As we come to the end of 2013, I wanted to join everyone else in doing a look-back piece.

So, here are my Top 7 Coolest Observations for RTP:

1. Paradoxos Event Drew 1,000+ — the first of its kind in our area, Paradoxos celebrates music, food and entrepreneurship in a 2 day event in Durham (June 2013).

2. Google Durham Tech Hub Announcement — Google announces 7 tech hub partnerships through their Google for Entrepreneurs program as Durham sits among Denver, Chicago, Nashville, Waterloo, Minneapolis, and Detroit (September 2013).

3. Channel Advisor IPO — Riding on the heels of Sharefile and iContact, Channel Advisor goes the IPO route bringing a great local story to a national audience (May 2013).

4. WedPics Raises $1.1M — Raleigh-based firm raises a heavy seed round from local angels and angel groups (May 2013).

5. AU & HQ Expansion — American Underground expands into 2 new areas (Durham-June) and Raleigh (December) and HQ (rebranded from the Hub) expands as well.  Both moves are critical to building and growing startup density which is critical for our future (June/December 2013).

6. In-Migration of Really Great Talent — I wrote about this earlier this year and I continue to see this trend of 30-50 year old experienced, passionate entrepreneurs are finding their way to RTP from the Valley, NY and all parts in-between to set up their next move (2013).

7. TSF Recruits 3 of 6 Companies to RTP — I have to use one of our own here as I think it is that important – in our Fall 2013 class, over 55% of our applications came from out of the area and we selected 3 from Palo Alto, NYC and DC (September 2013).

What do you think?  Did I miss something big?