The Triangle is one of the nation’s best-kept secrets – well, maybe not-so-secret after a recent slew of #1 “best place to live and work” rankings in national publications. What’s not to love? We have a great, moderate climate, the most educated population in the world, and a quality and pace of life that’s unrivaled (not to mention a slight interest in college basketball). Plus, we’ve always had a vibrant entrepreneurial community. Triangle Startup Factory will help take entrepreneurship to the next level here by bringing together the talent, capital, and mentorship necessary to maintain the “entrepreneurial chain reaction” – bringing together new entrepreneurs with experienced veterans and helping connect great teams with experienced investors. I’m really excited about what Chris and Dave are doing and can’t wait to see the results.

Mentor Bio

David Spitz, ChannelAdvisor’s president and COO, is responsible for global sales and marketing, services, finance and general operations. Before joining ChannelAdvisor, Spitz founded and successfully exited multiple venture-backed software companies. He was most recently an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Aurora Funds, a venture capital firm with more than $200 million under management. Prior to Aurora, David was president of Avesair, a mobile marketing company that was acquired by Inphonic. Previous to Avesair, David was co-founder and CTO of Netsation, a network management software company acquired by Nortel Networks. David received a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego. David recently was awarded the Triangle Business Journal’s 2010 CFO of the Year Award, and in 2008, David received the Triangle Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40 award. David has also been awarded three U.S. patents, is past chairman of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Foundation Board and is chair-elect of the board of directors for the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development.