Superman has nothing on Jordan Watson, president and CEO of Wilmington-based National Speed.

When Watson took the stage at this week’s CED Tech Venture Conference in Raleigh for a two-minute Lightning Round presentation, he said he did a six-second, quick-release strip down from his “tech entrepreneur getup” to a more minimalist outfit featuring his National Speed T-shirt. At the same time, he clicked on a video of cars doing burnouts.

Watson followed the wardrobe change with a precisely timed pitch for his company, which uses its proprietary software to enhance its work on high-performance vehicles. The technology, according to Watson, gives the company the “data, knowledge and metrics needed to perform consistently across a variety of makes and models,” and will enable National Speed to scale its business. The company plans to roll out 29 locations in the next few years.

“It was a lot of fun. Mine was the only presentation that got laughs and applause,” he said Thursday. “A few people approached me afterward, wanting to get involved, and I’ve got some meetings set up.’

In addition to the opportunity to tout his enterprise in front of nearly 1,000 people, including venture capitalists and other investors, Watson attended a featured talk by Sequoia Capital’s Jim Goetz. In his remarks, Goetz said that the Triangle is the second most important area of innovation in the country, behind Goetz’s home territory, Silicon Valley.

“It’s really cool that he said ... ‘don’t covet us,’” Watson added, explaining that Goetz sees the Triangle area as different, and admires what North Carolina is doing for technology businesses.

Goetz also impressed Geoffrey Gohs, CEO and chief technology officer for XiLi Mobile, one of five Wilmington companies that attended the conference as a demonstration company.

“The fireside chat with Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital (named the #1 investor in the world for two years in a row now) was an excellent learning experience,” Gohs said in an email Thursday.

Gohs said he found the conference to be “valuable and enlightening,” and the speakers and lightning round pitches to be both “entertaining and insightful.”

“To see the entrepreneurial community in North Carolina grow as rapidly as it is growing, and to be a part of that growth is inspiring,” he said. “While we are not currently raising capital, we made several potentially valuable partnership connections. “

XiLi Mobile recently launched a new enterprise version of its real estate search software in collaboration with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage; Gohs said that his company is currently “pursuing deeper relationships with both Coldwell Banker and Keller Williams on national levels, in addition to forging partnerships with other multiple large-scale real estate technology providers to integrate service offerings.”

The co-founder of another Wilmington demonstration company found Tech Venture rewarding, both for the contacts he made and the signs of growth in entrepreneurship he saw everywhere.

“Tech Venture was a great opportunity to meet investors and other tech startup founders,” Peter Robichau, CEO of Trimlio Health, said in an email Thursday. “The Raleigh-Durham market for this type of business is mature, and this was a great venue to network and exchange information -- this is a piece of the puzzle that we don't have access to in the Wilmington area. I formed relationships that will most certainly be critical in the future growth of our venture.”

Robichau, whose Trimlio app helps individuals set and track fitness and health goals, said he also was pleased to see the growing rapprochement between the entrepreneurial worlds of Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington.

“There are many solid relationships between key players in both regions that didn't exist at the beginning of this year, and Wilmington is definitely on the radar of influencers and key players outside of our region," he said. "This is going to be critical to the diversification of the employment landscape and economy in Wilmington, and we're making good headway here. The Triangle knows that there is something going on in cities like Wilmington and Asheville.”

The CED (Council for Entrepreneurial Development) was established in 1984 to support a community of entrepreneurs in the Triangle, and has since expanded its focus to provide a variety of resources to North Carolina's "diverse, successful ecosystem of entrepreneurs," according to its website.