Author: Jonathan Thomas

How to filter through all your startup advice this Thanksgiving

“Here’s what you should do.” It's a sentence you’ve probably heard a lot. Friends, family, peers, mentors, investors—they all have helpful advice, but when your cousin Billy gives you business advice this Thanksgiving that conflicts with advice an investor gave you just last week, what should you do? First, take a big bite of stuffing. Then … Continue reading How to filter through all your startup advice this Thanksgiving →

PIE alum news roundup

While we spent the past few months rambling about our current PIE class, the PIE alum network was still busy making things happen. Awards, features, and funding—here's a brief round up of what some of them have been up to: Congratulations to Cloudability for winning the Portland Business Journal Small Business Award (11-50 employees)! #PBJSmallBiz That moment … Continue reading PIE alum news roundup →

What’s it take to intern for a PIE startup?

A few of the PIE startups have spent the past month working with this year's fresh batch of Epicodus interns. Since they’re wrapping up their internship this week, I got them together to find out what their experience has been like. What’s crazy is that less than 6 months ago, this group had their hands in completely different fields than what they’re in … Continue reading What’s it take to intern for a PIE startup? →

Presenting 101 — a few tips from Mike Pacchione

With demo day looming, PIE startups have already begun to experience both the joys of pitching and the pain of critical, straightforward feedback. We’ve received insight on the topic from a variety of mentors, and that’s just the beginning of the program’s pitch phase. Earlier this week we had storytelling expert, Mike Pacchione, share presentation basics with us. … Continue reading Presenting 101 — a few tips from Mike Pacchione →

Five questions with Duncan Davidson, Bullpen Capital

Duncan Davidson, Managing Director at Bullpen Capital, visited PIE today and shared valuable advice to all of us in the space. While all the startups asked him questions related to their specific businesses, I simply wanted to learn more of what it's like to be on his side of the table. I didn't pitch him, but … Continue reading Five questions with Duncan Davidson, Bullpen Capital →

Catching up with XOBXOB

Half way through the PIE class and everything is well underway. While some companies are working on their brand visuals, others are working on strategy. We had a stacks session yesterday and a 404 session coming up later today. It's all heads down (exaggerated), learning from mentors, and bouncing ideas back and forth with investors. Seating is clustered and arranged … Continue reading Catching up with XOBXOB →

5 Questions with Vadio’s Elliot Swan

We recently shared news that PIE Alum Vadio, the platform that allows streaming music services to sync their audio with corresponding music videos, had raised $2 million. Now we're all aware of the fact that no company gets to $2 million without first facing a few challenges and tough decisions. So today we've caught up with Elliot Swan, cofounder of Vadio, … Continue reading 5 Questions with Vadio’s Elliot Swan →

PIE teams compete in Hood to Coast

When teams from the PIE class aren’t pushing their products forward, they’re finding ways to continually push themselves. Last weekend, five athletes from PIE participated in an overnight long-distance relay race, Hood to Coast (which also happens to be one of the longest and largest relay races in the world*). Just like building an amazing … Continue reading PIE teams compete in Hood to Coast →