Newsletter 4/23: From clogged gutters, a tech idea takes root
Plus: Runner conquers Boston Marathon and MS; Bokhari sworn in for transit post; New Real Estate Whispers newsletter; CMS budget approved with 5% teacher raises; Strawberry pickin' & farmers markets
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, April 23, 2025. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. This post is sent to paying subscribers only.
Today’s Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by T.R. Lawing Realty:
Charlotte’s StreetFair is expanding to more cities and linking 50,000+ suburban homeowners with home maintenance companies; ‘Passport mafia’ strikes again
Teddy Fitzgibbons, co-founder of StreetFair, gives a presentation to the “Shark Tank”-like Pitch Breakfast Charlotte in February. The company, which started in 2021, is expanding into new markets.
by Tony Mecia
Entrepreneurs often speak of “light bulb moments,” when a realization suddenly flashes in their brains that there might be a better way.
For Teddy Fitzgibbons, that moment came in 2021, in the form of a steady stream of gutter-cleaning trucks on his street in south Charlotte’s Providence Park neighborhood.
Over the course of a few days, he witnessed four separate companies show up to clean gutters at his neighbors’ houses. It struck him as wildly inefficient — four companies, all driving to his street in the same week, doing essentially the same work. What if there was a way, he wondered, for neighbors in suburban communities like his to pool their accumulated wisdom on home maintenance and recommend good plumbers, carpet cleaners, pressure washers and so on?
“This was my first time owning a house and having a yard, and I didn’t know anything about how to vet a plumber or who’s a good tree trimmer, but I realized that there was nothing my home needed that one of my neighbors hadn’t solved for,” Fitzgibbons said. “It felt crazy that I had to, like, start over every time, as opposed to being able to take advantage of the knowledge and the Rolodex that my neighbors had already built up.”
He brainstormed ideas with Mike Kerr, his co-worker at parking operations tech company Passport. Kerr had been having similar experiences in Huntersville, where he had gone in with a neighbor on a delivery of mulch. Within a few months, the two quit their jobs and launched StreetFair, a free tech platform that lets homeowners see which home services companies their neighbors are using and recommending, and to hire them, with group discounts if neighbors use the same company.
From its office a few streets behind Bank of America Stadium uptown, StreetFair has expanded from its Charlotte roots into two other cities, Dallas and Raleigh. It’s moving into Nashville next month and plans to open in three to five more cities later this year.
Charlotte, a city whose business landscape is dominated by large banks and other Fortune 500 companies, is not known as a hotbed of technological innovation or for having a thriving start-up culture. But local tech boosters say new companies like StreetFair are showing that Charlotte is a place where innovators can build growing businesses. They hope to encourage a more entrepreneurial-friendly climate through regular events, conferences, connections to industry and a new tech hub on North Tryon Street uptown.
“We want people to know there is an ecosystem here,” says Juan Garzón, managing director of Innovate Charlotte, a nonprofit that supports innovation and entrepreneurship in Charlotte. “Companies like StreetFair — that’s what we want to highlight.”
A report released this month on Charlotte’s “start-up ecosystem” found that while the city is an attractive location and that local investment funding is growing, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome in building a thriving start-up culture, including “lagging” growth in entrepreneurial start-ups, a “fragmented and underdeveloped” support system for entrepreneurs and a “lack of engagement” between the corporate community and entrepreneurial networks.
Taking on established players; ‘Never effing call me!’
Despite those challenges, StreetFair is growing after raising $6.8M in investments. Fitzgibbons declined to discuss finances in detail but said that the company is not yet profitable. That’s typical of young tech companies that plow money into growth.
“Our trajectory looks like: Continue to invest aggressively in growth and to make StreetFair a business that has scale, and then, if we’re successful doing that, you should be able to become profitable fairly quickly,” Fitzgibbons said.
StreetFair’s Charlotte operations became profitable in the latter part of 2024, he said, which bodes well for its future as its newer markets become more established.
