Join cofounder and general manager of PIE, Rick Turoczy, for an "ask me anything" session on the Portland startup community. He's looking forward to answering your questions about startups, startup accelerators, and Portland, in general.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piepdx-turoczy-ama-20200407

Kasey is a startup growth strategist, community builder, event organizer, and people connecter. She is founder of A Better Jones a demand generation marketing agency that helps startups accelerate growth, sales teams fill pipeline, and leaders expand their influence as industry thought leaders. And co-founder and co-host of The Other Side of Sales, a podcast, Bravado community, and resource on a mission to make B2B sales culture more inclusive by celebrating the stories of underrepresented sales professionals.

Her latest endeavor is Our Galaxy, a community, resource, and coaching platform designed to diversify thought leadership, by helping founders, leaders, and business pros on the rise build authentic personal brands and expand their industry influence.

Stephen Green is a an economist, speaker, startup advisor and “recovering” venture capitalist. By day he is the director of operations for Pensole, the world’s only footwear design and development school based in Portland, Oregon. He has spent his career helping founders start, grow and prosper. His tireless advocacy for Black & Latinx founders has landed him on stages across the country speaking about the power of entrepreneurship.

One of his projects “PitchBlack” is a national pitch event that connects ecosystems with talented black founders in cities across the country. Since 2015, competitors in the Portland event have gone on to raise over $32MM for their ideas.

He is a husband to a brilliant wife and father to 3 wonderful children. Spreadsheets are his super power and sneakers are his kryptonite.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piepdx-stephen-green-ama-20200413

Cami lives, works, and parents in the rainy city of Portland, Oregon. She’s had a love of WordPress and WordCamps since the last century, when she happened to stumble upon the first WordCamp Portland.

Since 2013, she has worked at Automattic, as a community organizer for the WordPress open source project. In that role, she gets to work with WordCamps and their organizers from around the world, every day. She continues to write on an irregular basis at camikaos.com where she explores concepts from the plight of modern parents to mental health to marveling at the seemingly mundane.

Cami is active on a number of social platforms but can be most readily found as @camikaos on Twitter.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piepdx-cami-kaos-community-management-20200414/

The photography world has been upended a few times in the last couple of decades and with all professional photography on hiatus for the time being, we'll find out if this leads to another major change. What hasn't changed is that every business, from startup to corporation, needs to have images of their people, products, venues, and other resources. These photos end up on websites, social media, in print, at those things called conferences that we used to do, and elsewhere. Folks are going to notice the difference between an organization that has solid consistent imagery versus an outfit where you can tell that their visual brand was an afterthought.

What does photography and visual branding look like for a startup or other organization in 2020 and beyond? When should you hire a pro and when should you do it yourself? If you can afford the same gear as a pro, what else are they bringing to the table that you don't have? Should you invest in photography proactively, or react as you have a need for pictures? Let's talk about visual media and photography.

Join us for a mentor Q&A with Aaron Hockley of Hockley Photography and TechPhotoGuy.com. Aaron is a professional photographer with a background in the tech world; he's photographed quite a few Portland tech startups and organizations over the past 12 years. The Professional Photographers of America has recognized him as a Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsman, which means that he knows a thing or two (maybe even three!) about making and using effective images.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piepdx-aaron-hockley-visuals-photography-20200415

We all rely on the bonds of our community in order for our businesses to thrive. We seek intros to VCs, backchannels to clients, advice from our peers and mentors. In normal times, these bonds heavily rely on in-person interactions — coffees, lunches, beers, and 1:1's.

Reading body language is a critical component to reinforcement of those bonds. In our most vulnerable moments, we want to ensure that the other party is present, listening, and empathizing. And beyond the 1:1 interactions, in social places like our coffee shops and coworking spaces, we create room for serendipity — that chance encounter that leads to something new and unexpected, whether it's a new business idea or a solution to an existing problem facing a member of our community.

During this pandemic, we've been stripped of the ability to interact as normal. Sure, we have all these video chat tools — but it's not a replacement of our in-person interactions, just a digital proxy. And while those proxies may suffice for our 1:1 meetings, they certainly aren't helping with serendipity.

So how do we form community in a time of crisis? How do we create space for chance? And how can we come together to listen, to engage, to be present, when many of us are already at our wits end staring at a video on a computer screen all day long?

