wilmore

Very good spot, but it's more a bar as-is than a brewery - they only had two of their own beers (and like 22 others on tap). Which is possibly fitting a better need in Charlotte anyway at this time?

Yeah, the sign says Bossy Beulah's - absolutely TERRIBLE name.

Isn't at least part of the reason that they were moving from Wilkesboro and many people were commuting from there initially?

You could just walk over to Publix just as easily

I can't imagine this going in Mooresville - the in-town office would be way more attractive to tech workers; if they were looking to work at Lowe's in Mooresville, they could already do so. But that's a terrible commute for anyone in the city.

Live by the gentrification, die by the gentrification.

This article, like every piece of Tresata coverage, manages to use a lot of words without saying anything.

If this goes down, it's the prime opportunity to Abolish 277 (which is not something I see gaining popular support, but given how *horrible* 277 is anyway at moving traffic & general design, could surface streets be much worse?)

I think the better/cooler argument is true. The actually good places seem to be doing just as well if they're local. Futo Buta is a perfect example, Rai Lay, Pasta & Provisions, all seem to be doing quite well. Then there's stuff like the extremely strange CBD-obsessed Max & Lola's, the nostalgia-heavy mediocrity Pike's, and every Bottle Cap Group joint (though the Bottle Cap ones may actually be doing well, I don't really go by there at prime times, but I think it's clear they are *worse* than the chains). Seoul Food is also packed all the time, and it's not even good - but it has a similar cool factor to these chains. Bardo also looks to be doing great recently after a slow start - they've really picked up business over the past few months to where they appear full pretty much every night when I go by. I really don't think there is anywhere executing to the same level as these popular chains that isn't doing well *because* they're local; Golden Cow is a possibility - I'm not sure if they've been hit a lot by Jeni's moving in, but I have to be honest and say the ice cream just isn't as good. Their location is also significantly worse, which is another point: these chains do get the best spots, and *have* to be that full to make the rent back out. Overall it seems like people are freaking out and dropping hot takes (less on here than on Twitter), when those takes are really about ~5 hot national/regional chains (and yeah, I find it hard to consider Superica a "chain" either.)

I don't understand the play behind most of these expensive buildouts for bar/restaurants. How does this actually make most of these places money?

Many of these recent Wooden Robot releases seemed to not sell out in response to this.

Everything about this concept seemed odd, from the building, to how it said "NoDa Italian American Restaurant" and didn't seem to have an apparent name.

Damn, I filled up my Casual Racism Bingo card in one post here.

Based on their app and endless badge focus, I would not assume the Untappd guys are smarter than that.

This was one of the last remaining "Nothing but Noodles" franchises. Turns out ripping off a not-that-popular (Noodles & Co.) franchise isn't a great business model.

I think it can extend itself to about the level it's at now in Charlotte, possibly a handful of additional locations around the city. Their ambitions seem to lie in franchising, which makes less sense to me. I don't see this as being a brand you'd want to franchise, but with the brand they've built in Charlotte (and solid, to solid-plus food), they'll continue to do well here.

Investors push for unicorn valuations when they can get tons of protections, which I would argue is not really a billion-dollar valuation. If your 5% immediately converts into 50% upon some goal not being hit, it's hard to say that was truly a billion-dollar valuation. I'm sure they have developed some sort of actual software package, but the website does not really show that. Maybe they'll up their marketing game now that they're a Unicorn and need to be selling to more/larger clients (I'm not sure who they work with besides Harris Teeter, and likely the banks). If this was a typical unicorn-investor (large VC firm, etc.) I'd believe the valuation more. But a private-equity firm who usually doesn't invest in tech deals, going for a 5% slice of the company? Also, you'll notice the investor didn't mention anything about the valuation, Tresata is the one throwing this around. So they seem to really care for whatever reason. Being obsessed with your valuation rarely ends well for a startup, due to as you mention, investors being able to build in protections and "use the founders' ego against them" in many cases. I hope they live up to the valuation - biggest plus is now that they have $50M, they should end up hiring way more than ~30 employees, good for those looking for tech jobs in CLT.

It's absolutely ridiculous that Tresata is claiming to have a billion dollar valuation. Without knowing any of the actual goings-on here, and why they'd announce this in such a way, there are a *ton* of red flags here. This newsletter seems to have touched on a lot of what's extremely strange about this. IMO trumpeting this doesn't look good for Charlotte tech. 1. They have a billion-dollar valuation and yet the best publication to report on it is "siliconangle"? Not even sure what this site is, but no one reputable outside of CLT touched the story. 2. The investor is a PE firm that generally does control investments. So you're saying they invested for a 5% stake, at the top end of their usual investment number? That's...odd. They also have invested almost entirely in banks, with a couple tech investments - the other tech deal I saw numbers for was a $12.5M Series B. It strains credulity that they'd do a deal for $50M at a BILLION dollar valuation, without some major caveats. 3. Tresata announced the following numbers as a part of the INC 500, which generally requires legit financials: $11M revenue, 182% 3-year growth rate in 2017 (this is cumulative, so the annualized growth rate is slightly over 40%.) The annualized 40% growth rate is good, sure, but nothing NEAR what would result in such a massive multiple of revenue. In fact, the growth rate is similar to many public SaaS companies (of which, is Tresata really? I don't know, it seems more like a consultancy...almost all their employees are "data engineers"), which average around a 10x revenue multiple. This is all to say a $100M valuation might make sense, given both the PE firm's investment type, and the revenue numbers, and even $200M would be feasible if they have some strong growth potential once they begin scaling with this capital. But a billion? I'd love to see any other startup type person or investor say this is a legitimate possibility, and why, because I am baffled as to why they would make this bizarre claim. 4. I certainly hope they invest in their marketing materials with this $50M. If they have some legitimate tech advantage, and aren't just implementing big data tech as a consultancy-type upsell model, they should be able to say something more compelling on their website than they do. Like that post mentions, it's truly horrible marketing buzzword bingo. Don't believe the hype.

It's hilarious, I don't know why they offer it, but I love that it's a thing.

Reviews on this one seemed to be good, does seem like drama may have been the case...didn't last long. Can't imagine Babalu will be terribly missed, however

Yes, tap room with few bottles. They're also going to be adding food service.

Agree with this Pilot take - glad to see someone else skeptical of this CIBA as it's always rubbed me the wrong way. Olde Meck seems to do a lot of this kind of thing, from their reps tweeting anti-hazy IPA takes (people like them, it's ok. they also seem to like your lagers) to the whole distribution change that is basically just OMB + NoDa lobbying...

I agree, it's not that good. Live right down the street and never have a thought to go after trying it out a couple times.

If you have a 3 on Yelp, you're not a good restaurant, no matter what your PR firm says.

Yes, they got rid of the requirement that regionals needed to be in a large football-type stadium, most of them were help in normal basketball stadiums this year, so Spectrum could now qualify again.