StreetFair is what is known in tech circles as a “marketplace” business — one that brings together buyers and sellers of a good or service. It’s trying to do for home repairs what Uber does for car rides or Airbnb does for lodging.
Building that kind of business can be tricky, because companies have to sign up both the providers of the service (home maintenance companies) and the consumers of it (homeowners) at just the right pace.
Fitzgibbons says StreetFair has solved that problem in part with incentives that align everybody’s interests:
StreetFair makes money by taking a percentage of the payments homeowners make to the home services companies in its network, which it screens.
Homeowners receive recommendations from their neighbors, as well as discounts if multiple owners in a neighborhood use the same provider on the same day.
Service providers pay StreetFair only after they are paid for a job. StreetFair’s technology collects that information directly from the companies’ customer service management (CSM) platforms, which in the home services industry are tech tools with names such as Jobber, ServiceTitan and JobNimbus.
Many home services companies find it to be a better arrangement than marketing platforms such as Angi (formerly Angie’s List) and Thumbtack. Fitzgibbons describes those as pay-to-play lead generation sites, where contractors pay to have their companies ranked highly in recommendations to consumers.
At a PitchBreakfast Charlotte event in February, where founders describe their companies and face questioning “Shark Tank”-style from an expert panel, Fitzgibbons said it was initially challenging to sign up contractors because Angi and Thumbtack “scorched the earth” by charging companies money for marketing and offering job leads that often didn’t pan out.
“For the first six months, we were calling businesses, and they’d be like, ‘This sounds like Angi. Never effing call me!’” Fitzgibbons said. “And we’re like, ‘I didn’t even have a chance to say that we were totally different from Angi.’”
Angi’s dominance seems to have faded since going public in 2011. Its stock is down 93% since 2021, and its revenue has dropped each of the last two years. Its number of service requests, completed transactions and service providers all fell last year, according to securities filings.
Today, StreetFair has more than 50,000 homeowners signed up, as well as 1,300 service providers across about 60 industries, including car detailing, duct cleaning and pet waste removal. It has 13 full-time employees, said Fitzgibbons, who is 33. His co-founder, Kerr, is 38.
Cutting through the internet ‘nightmare’
David Sammons, owner of Charlotte Roofing Specialists, says StreetFair has helped his business because his company gets recommended to others after it repairs or installs a roof.
With other services, he was paying increasingly more for marketing with no guarantees of jobs, or he would get leads on jobs that were far away. But StreetFair, he says, leads to new roofing jobs for him and his 20 workers, in areas where the company does most of its work: within a 10-mile radius of Cotswold, where he lives.
He says the company’s platform brings order to what is often a messy mishmash of review sites, paid digital advertising and questionable search engine results.
“In the sea of things on the internet, you try to look up something you just want to know a genuine answer to, and it is a nightmare,” he said. “… If somebody is looking up ‘roofing services in Charlotte,’ what’s the chance they will click on us? What’s the chance they know us from Adam?”
Don Rainey, an early investor in StreetFair, said he was drawn to the company because it “takes the friction out of the lives of consumers and service providers.” Every morning, near his house in Cornelius, “there is an invasion of white vans and landscaping trucks on a massive scale,” he says.
He once counted eight lawn service companies during a two-mile walk in his neighborhood. “One would have been sufficient,” he said.
Startups like StreetFair are important, he said, because when they succeed, they encourage employees to start their own companies. That’s how StreetFair came together: Fitzgibbons and Kerr met while working at Passport.
So many companies have been started by former Passport workers that those entrepreneurs are now jokingly referred to as members of the “Passport mafia.” The Charlotte Business Journal last year tallied 13 companies founded by former Passport employees, including SkillPop, which offers live classes; and DebtBook, which provides accounting software to government agencies and nonprofits.
The term “Passport mafia” is a reference to the so-called “PayPal mafia” that left the payments company to start businesses that included LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp and SpaceX.
Tony Mecia is executive editor of The Charlotte Ledger. Reach him at tony@cltledger.com.
