie Allen
General Partner
Robbie Allen has a Computer Science degree from ECU and two Masters from MIT. He is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of Bionic Health.
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Rebecca Ross
Rebecca is a graphic communicator and industrial designer building the entrepreneurship community through design, content, and events in RTP’s startup ecosystem.
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Shuping Dluge
Shuping has a PhD in Statistics and is foucsed on building a new AI company after her time at Google, Cisco and TikTok.
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Fund Lifetime Statistics
160+
Portfolio Companies
205+
Investment Deals
$10M+
Invested
The NC Tweener Fund is a 'rolling fund' that is always open to new accredited investors. The minimum investment is $30,000 (four investments of $7,500 per quarter). Each quarter we invest in 12-18 Tweeners and Pre-Tweeners. The goal of the fund is to act as an index fund for NC Tweener companies.
Founding Funders
Limited partners in the NC Tweener Fund are investors who are founders/operators in NC and open to having their name used and associated with the fund. These investors get unprecedented access to a group of local entrepreneurs and ecosystem supporters across the whole XTech spectrum!
One of the benefits of being in the Fund portfolio is you will have access to an unprecedented group of local entrepreneurs and ecosystem supporters with a wide set of experiences across industries and company sizes.
AgTech, EdTech, FinTech, HealthTech, MarTech, AdTech, CPG/E-commerce, ML/AI, you name it. Our group has experience across the whole XTech spectrum!
The NC Tweener Fund would not be possible without our founding funders:
Yasin Abbak | Paired Media, Fantasy Life, The Convoy
James Avery | TekPub, Adzerk, Kevel
Neil Bagchi | Bagchi Law
Ryan Bethencourt | UMANA, Babel Ventures, Sustainable Food Ventures, Wild Earth
Greggory Bordes | Merrill Lynch, AEA Investors, Blum Capital, YipitData, Front Porch Venture Partners
Will Bowen | Covidien, Medtronic, MemberHub
Marlana Bunn | ExtensisHR, Project Resource Services, LLC
Tripp Burwell | Fulbright, Tesla, Proterra, Atom Power
Nick Bradfield | EOS, Bunker Labs
Brad Brinegar | Chairman Emeritus McKinney, EIR Duke, Cubist Martini
Glen Caplan | Venture Lawyer @ Robinson Bradshaw, Joystick Labs
Dr. Michael Capps | Epic Games, Diveplane
Anil Chawla | ArchiveSocial
Stephen Coakley | Horizon Consulting, Babel Street, Pear Tree Heirlooms
Bryon Colby | Ecommerce/Marketing/Technology: News Corporation, Infonautics, Scan Mobile / Idealab, Fry Inc, Marc Ecko, Cornerstone Brands, Purchasing Power
Michael Cristinziano | Citrix, DigitalOcean, ServiceTrade
Michael Doernberg | SmartPath, DoubleClick, ReverbNation, Adwerx, PlayMetrics
Mark Easley | Triangle angel investor, investment crowdfunding advisor, HP, Intel, Adaptec, PLX
Chris Evans | Davinci, Accipiter, Tethis, Next Century Spirits, Aries USA
James Forrest | Corporate Attorney – Greenberg Traurig, Moore & Van Allen, Founder of Forrest Firm, Managing Partner North Carolina for Michael Best
Reed Frankel | Serial entrepreneur, angel investor, small business & early stage mentor & philanthropist
Alston Gardner | Entrepreneur (On Target) and VC (Fulcrum Equity Partners & NC Venture Capital Multiplier Fund)
Eva Garland | Eva Garland Consulting
David Gitman | theglobe.com, ToysRUs.com, eBay, The Feedroom, dms, Waterfall, MediaLink, Cooper Square Ventures, Techstars, Igniterate
Doron Gordon | Samanage, stealth newco
Tom Griffin | Retired orthodontist and independent investor
Dr. Doug Kaufman | AlleyDog, BlackBoard, TransLoc, Vertroos Health
Michael Jones | Lekson Associates
Michael Jones | ChannelAdvisor, eBay, RetailMeNot, Zalando, Spoonflower, Shutterfly
Mark Kelley | Blue Acorn, iCi
Jayant Khadilkar | Renaissance Reinsurance, Weather Predict, TigerRisk Partners, Pelican Venture, ImpactKarma
Steve Klein | Statuspage, LaunchNotes
Karthik Kripapuri | SaaS and Tech Enabled Leader, Selligent Marketing Cloud, NTT
Nick Jordan | Smashing Boxes, SB Ventures, Durham Bottling Co, STASH
Keith Langbo | Kelaca
Alex Lassiter | Gather, Green Places
Dennis Lee | Zenefits, Noyo
Larry Long Jr | Accenture, Sageworks, Medfusion, Intuit, ChannelAdvisor, Pendo, Teamworks, LLJR Enterprises
