Tag Archives: PIE Shop

Advice

PIE and PIE Shop request for startups 2019

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At PIE, we’ve always been lucky to see a wide variety of startups apply — and be selected — for our accelerator program, from nonprofits to rockets. And we’re always intrigued by the breadth of companies from which we have the opportunity to select. So let us be clear, we actively encourage all types of companies to apply for our program.

That being said, part of the PIE experiment often motivates us to pursue specific types of startups. What kinds? Well, this time around, we’re especially interested in encouraging these types of startups to apply:

Autodesk users (or potential Autodesk users). PIE Shop — our collaboration with Autodesk designed to accelerate companies that are manufacturing things — is also a way for Autodesk to spend more quality time their customer base, which, in turn, helps Autodesk to build even better and more compelling products. As such, we’re very interested in hearing from companies that are using Fusion360, Inventor, or a combination of different Autodesk products. If you’re curious as to whether you might be a potential Autodesk user, here’s all of their software offerings.

Connected devices or Internet of Things. As PIE Shop collaborator Uncorked Studios so eloquently puts it, we’re convinced that Portland has all of the necessary ingredients to be a prominent player in the world of connected devices and Internet of Things. We’d like to see startups apply that are exploring these areas. We’re curious about what folks are building. And we welcome the opportunity to recruit and engage mentors who might not otherwise be motivated to work with PIE or PIE Shop. So if you’re building a connected device, please apply.

Zebras. If there’s one thing we’ve learned after a decade of working with Portland startups — and startups that are attracted to Portland — it’s that financial gain is often the last thing motivating and driving our founders. And even if there are financial motives, they do not often come with a “growth at any cost” mindset. Unfortunately for Portland and its founders, those types companies don’t often fit the venture capital model, and that means that there’s not a great deal of accelerator support for those companies. Well, we want to help support and accelerate the growth of those companies — and figure out how the accelerator model can be effectively leveraged for Zebras. Because we’re more likely to find Zebras around here, than Unicorns. So if you feel that you’re building something that can be collaborative, profitable, and improve society, we would love to hear from you.

More questions about PIE or PIE Shop? Please feel free to join us for an upcoming question and answer session. No questions? Cool. Then please join us for our 10 year celebration, instead.

Remember, PIE and PIE Shop applications close August 18, 2019.

News

We’re super interested in the startup you’re building and we’d love to hear more about it

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Here at PIE, we love founders and founding teams. The passion, creativity, and grit that drive people to pursue their vision is a constant source of intrigue — and inspiration. And it’s a pursuit we want to encourage. And facilitate.

We believe that you should be building your company. And we want you to do that.

That said, after 10 years of doing this work, we recognize that one of the most challenging things about building a business is finding access to the people and resources that can help support you at the earliest stages. Before you’re popular. Before you’re a household name. Before you can afford an office. Before investors are lining up to fund you.

That’s why we’re here. To support you.

And it’s not just the aspects of the business that present a challenge. Because when it comes right down to it, this isn’t just about generating revenue or raising venture capital. We recognize that you’re human. And being a founder is hard. Really really hard. It’s lonely. It’s stressful. It’s confusing. And then there’s the constant haranguing doubt. And imposter syndrome. You rarely feel like you’re “crushing it” or “killing it” no matter how many times you confidently voice the potential of your concept. Sometimes, you just want to let down your guard and be real.

That’s why we bring a bunch of founders together. To support one another.

If that sounds like something that might benefit you and your company, then we’d love to hear more about what you’re building. And who is building it with you. And if things seem to make sense, we’d love to invite you to join our program.

Applications are currently open for two flavors of PIE:

  • PIE supports companies that are building digital products. We have a deep history in Software as a Service (SaaS) and B2B companies, having helped startups like Airship, AppThwack, Cloudability, and Read The Docs. That said, we’ve had the chance to work with consumer facing companies, too. Folks like AllGo, MilkRun, and Simple.
  • PIE Shop supports companies that are manufacturing physical products. Ideally, physical products with a digital component, like connected devices and Internet of Things. As an added bonus, this program provides free access to Autodesk software, training, and a desktop manufacturing facility to help these companies get to prototype and beyond as quickly as possible.

Sound interesting? Awesome. We hope you take the opportunity to apply. Still have questions? We have answers. Please join us for one of these question and answer sessions.

(All of these sessions are family friendly. So feel free to have a kid or kids in tow if that makes it easier for you to attend any of these sessions.)

Applications will remain open until August 18, 2019, at 11:59PM Pacific Time. If you’d like time to formulate your answers before you submit, we have created a PIE application cheat sheet for your use.

We look forward to hearing more about what you’re building. So please, go apply already.

Community, News

Please join us — when else? — Pi Day for PIE Demo Day 2019

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been a little more than four years since the last PIE Demo Day. Time, as they tend to say, does indeed fly.

