Wild snow fall
Hey crew, what a week.
Gianna brings 7” to Bald Head Island, 15” to Ocean Isle Beach, and only ~3” to most of the Triangle… definitely one for the record books.
In entrepreneurial news:
Jason Widen’s Blue Co. opens their community round
Mark Cuban’s backed Overplay AI makes video games from Wesley Gundler’s videos
Boardy decided to vibe code an investor dashboard to assess founders
I’ve been vibe coding gaming, event, and product sites on Lovable
we released an AI raise quarterback
…Bonus, an opportunity to race Wesley live.
Let’s dive in.
SERVICE BASED BUSINESS, E-COMM, LIFESCIENCES
Blue Co Warehousing Round Opens - backed by Tim McLoughlin, Triangle Tweener Fund, Jes Lipson, Mark Saad, Jess Ekstrom, and others
After opening Blue Co.’s 3rd location, Jason Widen told me, “I think it’s time.”
Flashback: In 2019, Jason was one of the 1st people to welcome me back into the NC entrepreneur community when I was starting Incolo. He’s one of the co-founders of Raleigh Founded (formerly HQ Raleigh), then serving as Executive Director, and told me we need this (investment crowdfunding) for our community.
1,000’s of companies have run community rounds since then.
So now, with 4 locations now live and immediate visibility on 3 more in 2026, Jason made Blue Co.’s round public so others could participate alongside well known GPs, VC, and angels.
What’s the real reason Jason started Blue Co.?
Ok, maybe it wasn’t just because he wanted to have an excuse to drive a forklift anytime he wanted.
“I like to build collaborative communities, and in doing so, naturally, I want to be able to share those opportunities with others. [Investment] crowdfunding fits who I am as an entrepreneur [...] opening up opportunities for other people to join the journey.”
Blue Co. is currently conducting a Community Round on Wefunder. Full details, risks, and disclosures are available on the official offering page.
A town hall is planned for Thursday, Feb. 12th at noon ET with Jason Widen and one of Blue Co.’s investors, Tim McLoughlin. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact live. Have questions before then? Post them here.
Disclosure: William McGuire is an equity holder in Blue Co. as a business consultant. Incolo also provides consulting services.
WHO’S RAISING?
Investment Crowdfunding aka Community Rounds are Leveraged by Virtually Every Industry
[Robotics] Rise Robotics just closed their $16m+ parallel round (Reg D + Reg CF aka Community Round)
[Motorsports] Apex Resource Center Partners If “Jerry Maguire” were set in motorsports, the story wouldn’t begin once drivers reach the professional ranks. It would begin much earlier with pre-pro drivers.
[Data for AI] Surge Networks is building the data “oil” wells for AI and recently launched locations in New Orleans with others on deck such as Atlanta ahead of the World Cup and North Hills in Raleigh.
[DefenseTech] Windlift’s tethered drone tech has dual use applications across cargo ships, US defense, and NATO defense. They have partnerships in the US, Finland and the EU.
Disclosure: Incolo serves as a business consultant to Apex, Surge, and Windlift
AI PRODUCED VIDEO GAMES & EVENTS
Mark Cuban backed Overplay Games Made “Top Gund” Video Games
When Incolo invested in Overplay’s 1st round on Wefunder in 2023, I didn’t know immediately how we might be able to mobilize our network to help Caroline and Dan’s company grow, but now in 2026 enters Trish Johnson’s Apex Resource Center Partners and the driver Apex is supporting, Wesley Gundler aka “Top Gund” who’s rising through the ranks with a goal to be an IndyCar professional driver.
Overplay has built video games for NASCAR drivers’ fans, but Apex and Wesley provide motorsports fans their 1st opportunity for open car experiences on Overplay.
Access Wesley’s games for free at wesleygundler.arcpgames.com and signup for your opportunity to win prizes. More games are planned for release heading into the 2026 USF season which begins at the end of this month.
Race Against Wesley Live: On Wed, Feb 18th, Apex Racing Lab is hosting Wesley for a meet and greet at 6p. Then at 7p, those present will have the opportunity to race head to head against Top Gund on the high end sims at Apex Racing Lab during the Porsche Cup League: Circuit de Lédenon (newbies welcome!)
Event Details: events.arcpgames.com
$50/person to race (Limited spots. 1st come, 1st serve)
Meet & greet and observers are free. Kids are welcome. Wesley loves introducing kids to racing!
Boardy Vibe Coding
Boardy decided to vibe code a dashboard for investors on its own. haha.
Incolo AI Raise Quarterback
I decided to train a raise quarterback built on years of successful raises and over 1,000 discussions with founders, angels, VCs, ESOs, university entrepreneurship departments, legal teams and more. Why?
Founders (…and investors) waste too much time staring at each other across the dance floor vs. dancing.
AI should be able to automate over 75% of the “stuff” founders need to raise capital.
> 90% of a founders’ time should be devoted to talking with their team, investors, and partners to grow their companies, not raise nuance. The raise should not be the focus. The relationships / connections should be.
My chat with a friend who’s helped raise over $100m.
What You Need to Believe: The next $2.5 billion raised via Reg CF Community Rounds will happen in ½ the time the previous $2.5 billion occurred since 2016.
What You Need to Know: Institutional players are pushing this i.e. JP Morgan and Tokenization aka trade anything; anytime without middle men creates liquidity without stock market / IPOs or acquisitions required. Each company creates their own liquidity market (Kingscrowd report).
Problem: Most founders don’t know they can raise Angel & VC + Community Rounds in parallel, nor how to successfully close the round.
Solution: Create an AI built on data from successful rounds from a diverse set of founders across multiple industries.
Product: raiseqb.ai (Free to use)
…Ask: Try it out and let me know what it didn’t solve for you. Your feedback is only going to make it better for you and 1,000’s of other founders and allies to the entrepreneur community.
Until next time,
Will Hill McGuire
The Investomer
We do not provide investment advice y’all. Information in this communication, incolo.io, incologrind.com and any other medium (collectively “Content”) sent by LiveVested, LLC (aka “We”,”Our”,”Us”) is intended to be educational-only in nature. Investing is risky and you should not invest unless you can sustain the risk of total loss of capital. We are not a registered funding portal, broker-dealer or investment adviser. We DO NOT provide legal advice, tax advice, or make investment recommendations, and no communication through their respective websites or in any other medium should be construed as such. Any information for House Hack Helpers (HHH) is provided through Incolo HHH LLC. Will McGuire is part of the management team for HHH.
