Grammar nerds will especially enjoy this week’s episode of The Friday Nooner—sponsored by Whitley Recruiting—with its discussion of the difference between farther/further. (Pro tip: Think of the “far” in “farther” as indicating distance, as in “to run far.” That leaves “further” when you mean a difference of degree, not of literal distance.)

After the break, Joe and Pete welcomed guest Will Bowen, the CEO of Raleigh-based Givebacks, a platform for schools and nonprofits to manage fundraising and charitable giving. We first profiled the startup (under its previous name, MemberHub) in November, 2019, and named it to our inaugural Startups To Watch list in 2021.

It’s been a long and busy week in the Triangle tech startup ecosystem that we capped—as usual—with an episode of The Friday Nooner sponsored by Whitley Recruiting.

This week’s guest was Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill, a Senior Associate at Chapel Hill-based IDEA Fund Partners. We talked about how her varied background—everything from dancing for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks to running a business to train aspiring dancers for pro teams—affects the way she evaluates founders and their businesses.

We also talked about her (multiple) names and the names of Joe’s kids, her daughter and her soon-to-be-son scheduled for a June arrival.

This week’s Friday Nooner—sponsored by Whitley Recruiting—provided a look into the near future, at least once the GrepBeat Godfather finished talking about his chickens. (A new chick was allegedly eaten by a hawk.)

Joe and Pete welcomed guest Archie O’Connor, the Co-Founder (with Chris Heivly) of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week. RDSW returns for Year Three next week as a four-day, all-free event from Tuesday-Friday, April 9-12. The first two days are in Durham before shifting to Raleigh for the last two days.

Archie recommends checking out the RDSW site and then downloading the event’s Whova app to make the most of your time. You can also check out our full preview of the event here.

Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here or Facebook here.