Join us for a mentor Q&A with Marcelino Alvarez, Chief Product Officer at Fresh Consulting. He was formerly CEO of Uncorked Studios, which co-founded Safecast during the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and ensuing nuclear disaster. He'll share perspectives from then and now as he undertakes other efforts to maintain his community and pursue digital serendipity.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piepdx-marcelino-alvarez-community-projects-20200416

Everyone needs hobbies. And if you follow PIE mentor Nick Lambert on Instagram, you'll see that the pandemic has been a good time for him to reboot a few of them: music, cooking, ridiculous short films… we all deal with this stuff differently.

We're happy to have Nick take moment away from his more creative efforts to join us for an "Ask Me Anything" session. Being a former startup founder, startup accelerator manager, and professional musician — and currently Customer Success Manager at local VR/AR/XR startup The Wild — you've got a wide range of topics at our disposal.

So please register to attend and start adding — and upvoting — the questions we'll be asking.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-nick-lambert-ama/

Please join us with a former founder who has seen the ups and downs of the economy for insights on what to suspect — and some guidance that may help you navigate this new normal.

Elia Freedman was founder and CEO of Infinity Softworks, which he started in 1997 as a senior in college, leveraging both his business training and programming ability. The company has helped more than 20 million professionals and students in real estate, financial services, math and science who use calculation every day to solve problems and generate proposals, both in the field and at their desk.

The company's primary app, PowerOne, has been in existence as apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Windows computers for more 20 years, Infinity Softworks re-launched PowerOne as a web and mobile service in 2018.

As a founder, Elia weathered both the dotcom bust and the mortgage crisis. Which is sure to inform a unique vantage on our current state of existence within a pandemic ravaged economy.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-ama-elia-freedman-powerone

PIE is honored to be hosting Shelly Bell for a virtual Lunch & Learn. This is a rare opportunity to grab some time with one of the most impactful people in startups. So please come with questions.

Named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Powerful Women in Business, Shelly Bell is a computer scientist, system disruptor and business strategist who moves ideas to profit while empowering people to live to build and foster better relationships. She connects entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations in order to diversify their talent pipeline, increase equity and grow their brands.

Shelly is among the nation's most sought-after transformational speakers in the DC Metro area with features in Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Business Journal, NewsOne, Entrepreneur Mag, People of Color in Tech and on Politico Live.

Her organization, Black Girl Ventures (BGV) is a culturally converging ecosystem igniting economic security, civic engagement, and hyperlocal infrastructure at the intersection of STEM education and entrepreneurship for Black and Brown woman-identifying founders, funders, and veterans. Since 2016, BGV has funded 41 women, increased access to social capital for 168 program participants and launched their efforts in 10 cities. As a one of 8 Google Gurus across the nation and an Ecosystem Builder, she engages audiences from grassroots to government.

Through Shelly’s Return on Relationship (R.O.R) Method she is teaching intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, and wantrepreneurs how to hold the ladder for others and/or how to find the person they need to hold the ladder toward moving to the next level of success. She has trained over 5,000 entrepreneurs, held over 300 events for empowering leaders, managed multi-million dollar contracts, and helped to scale over 200 businesses.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/shelly-bell-black-girl-ventures-ama

Join PIE as we talk with Leah Noble Davidson, Chief Experience Officer at Because Human.

Leah has consulted within Portland’s startup tech industry for 10 years, working with larger teams from Jive and Puppet to startups like Torch and BeyondPulse.

Having newly ventured into the role of a founder, she’ll be asking questions from the perspective of a female design professional who can speak the language — but is only now really learning how to juggle the risks and rewards firsthand.

Finding answers is one thing. Knowing the questions to ask is entirely another. Leah — a professional asker of questions — will help us hone in on the right questions, provide the necessary reality checks, and share ideas about leveraging the startup community to find the help you need as your startup grows from a concept into being a real business.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/leah-noble-davidson-because-human-ama

We're excited to have the chance to sit down with Kate Ertmann for a question and answer session.

Her life's work has been focusing on building from scratch — or rebuilding and reorganizing — the operational infrastructure for sustainable businesses. That includes everything from the elements of a business plan, the importance of Mission and Purpose and Values, the how-to of defining Roles and Responsibilities, and when to hire and how to best structure that management org chart — as well as the finance that runs in parallel with all of that.

Her distinct rallying cry through all of that work is the necessity of embedding equity and inclusion in all processes, procedures, and culture of an organization, and as a guiding principle in all leaders with whom she works — especially when it is "hard" or if there are uncomfortable conversations to be had.

Kate constantly seeks to leverage her privilege and position: applying constant pressure to the systemic structure of 20th century practices so there can be systemic changes that will define 21st century practices.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/kate-ertmann-ama

Ensuring that new employees are properly onboarded can always be a challenge. And in our new all remote, all of the time world, it can be even more difficult. That's why we're excited to get the chance to catch up with PIE alum Kristen Gallagher.