Joe Mancini | CubicleGM, PopRule, PRTM, Google, Digital Turbine, Front Porch Venture Partners
Matt McDonald | Ryder System, Cadillac Plastic, GE, Cogent Neuroscience, ICI UK, WR Grace, Citadel Plastics, Qualitor, Aurora Plastics
Fred McIntyre | BandLab, Fender, CBS, AOL, Spinner.com, Capacitance
Lauren Miller | John Deere, American Tire Distributors, Lowe’s
Merrick Marquie | MapMyCustomers, Bandwidth
Wade Minter | TeamSnap, Adwerx, WeaveUp, SportsEngine, Suggestion Ox, Dualboot Partners
Selva Mohan | Technologist / Real Estate Investments & Build /Early stage investor / LP
Sharat Nagaraj | celito.net
Purvesh Patel | Tekelec, Oracle, INC Research, Syneos Health, Calyx, Lonerider Brewery, Lonerider Spirits, Sage Capital Ventures, Thyme Capital Group
Kelly Pfrommer | Red Hat, Cloud Giants, RevdUp
Michael Purcell | Clover United, Clearmeadow Partners, Maxpoint
Marc Raber | IOP Capital, Enage Talent, Casa Hodl, Punchlist
Brooks Raiford | Office of NC Governor, Leadership NC, Independent College Fund of NC, Balfour Beatty, NC TECH Association
Marshall Reu | PWC, Alcatel, DunnWell, ServiceTrade
Ritchie Ventures | LLC / David Ritchie
Drew Schiller | Technology and healthcare entrepreneur, CEO at Validic
Robert Royster | Retail Management Systems, Ruckus Pizza
Clay Schossow | New Media Campaigns
Matthew Schmidt | CEO and founder of Peoplelogic, co-founder DZone
Mark Scullion | UNC, Quintiles, Syneos, Novartis
Mike Shapaker | Booz Allen, Nortel Networks, Therasim, ChannelAdvisor
David Spitz | Netsation, WindWire, ChannelAdvisor
Daniel Swimm | Candle Science
David Sonntag | Decibel Event Management
Michael Swimm | Candle Science
Greg Vassie | Taiger, BrainScope, IndyCare
Ritchie Taylor | Partner Manning Fulton
Ferol Vernon | Written Word Media
Cameron Walker | Disney/Pixar, Twitter, Google, VF Corp
Link Walls | Art.com, ChannelAdvisor
Ryan Walsh | ChannelAdvisor, Repvue
Jordan Weinstein | ChannelAdvisor, BrainCheck, K4Connect
Lee Whitley | Capitol Broadcasting Company, Barfield Revenue Consulting
Ben Weinberger | Digitalsmiths, TiVo, SlingTV, TBD Angels, Drive by DraftKings
Ricci Wolman | Written Word Media
Check out the whole NC Tweener ecosystem:
NC Tweener Fund
About
In 2015, Triangle-based serial entrepreneur, Scot Wingo started the Triangle Tweener List focused on Triangle companies with over 10 people or $1m/yr in revenues. After 7 years of data, we realized that this cohort of companies had very few closures, but also captured the Triangle's biggest and best exits. In 2022, we launched the Triangle Tweener Fund to invest in Triangle Tweener companies using an index strategy.
Website
View NC Tweener Fund's Website
Tweener List
About
This list features details on over 250 curated startups in North Carolina that are referred to as Tweeners.
Website
View Tweener List's Website
Tweener Times
About
The Tweener Times is a free/paid Substack newsletter designed for entrepreneurs. With the tagline "Builders Helping Builders," each issue offers in-depth articles on key topics that matter most to local founders, including Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies, AI-driven growth strategies, Product-Led-Growth (PLG), talent acquisition, and a calendar of events. Each weekly issue is packed with both strategic and tactical insights that help founders stay informed and connected.
Website
View Tweener Times's Website
Tweener Talks
About
A podcast for builders by builders. We explore the startup journey and stories with nc founders, from the idea to the exit and everything in between. Hosted by serial entrepreneur and founder of the Fund Scot Wingo.
Website
View Tweener Talks's Website
Tweener Madness
About
Tweener Madness, shines a bright spotlight on the amazing NCstartup ecosystem. The contest involves 8 startups who will compete for the $25k investment prize and 21 selection committee members that are local institutional or angel investors.
Website
View Tweener Madness's Website
Triangle Tweener Community Hub
About
Your go-to resource for navigating the Triangle’s startup landscape. Explore curated opportunities to support every step of your entrepreneurial journey.
Website
View Triangle Tweener Community Hub's Website
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