Destination Discussion Abounds As Annie Combs Talks Us Through ECPC Travel

An Old Friend Joins For Holiday Fun In The Nooner’s *Series* Finale

The Friday Nooner returned this week for one final episode. While more podcast/show content is coming in 2025, the Nooner as you’ve come to know it has now wrapped up its run. And what better way to celebrate said run than with some holiday cheer, old friends, and (as often comes with one such old friend) trivia?! Check out this final installment to test your knowledge of Nooners past, muse about plans for the holidays, and enjoy a certain someone being back on the air (ok fine, it was Pete). You’ll even be treated to some old holiday special snippets, all of which have unimpeachable production value. (Important note: Despite the GrepBeat Godfather’s prediction that—as befits a series finale—someone involved would die before the end of the show, we all made it out okay.) Watch the full episode on LinkedIn here [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grepbeat_thefridaynooner-activity-7274864853024923648-PKXa] or on Facebook here [https://fb.watch/wButIEKYmW/].

Christmas Tree Timing And A Visit From Victoria Fritz Of Baby Bumps

The Friday Nooner returned today after a one-week break for Thanksgiving. GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy was joined by co-hosts Melissa Crosby and Kaitlyn Dang and the trio discussed Christmas decoration timing. More specifically, Joe revealed that his distaste for pre-Thanksgiving Christmas trees is… um… fiercer than we realized. The main event was an interview with Victoria Fritz, who beamed in from D.C. Victoria is the Founder and CEO of Chapel Hill-based Baby Bumps—a startup that connects couples with surrogates (sort of like “Hinge for surrogacy,” as she once framed it for us). She filled us in on her personal journey, the need for Baby Bumps, and how the service is helping couples—with a brief foray into Friends talk in the middle.

A Bit Of Grepsgiving And A Chat With American Underground’s Tim Scales

Today’s episode of the Friday Nooner was triple-hosted by GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy, Kaitlyn Dang, and––making his Nooner debut, kind of—Cesar Romero. They opened the show with a few words on what they were all bringing to our midday “Grepsgiving” lunch. (We feasted immediately after the show.) Today’s main course was American Underground [https://americanunderground.com/] Executive Director Tim Scales. Tim spoke about the difference between AU and other “coworking” spaces like WeWork, indulged us in a place-of-origin guessing game, and filled us in on his journey from theater major (fun fact, yours truly was a theater studies minor, but this isn’t about me), to Duke MBA, to a career in Startupland.

Alpacasews CEO Emily Foster’s Budding Plushie Empire (And Love of Clouds)

Today on the Friday Nooner, co-hosting trio Joe Colopy, Melissa Crosby, and Kaitlyn Dang got us started with some conversation about CED’s GRO Demo Day, which took place Thursday evening (and which you can read more about here [https://grepbeat.com/2024/11/15/ceds-eighth-gro-incubator-wraps-up-12-week-program-with-demo-day/]). Somehow this led to the revelations that Joe believes he’s going to die at 86 and Kaitlyn was a talented viola…ist… in high school. Evidently there’s now potential for a future musical episode on which Kaitlyn plans her instrument and I honk through an oboe reed. Finally we got to the important part and welcomed this week’s guest: Emily Foster, the Founder and CEO of Alpacasews [https://grepbeat.com/2024/08/20/raleigh-stuffed-animal-startup-gains-momentum-from-tiktok/]. Emily took us through her journey: from a pursuit of meteorology driven by a love of clouds, through the Andrews Launch Accelerator [https://grepbeat.com/2024/08/28/eight-new-startups-come-out-of-ncsu-andrews-launch-accelerator-2024-cohort/] program at NC State, and ultimately to adorable plushie designs that have fueled her startup (and earned her internet fame). She also teased some Black Friday activity and an upcoming “12 Days of Plushies” promotion you’ll want to learn more about. It has to do with helping cats.

Destination Discussion Abounds As Annie Combs Talks Us Through ECPC Travel

On today’s episode of the Friday Nooner, GrepBeat Godfather Joe Colopy was back in the hosting chair alongside Melissa Crosby and new co-hosting addition Kaitlyn Dang—both of whom, to be clear, were in their own chairs. They started off with a bit of banter about Joe’s brush with death (he nearly crashed his new “GrepBeat red” vespa). Then, our trio of co-hosts welcomed this week’s guest, Annie Combs. Annie is the Co-Founder and CEO of ECPC Travel [https://grepbeat.com/2024/10/17/raleigh-startup-ecpc-travel-supports-eco-friendly-tourism/], which she describes as the “eco-friendly, socially conscious Expedia.” Annie filled us in on her startup’s mission to facilitate conscious travel in a way that simultaneously helps travelers find what they want and uplifts destination communities. From there, it was a four-way conversation covering all kinds of travel experiences and goals (including the “sick girls trips” Annie finds a chunk of her customer base enjoying!).