Kristen is the founder and CEO of Edify. She brings over a decade of learning and development and business partnership experience to Edify and has architected and delivered onboarding programs for companies such as AWS Elemental, Puppet, OpenSky Alibaba, Cirium (FlightGlobal), Cloudability, and more. She is a frequent speaker and instructor for O’Reilly, DevOpsDays, and other conferences.

If you have questions about employee onboarding, she has answers. Please join us to get those questions answered.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/kristen-gallagher-edify-employee-onboarding-ama

Join cofounder and general manager of PIE, Rick Turoczy, for an "ask me anything" session on the Portland startup community. He's looking forward to answering your questions about startups, startup accelerators, and Portland, in general.

A little background on our guest…

Rick Turoczy has worked in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup ecosystem for more than 25 years. Throughout that time, he's worked for venture funded startups, founded failed companies, consulted, mentored, and worked to connect dots within and outside the community.

More than a dozen years ago, he started Silicon Florist, a blog designed to capture what he saw happening in the Portland startup community. That work led to the opportunity to start PIE, the Portland Incubator Experiment, an organization he continues to manage.

At its very most basic, PIE is an ongoing experiment designed to explore ways that established organizations — like corporations, governments, and educational institutions — can effectively collaborate with startup communities in mutually beneficial ways, thereby strengthening the entire ecosystem.

PIE currently exists as an early stage startup accelerator with three separate areas of focus: Software as a Service (in partnership with Puppet), manufactured products (in partnership with Autodesk), and traditional consumer products like food, beverage, and apparel (in partnership with Built Oregon).

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/portland-startup-community-ama-rick-turoczy-20200505

Join us for a conversation with Mitch Daugherty, cofounder and director of Built Oregon, an organization focused on championing the consumer product industry in Oregon.

The greatest joy Mitch has found is meeting with everyone in the statewide ecosystem. Listening to entrepreneurial challenges. Looking for opportunities to connect them to a resource that could help them get one step further down the road. Engaging in conversations about breaking down the silos and echo chambers.

He listened to stories and realized each one formed a piece of this tapestry that makes up Oregon.

As he looked back on his journey, he noticed the common theme in all his adventures and career choices has been the effort to bridge gaps through interaction and dialogue.

He cofounded Built Oregon as a way to build on a simple belief: that stories can raise awareness of companies and regions and help drive economic development.

Throughout that process, he's constantly reminded of what he has learned over his journey: Conversations matter. And the most important conversations take place with those outside of your sphere of influence, and with people who possess opposing views.

The value of a given dialogue hinges on conversations that are inclusive, honest and transparent.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/consumer-products-startup-ecosystem-mitch-daugherty-ama

As part of our celebration of Mental Health Month we'll be spending time with Anthony Ware who champions mental wealth.

Mental wealth is the collection of intentional thoughts, behaviors, and experiences—mental wealth deposits—someone uses to make a positive impact on their mental health. These deposits have a cumulative positive impact, especially during times when you’re challenged with mental illnesses and external events.

Mental wealth deposits include working with a therapist, spending time by large bodies of water to connect with nature, going on a vacation, or making time for friends and family.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-mental-wealth-anthony-ware-AMA

Join PIE alum and longtime PIE mentor Mat Ellis, founder of Cloudability, for a conversation about his experience as a founder growing a startup from an idea to a successful exit, all of the lessons learned along the way, effectively engaging with and supporting the Portland startup community, and maybe just maybe, what's next.

According to The Oregonian, "Cloudability was among the most prominent of a generation of startups that emerged in Portland in the aftermath of the Great Recession. It helped clients such as BP, Sony and Siemens manage what they spent hosting their data in third-party data centers.

"Before its sale, Cloudability said it managed more than $9 billion in spending at Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud."

RSVP / Submit questions: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-story-mat-ellis-cloudability

Please join PIE for a conversation with Juan Barraza from the Portland State University Center for Entrepreneurship, Invent Oregon (InventOR), and Pitch Latino.

At the PSU Center for Entrepreneurship, Juan works to propel students innovators to solve big problems that benefit our community. Through an exciting learning environment and program of events, students find the creative energy to expand their impact, explore new ideas, and bring their future into focus.

Invent Oregon is an exciting competition for college and university students with ideas for inventions to address today’s most pressing problems.