During that hiatus, we’ve managed to accomplish quite a bit. Quietly, mind you. Out of the limelight of the stage. But we’ve still been hard at work. Accomplishing stuff.

Since our startups last took the stage in 2014, PIE has…

Still, we’d be lying if we didn’t admit to missing PIE Demo Days. Quite a bit. Not for all of the stressful preparation. Or the seemingly never-ending pitch practice and critiques. Or the nerve jangling day-of delivery.

Honestly, we don’t miss that all that much.

What we do miss about PIE Demo Days, however, is that they consistently served as a brief moment of celebration where we could come together to embrace and support some of the awesome founders building amazing companies in our midst. So that we could all gather together — new founders and serial entrepreneurs, established companies and startups, would-be entrepreneurs and their soon-to-be mentors — as a community.

So, with that in mind, we’re happy to announce that — 100 days from today — PIE will be hosting PIE Demo Day 2019 on, appropriately enough, March 14, 2019. Pi Day. This time around, we’ll be taking the stage at the historic Aladdin Theater in southeast Portland, a stone’s throw from the Dairy Building where the latest class of PIE spent much of 2018. Best of all, the Aladdin is our largest venue yet. Meaning that we can bring together more of the community, in person, than we’ve ever had the opportunity to do before.

As always, the event is free of charge, but space is limited. Seats are general admission. If you choose to make a donation to PIE, that will give you access to a block of reserved seats, front and center. If you’re worried about figuring out childcare so that you can attend? Stop worrying. Childcare will be provided, free of charge to attendees. We’ve arranged for our go-to photographer, Hockley Photography, to capture the event for posterity. And, as in previous years, we will be partnering with Blaze Streaming Media to ensure that family and friends from around the world can tune into the event from the comfort of their Web browser if they’re not able to attend in person.

Presenting companies will consist of a mixture of both PIE and PIE Shop companies, as well as some updates from PIE alums and our partnering organizations. (Speaking of partners, if you’re interested in joining on as a sponsor of the event, please let us know.)

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a PIE Demo Day if we didn’t have a few surprises to reveal.

Please grab a ticket and block the time on your calendar. This event usually sells out fairly quickly. And we’re sincerely hoping you can join us. Because we’re looking forward to sharing all of our amazing companies and awesome founders with you.

For more information or to RSVP, visit PIE Demo Day 2019.

Mentors, News

PIE announces partnership with Stoel Rives

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We’ve had the pleasure of partnering with any number of corporations throughout our experiments. Now, we’re partnering with Portland’s largest law firm to ensure that startups in our community have efficient access to mentorship from legal experts.

This collaboration will allow PIE to offer its startups resources and mentorship opportunities with experienced Stoel Rives attorneys who focus their practices on working with emerging companies. The partnership marks another step in Stoel Rives’ ongoing efforts to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Portland.

Originally founded as a collaboration between Portland based creative agency Wieden+Kennedy and the Portland startup community, PIE has continued to partner with private industry to support its ongoing operations. Since the venture was founded in 2009, financial and in-kind support has been provided by leading companies including Autodesk, CENTRL Office, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Environments, Google, Intel, Intrinsic Ventures, Nike, Target, Uncorked Studios, and W+K.

“Through its community-building efforts, PIE has become the de facto hub of the community that supports early stage tech startups in Portland  — and their expanding efforts into manufacturing and consumer products promise to increase the gravity of the organization,” said Brie Bridegum, lawyer with Stoel Rives. “I’m excited to become more engaged with PIE and its programs and I know a numberof my peers at Stoel Rives share in this excitement.”

“Unless you’re among our alums or one of the hundreds of mentors who volunteer for our programs, it’s difficult to describe the exact value that PIE provides to the broader Portland startup community,” said Rick Turoczy, cofounder and general manager of PIE. “That’s why it’s always heartening to have organizations such as Stoel Rives proactively approach us to provide support for our programs and the startups in our community. We’re looking forward to this partnership providing streamlined access to a whole new group of mentors with significant legal insights.”

Through the partnership, the attorneys in Stoel Rives’ Emerging Companies practice group will provide practical and thorough advice to a diverse range of companies that are forming, financing, hiring, creating and protecting innovations, as well as resolving disputes that may arise along the way. The team brings a combination of legal knowledge, entrepreneurial thinking and understanding of the financial markets as they help entrepreneurs navigate from startup through sale or public offering. 

Community, News

Beta testing PIE Shop, application deadline announced

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While PIE has amassed nearly a decade of experience in assisting and accelerating early stage startups, the bulk of that experimentation has been with software companies. So when we embarked on a new project to apply PIE’s startup accelerator methodology to companies that manufacture physical objects, we wanted to be sure we knew how those types of companies would make use of the physical space we provide.

