On this episode of The Newsroom, we sit down with four Wilmingtonians working in the tech start-up space: from diagnostic wearables to solving workforce issues to managing federal contract applications, they’re bringing the entrepreneurial spirit to some tricky issues. We asked them about tech culture, saving your sanity while you start your company, and some of the challenges — and opportunities — that emerge as a start-up grows.
We cover a lot of local stories here at WHQR, but we admittedly don’t spend as much time on the business world — especially not with the kind of inside-baseball granularity that an outlet like the Wilmington Business Journal does.

We do keep an eye on the business and the economy — but we tend to prioritize stories based on how they’ll impact the broader community, including vulnerable and marginalized people, more than what’s going on in the business world for its own sake. We’ve also covered issues where businesses got public money as part of economic incentives, because we feel like that’s part of holding local government accountable.

All that said, there are plenty of interesting things going on in Wilmington’s business world — particularly when it comes to the culture of tech and start-up entrepreneurs here. There’s a lot happening that many people — including me — aren’t paying a ton of attention to. But I do get emails now and then, asking some good questions that I haven’t really had answers to — like what does it mean for a company or an industry to have a culture? How does that culture evolve in a particular place, like Wilmington? What makes our local scene different than the big tech firms — Google, Meta, Amazon — that lay people like me are more familiar with? And I had some questions of my own: hearing about 90-hour weeks, I wonder how entrepreneurs and their teams keep from crashing and burning. And I also wondered about what successful companies owe to the public. Legally, of course, they’re free to just make a profit and relish their success — but I often hear entrepreneurs talk about giving back. So, what does that look like?

All of this to say, when Jim Roberts asked if I might be interested in sitting down to host a roundtable with some local tech entrepreneurs, I said yes. Why not spend some time and fill in the blindspot, at least a little? I’ve known Jim since I worked at Port City Daily, although my beats haven’t often intersected with his work. He’s founded and worked with a number of organizations that support start-ups – including Wilmington Angels for Local Entrepreneurs, or WALE, and Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington, or NEW – groups you’ll hear mentioned a few times on today’s show.

Jim also helped me wrangle up four entrepreneurs, all part of the Wilmington start-up scene, but each with their own perspective: Jessica Kovar, Rob Cooley, Christian Pardue, and Morris Nguyen.

Jessica Kovar is the founder of It’s A Go Pursuits, which helps clients navigate the difficult (and sometimes frustrating) world of pursuing federal contracts.

Rob Cooley is the CEO of Nuream, a neurodata science company, owner of Apple Annie’s bakery, and co-owner of The Wine Sampler. He’s a retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Christian Pardue built and sold his company ShiftWizard in Raleigh before moving to Wilmington, where he started a new company Teamed Up 4 Dentistry, and got involved in the local start-up ecosystem.

Morris Nguyen is the founder and CEO of Predicate HPG, which combines wearable sensor technology and natural language processing to develop an AI-powered early warning system for ‘silent killer’ medical issues.