Inspired by PitchBlack, Pitch Latino is designed to give Latinx startup entrepreneurs a platform to connect with the regions growing startup ecosystem.

RSVP / Submit questions: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/juan-barraza-psu-center-entrepreneurship-inventor-pitch-latino

Join PIE for a conversation with Karthy Chandra, founder of Goalden Hour, for guidance on how to establish and maintain healthy habits and goals, even in the most challenging of times.

Goalden Hour is the first productivity app that connects the realms of task management, scheduling, and self-improvement to encourage you to make goals & habits an integral part of your planning process. We provide meaningful insight into the different areas of life and nudge you to reflect often, build better habits, and discover new ways to grow and improve. Our mission is to help people manage and master their lives.

Interested in learning more? Watch Karthy's presentation from PIE Demo Day 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RiIxNcC4HY

RSVP / Submit questions: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/karthy-chandra-goalden-hour-healthy-habits

Join us for a conversation with PIE alum and Techstars alum Julia Niiro, founder of MilkRun.

See Julia's story about MilkRun at PIE Demo Day 2019 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbaIO9XltRg), her views on small local farms from TEDxPortland 2019, and the explosive growth MilkRun has seen due to the pandemic shared during Techstars Anywhere Demo Day 2020.

MilkRun works with farmers and producers in Oregon & Southern Washington to break down the access barriers to local food. The national average for how far food travels to get from the farm to your house is 1,500 miles. That’s wild! We’ve cut down our average to 35 miles and have designed a system that leapfrogs the industrialized food system. Less travel = less pollution. More access to food = fresher, healthier foods!

It’s not just about ditching the grocery store lines, it’s about keeping money in the community and supporting local producers. For farmers, we’re able to provide 6-7x what they’d make from a normal grocery store. It should be as easy (if not easier) to buy from local farmers as it is to order a cab or book a stay in someone’s house, right?

90% of the small farms in America right now are at risk of extinction. If mega-industrialized farming becomes our only option for food, we’ll have no more farmer’s markets, no more CSAs, no more farmers who are stewards to the land. Without radical new systems like MilkRun, the only options for food will be from huge corporations pushing profit over people, and we just don’t want to live in that kind of a world. We can do this, together!

RSVP / Submit questions: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/pie-founder-story-julia-niiro-milkrun

Join PIE for a conversation with McKenna Dempsey, cofounder and CEO of current PIE company Kamber.

At least 20 million teenagers are living with a mental health disorder in the United States and 70% of them aren’t getting the treatment they need. Kamber’s mission is to change that by providing easily accessible tools and resources that empower teens to prioritize their mental health and make space for self acceptance.

By creating a mobile app that provides exercises for difficult moments, coping techniques and education, teens will be equipped with the tools they need to begin managing their mental health and find ways to ground themselves.

For more, see McKenna's presentation from PIE Demo Day 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_vrmHAI4MQ).

RSVP / Submit questions: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-story-mckenna-dempsey-kamber

Join PIE for a very special conversation with consummate ecosystem builder Anika Horn of Social Venturers.

Anika Horn is on a mission to support changemakers build purpose-driven careers, organizations and ecosystems without losing themselves

Rooted at the intersection of systems thinking, social impact and storytelling, she helps changemakers lead impact-driven careers and meaningful lives by equipping them with thought-provoking insights, field-tested resources and a strong peer community at Social Venturers. Through her advisory services, Anika works closely with selected purpose-driven entrepreneurs in the areas of strategy, communications, personal and professional growth. She leverages her global network to raise the profile of ecosystem building for social change as a contributing editor for Impact Boom (where she covers Europe and the U.S.) and Ecosystem Builder Hub (where she heads up the national campaign Unsung Ecosystem of Ecosystem Building) as well as co-lead of storytelling at the ESHIP Storytelling Initiative.

Previously, Anika co-founded Unreasonable Lab VA (Virginia’s first mini-accelerator for social entrepreneurs), CO.STARTERS VA (a startup program for idea-stage founders) and Rebelle Con (a boutique conference for entrepreneurial women). At the same time, she worked with high-growth startups at nationally ranked accelerator program Lighthouse Labs and spearheaded the B Corp movement in Virginia as the state’s official B Keeper.

Prior to her work in North America, Anika earned a Bachelor of European Studies and Masters of Sustainability Sciences in Germany, France and Australia where she spent a decade working in journalism, non-profits, government and the private sector.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ecosystem-builder-anika-horn/register

Join PIE for a conversation with PIE alum Quincy Brown about how to create frameworks and strategies for equity within startups.

