Head of Durham, NC-based non-profit Durham Success Summit

Front Porch is a VC firm based out of the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina that is working on..

Brett Danforth is the co-managing director of NC State University's Wolfpack Investor Network, an angel network currently comprised of 150 NC State-affiliated angel investors that have deployed over $10 million into NC State-affiliated early stage companies over the last two and a half years. Prior to joining WIN, Brett was a Venture Banker at Squa

In episodes 15 and 16 of the Next Matters Most podcast series, Nick and Emily talk with Anna about starting a business while in school, how she manages her days, and what her next steps are after school. They also deep-dive into how Anna’s BoomRoom platform works and why it’s so important for fitness professionals and teachers. These episodes are g

From India, to Dubai, to Durham NC. A truly world class citizen, business owner, and architect, Vandana Dake and Nick Jordan sit down to discuss her career journey, her passion for helping empower and inspire women in developing nations, and finding your why. Vandana provides a broad range of experience in design and construction — both locally and

What is IoT? We've all heard the acronym, but what does it mean, and why is it having such a big impact on the tech space around us? Tom Snyder, Executive Director at RIoT, and Nick Jordan Smashing Boxes CEO, talk about how data will lead to IoT solutions.

Gavin Jocius is an experienced ecommerce operator building brands, recently CanvasonDemand into an 80M juggernaut which exited in 2019. Currently, Gavin is forging his own path into entrepreneurship through his search fund, Riverside Ventures. In this episode we will talk about ETA, entrepreneurship through acquisition, as well as trends in digital

Will Barfield, is a seasoned builder of sales teams, and is currently the founder and principal of Barfield Revenue Consulting which helps companies of all sizes identify talent, build teams, and scale the revenue side of their companies. In this episode we discuss our local ecosystem and what we are best at as it relates to scaling sales orgs, key

In the first episode of season two of the Next Matters Most Podcast, we are talking with Ryan Kraudel, VP of technology at Valencell, an inventor and maker of wearable and hearable biometric sensor technology that can monitor and measure key vitals in the body such as blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and more. These readings and more can he

Leadership can have many different forms, but how do you know which one is right for you or your business? In episode 12 of the Next Matters Most Podcast, Walter Pinson, President of Smashing Boxes, talks with Nick Jordan about how he learned how to lead himself and his various teams through personal and business obstacles. Walter has a fair share

We all know that entrepreneurship is tough; their many challenges, headaches, and stress points to overcome before starting a business. Keeping these points in mind, add the detail that the entrepreneur is in college, and the challenge of starting a business goes up exponentially. Despite these oppositions, Nina Barnett overcame them while being a

In this episode of Next Matters Most, we speak with David Morris & Patrick Lineberry, attorneys at law, about Opportunity Zones, Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds, Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses, and what this means for investors, small business owners, and communities. Will this be just a rush towards faster gentrification, or will it be a r

Why are community ecosystems important? What can they provide to a community? Today, Jim Roberts and Nick Jordan talk about what an ecosystem can provide to large and small communities.

In episode 8 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Nick Jordan sits down with Pierce Freelon about what is happening in the world today and what he wants to do about it. Pierce has always been a voice for change and does not have a stop sign in sight! Pierce talks about what everyone can do to help misunderstand and misrepresent groups in our businesse

In episode 7 of the Next Matters Most podcast, you will meet (future) Nobel Prize Winner Doug Speight is a 5x entrepreneur, innovation commercialization expert, and current founder and CEO of Annex Tech Partners. This man on a mission has lofty goals: to change the way the tech industry operates; close the wealth and opportunity gap for women and

Mental well being is Don’s business and he really knows his stuff. Nick and Don question why there isn’t more focus on the emotional well being of workers in the workforce, how to design the workplace and workforce of the future, and what it means to strive for authentic happiness. Can software or technology be built to assist in this movement towa

As COVID-19 changes the course of our country’s education, what will be left behind when the dust settles? How can we use the pandemic as a springboard to incite changes that have been on the verge of existence for a long time? The value of cultural norms such as a college degree is changing by the day, alongside the way in which institutions deliv

With the evolution of technology and the availability of information on Google, is using an attorney to help your business still important? Where does the balance exist between doing your own research to save money and paying a professional to save time? It turns out that, even in the midst of increased automation, sometimes the use of an attorney

In the midst of a pandemic, the task that many of us are focusing on is how to “return to normal.” The goal for many is the go back to the way things used to be before COVID-19 drastically changed life as we know it. Why does that have to be the case? Why can’t we use this time to get to a better version of how the world used to be? With a virus tu

Nick talks with Eric Porper, Co-Chair of the North Carolina Blockchain Initiative, about his work in helping politicians encourage technology as an industry, and helping them adjust to the fact that companies are expected to incorporate tech into their business plan, whether or not they identify as a tech company.