We understand how much space software companies use… but how much space do startups who make things use?

In an effort to answer that question, we did what we usually do. We began experimenting.

PIE Shop beta cohort

We’ve been quietly beta testing our PIE Shop space with a few different physical object startups, who were specifically selected from early applicants to help test drive the space and help us gain a better understanding of their needs and use. Given that the experiment seems to be going well, we felt it appropriate to share those companies with you, as well.

Bip: Bip is a small format connected device designed to be worn by residents of assisted living facilities as a means of opening lines of communication among residents, staff, and family, and providing critical data points that inform other assisted living management solutions.

CMDSense: CMDSense uses a variety of connected devices and other tools to gather outdoor and indoor data in cities in order to help transform cities into places that benefit every urban citizen.

Dorsum: Carrying unsupported weight puts strain on the back, increasing the risk for injury. Dorsum has designed and are developing the AdaptiveSpine™, a spinal exoskeleton and supportive device that transfers weight and stress to the hips.

Foundry Collaborative: The team who built the Adidas connected ball has spun off from the apparel company to continue to innovate on the technology they created. They will serve as both a PIE Shop company and mentors in residence for the other companies in the space.

And we’re also happy to host a couple of community pursuits that help make Portland a better place.

PDX Women in Tech: Established in 2012, we are a community-based non-profit organization. Our purpose is to strengthen the Portland women in tech community by offering: educational programs, partnerships, mentorships, resources and opportunities.

Portland IQ: A public private partnership formed when Portland’s rapidly maturing higher-ed anchor institutions recognized that shared goals, overlapping constituencies, close proximity, increasing community investment, and complementary real-estate development projects presented a rare opportunity for collaboration — collaboration that would provide exponentially more value as a combined effort than it would as individual projects.

Adding additional companies to PIE Shop

After beta testing the space, we are confident that we can likely fit one or two more companies into the space. All companies selected to participate receive free office space, access to the Autodesk desktop manufacturing facility, free use of Autodesk’s entire suite of software, and the opportunity to take part in the PIE program of mentorship and acceleration.

So if you’re interested in applying to be one of those companies, please complete the PIE Shop application. Applications will close September 16, 2018, at 11:59PM Pacific Time.

NOTE: If you have already applied, you do not need to resubmit your application. However, you are more than welcome to submit, again.

News

Making the PIE bigger: PIE Shop, an experiment in accelerating manufactured products

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At PIE, we’re always looking for opportunities to apply our learnings—and the knowledge from our community—in new and different ways. That motivation to continually explore and experiment has been at the core of our work for nearly a decade.

It was the impetus for founding the project. It’s why we converted from a coworking space to a startup accelerator. It’s why we open sourced our learnings through the PIE Cookbook. And it’s why we have continued to look for opportunities to experiment with the model—and to strive to find new and different ways to build better founders—year after year.

Long story short, we take the “E” in PIE—which stands for “Experiment”—pretty seriously. Even if we’re not quite sure what we’re getting ourselves into.

So when we happened upon the opportunity to collaborate with an industry leader like Autodesk and one of our own alums, Uncorked Studios, to pursue an experiment that would explore the needs of startups who manufacture physical objects, we couldn’t resist the opportunity. Especially given how enamored we are of the challenge to embark on an experiment more complex than any we have tackled in the past.

And now, we’re ready to introduce that complex experiment to you.

It’s called PIE Shop. And we believe that it has the potential to fill a much needed role in the Portland startup community, for both early stage startups and for more established companies with small batch manufacturing needs. It presents an opportunity to better leverage existing resources and latent manufacturing capacity for the benefit of our entire Portland ecosystem. And best of all, we’re enthralled by the unique opportunity to tap into the deep seeded knowledge in our community, a community which boasts a rich history in both traditional and electronics manufacturing driven by a culture of curiosity and craft.

Of ultimate import to PIE, this new effort promises to satisfy a number of the objectives we’ve set out to accomplish in 2018.

Rest assured, PIE Shop will leverage all of the startup accelerator learnings and our extensive network of mentors, connections, and community, just as we’ve done for other disciplines.

We’re incredibly excited to expand the PIE family with a whole new group of startups, mentors, and partners. And we’re sincerely hoping that you’ll be interested in joining us on this journey.

How to get involved

 

  • If you’re an Oregon manufacturer, maker space, or any other company with machines or manufacturing capacity, we’d love to hear more about the work you do.
  • If you’re a maker or founder who is looking to leverage existing resources to bring your product to fruition, we’d love to hear more about your needs.
  • And of course, if you’re an early stage startup or founder who feels like PIE Shop’s resources, connections, and mentorship could help accelerate your business, please take a few moments to apply to participate in PIE Shop.