Other in-depth tech coverage from The Charlotte Ledger:
“20 years later, a big bet on tech pays off” (AvidXchange) (🔒, 2021)
“Understanding Charlotte’s tech industry” (Q&A with John Espey) (2022)
“The future of AI, with Lauren Marturano of Zinnia” ( 🎧 Podcast, 2023)
“A homegrown tech success story” (Payzer) (🔒 , 2023)
Today’s secondary sponsor is Child Care Search, a service of Child Care Resources Inc. Looking for child care? Our team provides guidance every step of the way! Search online at www.FindChildCareNC.org or call 1-888-600-1685 for live assistance and free, customized referrals.
Boston marathoner Isabella Malick is on a mission to show that ‘MS doesn’t define my life’
Amid a mass of runners, Isabella Malick (center in sunglasses) approaches the starting line of Monday’s Boston Marathon. (Photo contributed by family)
At age 12, Isabella Malick of Mooresville lost sight in her left eye and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the incurable disease that affects the central nervous system.
At age 17, determined not to let MS define her, she took up running.
Monday, at age 23, she finished the 129th Boston Marathon and settled on a slang word to describe the meaning of her achievement.
“Enthusiasticness.”
In other words, she told The Ledger, “Me running these marathons, it shows that MS doesn’t define my life.”
In that spirit, running has given Isabella a gift.
She wants to prove to herself that she is bigger than MS, whose symptoms can include muscle weakness, vision problems, numbness and cognitive issues. She said she has a “non-classified” form of MS with symptoms that include fatigue and vision issues. Others with the disease can suffer from extreme disability that makes it impossible to walk, much less run marathons.
“I try not to live my life in fear,” she says.
That explains how and why Isabella has finished the six marathons that make up the original and prestigious Abbott World Marathon Majors. (The Ledger recently profiled Cheryl Perry, another Charlottean who is completing the six marathons.)
Since 2019, Isabella has completed marathons in Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Tokyo and, as of Monday, Boston. None are easy, much less for someone with MS. At the New York City Marathon in 2022, the heat and overexertion got to Isabella at Mile 4. Everything went dark. At the medical tent, they threw ice down her sports bra and running shorts until her vision returned. On she went.
Isabella said Boston was incident-free, and phenomenal. Many spectators and some of the 30,000-plus runners wore “Boston Strong” T-shirts recalling the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. At Mile 19, pausing for a Popsicle, she connected with first-time marathoner Emily from Seattle. The two chatted as they pushed each other forward. Some 200 yards from the end, Isabella screamed to no one in particular, “Is that the finish line?” A nearby runner gave her the good news: “Yeah, that’s it.”
Isabella finished the 26.2 miles in 4 hours 9 minutes.
Even better in her mind, she has raised $25,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Why stop now?
Isabella is thinking about tackling Ironman Triathlons — a 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run and 2.4-mile swim.
“I want to conquer it all,” she says. — Ledger contributor Ken Garfield
Mr. Bokhari goes to Washington
Former Charlotte City Council member Tariq Bokhari was sworn in on Monday as deputy administrator for the Federal Transit Administration, a U.S. government agency that provides funding and oversight for public transportation systems nationwide. Bokhari, who spent nearly 8 years on the City Council before stepping down on Sunday, wrote on LinkedIn: “It was an honor to be sworn in this morning, and a whirlwind rest of the day learning about $1.2T of assets, 7B annual trips, and 430k transit workers that fall in the scope of the FTA. Let’s get to work.” (Photo courtesy of Tariq Bokhari)
Commercial Real Estate Whispers: Mixed takes on Charlotte’s office market, value of uptown property values still rising, did Charlotte overbuild?
It’s time once again to step into the latest irresistible edition of Charlotte Commercial Real Estate Whispers, where the city’s most sizzling land deals, rezonings and developments are artfully unwrapped. Get ready to be captivated by the most heart-pounding insights into Charlotte’s real estate landscape, where every transaction is a tantalizing secret and every revelation is a thrilling affair.
