Two young Wilmington companies and one startup advocate left Durham’s Motorco on Tuesday evening with Full Steam Ahead awards from WRAL TechWire.

nCino, whose Bank Operating System has proven successful among community banks and credit unions nationally, won in the startup Subway category. The award was targeted at fast-growing startups emerging from stealth mode, according to TechWire.

Live Oak Bank, nCino’s parent and an SBA lender to niche industries, won in the Freight category for larger “enterprise” companies. The freight designation denoted a company that delivers success consistently, TechWire sources stated.

“I told the crowd that nCino was out to change the world of banking,” Rick Smith, WRAL TechWire editor said Wednesday in an email. “I asked everyone in the audience to hold their hands up if they had a banker. Then I asked them to keep their hands up if they had an exciting banker. You could imagine the results.
 
“nCino is exciting, and that $29M in venture funding [secured] earlier this year raised a lot of eyebrows. That's why they won the Startup Subway honor.”
 
Of Live Oak, Smith said, “Its focus on business loans and the fact that it's a relatively new firm made it a fine fit for the Enterprise Freight award.”

Jim Roberts, former executive director of University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, was one of four individuals honored with Editor’s Choice Awards for public service.

“Jim Roberts received the second highest number of votes spread across multiple nominations,” Smith said in his email. “Jim also worked very hard to support the Wilmington companies. For his role in entrepreneurship over the years and especially at UNC Wilmington as well as the trade group NC COIN (nanotechnology), Jim received one of four Editor's Choice awards. I've known Jim for a long time, and he is a well-deserving winner."
 
Smith explained that reader voting was the primary factor in determining winners. Other factors included a nominee’s community commitment, innovation, record of achievement and what the market is saying about its potential. The same criteria were used for individuals, although the assessments were more personalized, he said.
 
“Wilmington companies and individuals received extraordinary support through the nomination and voting process,” Smith said, adding that this level of engagement speaks well for the “enthusiasm and the growing scope” of what he calls the “East Coast Silicon Beach.”

In keeping with the awards program’s railroad theme, each winner took home an engineer's cap. A full list of the categories and winners can be found here.

Other Wilmington companies nominated for this year's third annual Full Steam Ahead awards were Next Glass, Surgilum, Elite Innovations and EasyVote. In addition to Roberts, individuals nominated for Full Steam Ahead awards were Chip Mahan and Neil Underwood, chairman and president/COO of Live Oak Bank, respectively and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Fred Eshelman.