{"podcast":{"title":"NC Tweener Talks","slug":"nc-tweener-talks-7053588","podcast_index_feed_id":7053588,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/triangle-tweener-talks","website_url":"http://www.tweenertalks.com","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/9aT0T2c4UZ-gsEZYm2CzGW4xqhiP5yWQBs5vC31qklI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NjBh/YWVhZTA4ZTUyY2Fl/MDdhNzQwZWFhNDI4/MDc3Zi5wbmc.jpg","author":"Scot Wingo","episode_count":96,"summary":"A podcast for builders by builders in North Carolina. We explore the startup journey and stories with NC founders, from the idea to the exit and everything in between. NC Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by NC Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-11T14:17:12.741034+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nc-tweener-talks-7053588"},"episode":{"title":"Moneyball for Main Street: The Fund That Bets on Singles, Not Home Runs","slug":"moneyball-for-main-street-the-fund-that-bets-on-singles-not-home-runs","published_at":"2026-06-04T06:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nc-tweener-talks-7053588/moneyball-for-main-street-the-fund-that-bets-on-singles-not-home-runs","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nc-tweener-talks-7053588","url":"https://share.transistor.fm/s/34c56d5b","audio_url":"https://media.transistor.fm/34c56d5b/fcd26473.mp3","summary":"Most of us know Asheville as beer city, foodtopia, a playground for retirees and 14 million visitors a year. Jeffrey opens by updating that picture. Eighteen months out from Hurricane Helene, which hit on a Friday in late September 2024, the data is starting to come in. The long-term employment hit was about half that of COVID. Decades of population growth stopped in 2025 and even declined for the first time, but the in-migration that remains is now strongest among 25-to-34-year-olds: prime working-age professionals, not retirees. Jeffrey walks through what’s back (Biltmore Village, the River Arts District, High Wire’s new year-round pickleball courts) and what’s gone forever, and lands on a word he keeps coming back to: optimism. From there, we steer into the heart of the episode: Optimist Ventures and the funding mechanism Jeffrey invented, the SPA note. The origin story is its own lesson in adaptation. Optimist began as a half-million-dollar grant from the Dogwood Health Trust. Then Helene hit, and within the same week a founder in the program, Ginger Frank of Poppy Popcorn, called wanting to commit $100,000, but to a grant program, not a fund. Rather than walk away, Jeffrey spent days thinking until he landed on a hybrid: half the capital as grants and philanthropy, half in a for-profit vehicle for accredited investors, with every for-profit dollar matched by a donation. Boom: enter the SPA or shared profit agreement. The conversation closes on what’s next, whether this model can scale to Charlotte or Raleigh, and a heartfelt ask about how the rest of the state can help Asheville finish its recovery. Highlights Moneyball the Portfolio: Instead of chasing one home run, Jeffrey set out to build a book of “singles and doubles”… companies that just need to survive six…","meta_description":"Most of us know Asheville as beer city, foodtopia, a playground for retirees and 14 million visitors a year. Jeffrey opens by updating that picture. Eight…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3323,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/nc-tweener-talks-7053588/episodes/moneyball-for-main-street-the-fund-that-bets-on-singles-not-home-runs/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nc-tweener-talks-7053588/moneyball-for-main-street-the-fund-that-bets-on-singles-not-home-runs.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}