"As startups we have a chance to lead with equity as we develop our business plans, marketing, customer outreach, and the like," said Quincy. "From my perspective, equity includes including women, BIPOC, youth, elderly, and everyone undeserved by policies and programming."

Quincy is a young, native transportation planner from Portland. He began is transportation planning career volunteering at TriMet working directly with the HR department where he served as a volunteer translator and helped recruit Latinx employees.

Following his degree from Claremont McKenna College, Quincy engaged in post bac work at Berkeley in Sustainability and the Built Environment and City and Regional Planning. He won best research in Human Rights from the Mgrublian Center for Rights and was Claremont McKenna's first Mellon Mays undergraduate fellow, a fellowship for minority students interested in becoming PhD professors.

His research has consistently focused on creating sustainable and equitable planning and programming that support and involve people of color, people with disabilities, and low income residents. In all pursuits, Quincy is passionate about bringing equitable and sustainable practices to everyone regardless age, race, gender, sexuality, or belief.

RSVP: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/equity-framework-strategy-startup-quincy-brown/register

Feel free to submit (and upvote) questions ahead of time on Crowdcast

Running a startup is hard enough as it is, but with a worldwide pandemic, it became a lot more difficult. And it forced any number of founders and teams to consider pivoting their product and market to survive.

If you're working through similar thoughts with your startup, hearing from folks who have already turned that corner might be helpful. So we're inviting you to join us for a conversation about pivots with Alisia Ford, founder and CEO of PIE and XXcelerate alum Glory Skincare, and Jonathan Minori, founder and Chief Product Officer for PIE and Techstars alum Caravel.

We'll talk through their experiences, their recommendations for founders who are considering a pivot, and how to communicate your intentions and reasoning to your team.

And as always, we'll also spend most of the conversation answering your questions. So if you've got questions or concerns, please share them so that we can get you the information you need.

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the PIE Code of Conduct (http://www.piepdx.com/code-of-conduct)

Feel free to submit (and upvote) questions ahead of time on Crowdcast

Thinking about applying to PIE? Have questions about the program? Curious as to what an accelerator even does? Wondering if the format is right for you? Cool. Let's talk about that. All of that.

Please join PIE online for a question and answer session to get more information on our programs and the benefits for early stage startups.

Questions about the differences among the programs we offer causing you to second guess whether you should even show up? Well, let's get that one answered first. Yes. The answer is yes. If you're a founder of an early stage startup, you should show up.

And in terms of the differences? PIE is an accelerator designed to support startups building digital products. PIE Shop is an incubator/accelerator designed to support startups manufacturing physical products. PIE Consumer is focused on traditional consumer products like food, beverage, apparel, footwear, beauty, pet products… you get the gist.

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the PIE Code of Conduct (http://www.piepdx.com/code-of-conduct)

Join us as PIE mentor Stephen Green talks with Ian Hathaway, coauthor of The Startup Community Way: Evolving an entrepreneurial ecosystem, the follow up to Startup Communities: Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city by Brad Feld.

If you have questions about startup communities — or what Portland could be doing to become a better startup community — you won't want to miss this conversation.

"The Startup Community Way is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the parts—the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved—not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds naturally, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.

"Although we are living in a booming age for startups, we need to think about the future. When the boom times slow, what will happen to our startup communities, and how will we ensure that entrepreneurial success is still within reach for everyone? This book provides a framework for answering these questions, looking at startup communities as complex systems that—given the right resources and support—can help entrepreneurs succeed and benefit society as a whole.

"If you have been involved in any way in building a startup community or entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city, The Startup Community Way is key to helping you understand the next phase of your journey."

The book releases on July 28, 2020. Preorder your copy: https://amzn.to/2WKt4Qe

Please join PIE for a conversation with Steve Axthelm, Principal Software Engineer at Puppet, to discuss product accessibility and how that applies to startups and engineering teams.

During this session, we'll cover topics like

• Why you should care about accessibility
• The legal history of accessibility
• Accessibility standards like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Composing a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
• Questions you should ask your developers about accessibility
• Where to find more information

… plus answering any questions you might have.

Please join PIE for a conversation with Steve Axthelm, Principal Software Engineer at Puppet, to discuss product accessibility and how that applies to startups and engineering teams.

During this session, we'll cover topics like

• Why you should care about accessibility
• The legal history of accessibility
• Accessibility standards like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Composing a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
• Questions you should ask your developers about accessibility
• Where to find more information

… plus answering any questions you might have

RSVP https://www.crowdcast.io/e/accessibility-for-startups/