Originally published in Crain's Raleigh-Durham, September 2017. Republished with permission.
Raleigh, North Carolina-based NeoCloud, which spun out of NeoNova in 2016, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary as a standalone company. Just last month, the young company — which provides management services for companies looking to transition business processes to the cloud — announced the acquisition of California-based cloud service business Bi101.
Crain's Raleigh-Durham chatted with NeoCloud CEO Van Murray about Activate Good, why Murray chose the Triangle for his business, and what's the next big thing in the cloud.
How did your entrepreneurial path lead you to the Triangle area?
I grew up here in Raleigh. I love the area and my family is here. I actually only applied to one college and that was N.C. State. I was interested in computers and computer engineering, so N.C. State was the perfect fit for me.
N.C. State has a great co-op program, and I got a full-time co-op at Glaxo, which was my first job in IT. I chose IT because it was something that I've always been passionate about. My first real job out of school was with a startup — a small group that did big projects. I was in a space that was very new: mobile data collection. In 2004, it was very exciting technology.
Then I shifted back toward more traditional IT and ran IT for a private equity firm. I realized it's too expensive for any traditional business to operate that way, which is what led me to the cloud business. I started Accent Plus, which was my first real business, where I helped businesses get rid of the legacy model and switch to the cloud.
What was the biggest challenge when stepping out on your own?
The biggest fear of all is leaving secure employment — which not only did I have, but I had the opportunity to continue with those guys and keep being successful. At that time, I had recently bought a home and my wife was pregnant. The fear of leaving can be overwhelming, but it also drove me to succeed and grow the business.
I sold the company — which was a success — in 2012. I closed on the deal a week after my son was born. From 2012 to 2016, we built a national sales channel. Ultimately, I saw the opportunity to buy the business back and spin it out with new investors. We closed on that deal in February 2016, and we've branded that company as NeoCloud.
Why did you select Raleigh to grow your business?
That's pretty easy. I had several previous roles that involved a lot of travel, yet I would always want to come back home. It's a great place to start a business because of the surrounding universities and the talent pipeline. There's a huge talent pool here — Research Triangle Park, NC State, UNC, Duke — and cost of living is still manageable compared to coastal tech hubs.
2026 Update
NeoCloud went on to become AppSmart under AppDirect's umbrella — a national technology marketplace that grew to serve thousands of advisors and businesses. Since that chapter, I've continued building at the intersection of technology, operations, and entrepreneurship.
Today, through Van Murray Ventures, I focus on fractional executive work, M&A advisory, and building Mahiri — an autonomous business operating system for small and mid-market companies. The cloud bets we made in 2016 turned out to be right. The next bets are on AI-native operations and intelligent automation.
The Triangle is still home. Still the right place to build.