Open Source: Will VinFast sell?

Brian Gordon
Travis Long/tlong@newsobserver.com

Hey all! This week’s Open Source newsletter poses a handful of questions: Will VinFast succeed, who are the fastest growing Triangle companies, and what’s going on with the local housing market?

Who is buying VinFast?

By 2027, the Vietnamese startup VinFast will produce 200,000 electric SUVs a year at its 7,500-worker assembly plant in southeastern Chatham County (it says). But none of that is likely to happen if Americans don’t embrace this new electric vehicle brand and its battery leasing subscription model.

The fastest-growing NC company

According to the annual Inc. 5000 list, the Cary-based wellness company Livingood Daily is the fastest-growing private company in North Carolina and the No. 6 fastest-growing company in the country. It posted an astronomical 38,448% revenue increase since it was founded in 2018.

Livingood Daily is run by a licensed chiropractor named Blake Livingood who sells supplements, lifestyle programs and books with the promise of getting customers off traditional health care services. He’s tapped into a trillion dollar alternative wellness industry.

More Triangle homes to buy

Wake, Durham, Johnston and Orange counties all have had their number of homes on the market increase over the past year. The local housing inventory is still historically low (and low compared to other major cities), but the trend might be another sign the housing market has shifted.

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Short Stuff:

Raleigh/Durham again ranked among the top markets for life science, alongside San Francisco, San Diego and Boston.

Other Triangle Tech News:

  • $700,000 grant will bolster North Carolina Central University’s entrepreneurship to build wealth in Black communities [GrepBeat]

  • NC might lose out to NY after New York passed an additional incentive to attract a major chipmaker [Triangle Business Journal]

National Tech Happenings

  • Peloton is having a tough time. A $1.2 billion quarterly loss will do that: [Wall Street Journal]

  • T-Mobile’s 5G phones will connect to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet under a “Coverage Above and Beyond” plan [The Verge]

  • California may have passed the death knell for the gas-power car this week [Slate]

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Thanks for reading!

This newsletter was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate

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