In an edition published Monday as its own new standalone newsletter, paying Ledger members who have opted in enjoyed learning about the following topics:
Three new reports shed light on Charlotte’s office market
Data shows property values as a whole in uptown are continuing to rise, even as prices of commercial property seem to fall
Has Charlotte overbuilt apartments and warehouses? An economist suggests that’s a possibility if the economy turns south
Weigh in on some of Charlotte’s slowest-moving developments in our reader poll
A wrap-up of other local growth and development news, including Savona Mill’s first office tenant, LoSo apartments, proposed UDO changes and more!
Charlotte Commercial Real Estate Whispers is our regular check-in on Charlotte growth and development, available exclusively to Ledger paying members. It provides an inside look at what developers and other real estate pros are buzzing about — including plenty of scoops you won’t find elsewhere.
➡️ Receive Whispers as a newsletter by opting in online
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Charlotte Wine + Food Week, Guild of Charlotte Artists, ‘Metropolitan’ screening with director, Opening of Annie Leibovitz exhibit
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
WEDNESDAY to SUNDAY: “Charlotte Wine + Food Week,” various locations. Oenophiles of all kinds, from casual sippers and samplers to serious connoisseurs and collectors, will have the opportunity to celebrate the nectar of the gods at Charlotte Wine + Food Week presented by Truist on April 23rd-27th. Prices vary.
WEDNESDAY: “Guilding the Mint,” 6-9 p.m., Mint Museum Uptown. The Guild of Charlotte Artists is celebrating its historic return to the Mint Museum in uptown with an exhibition entitled “Guilding the Mint.” Over 150 guild members are represented in this special exhibit. Exhibit runs through May 26. Join us! Free.
THURSDAY: “Metropolitan – 35th Anniversary Screening with Director Whit Stillman,” 7:15-10 p.m., The Independent Picture House. Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Metropolitan—Whit Stillman’s witty debut about NYC’s “urban haute bourgeoisie.” Join us for a special screening followed by a live conversation with Stillman, moderated by filmmaker Onur Tukel. $12.85 per ticket (plus fees).
SUNDAY: Opening of “Annie Leibovitz / Work,” 1-5 p.m., Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 S. Tryon St. From Hollywood A-listers to world leaders, Annie Leibovitz’s photographs have influenced our view of culture, fame and history for a half-century. Explore a mix of her new and rarely seen images alongside famous portraits at the exhibition opening April 27 at Mint Museum Uptown. $10 + museum admission.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief
CMS budget approved: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education voted 5-3 to approve the school district’s $2.1B budget that includes an average 5% raise for teachers, but some board members said the raise was too meager. (WFAE)
Crypto company hiring: Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase plans to open a Charlotte office and hire 130 local workers in compliance and customer service over the next six months. (Axios Charlotte)
N.C. job growth: North Carolina added 64,400 jobs in the last year, an increase of 1.3%, led by growth in education and health services (21,200 jobs), government (16,100 jobs) and professional and business services (13,000 jobs), according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. South Carolina’s employment rose 2.4%, and Virginia’s rose 1.1%. (N.C. Tribune)
Proposal would eliminate Innocence Commission: A budget proposal in the N.C. Senate suggests eliminating funding for the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, a 12-person state agency with a $1.6M budget that has exonerated 16 people in its 19 years of existence. Some senators have suggested that nonprofits could shoulder the work if the commission is eliminated. (The Assembly)
Beer slowdown: The amount of beer distributed in North Carolina declined by 2.4% last year, according to the N.C. Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association, and numbers appear headed lower this year. More N.C. breweries closed than opened in 2024. (Axios Raleigh)
Electric car rentals: Residents of the Peppertree Apartments in east Charlotte can rent electric cars for $5 an hour through a mobile app, via a program with the city of Charlotte that is the first of its kind in the city. (QCityMetro)
Strawberry season: Charlotte on the Cheap has a list of 15 places to pick strawberries near Charlotte.
Farmers market season: Axios Charlotte has a list of 21 farmers markets in the Charlotte region, including hours and the “vibe” at each one, with notes on whether they are “dog-friendly.”
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