In this episode, the tables are turned, as PIE mentor in residence Kasey Jones interviews Rick Turoczy, cofounder and general manager of PIE, about the motivations behind experimenting with podcasting for the PIE family, the Portland startup community, and the broader startup community in general. 

During this pleasantly meandering conversation, Leah Noble Davidson — Chief Experience Officer at Because Human — and I will explore topics ranging from mobile phone hardware design to publishing poetry to MIT design challenges in the time of a pandemic to how it all really comes down to timing. And a few things in between.

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.

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.

For the entire conversation, visit https://youtu.be/dlDkW9wW2N0

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.

For the entire conversation, visit https://piepdx.com/youtube

With the onset of quarantine and social distancing, many of us have been settling into a somewhat surreal semblance of remote work. It doesn't feel quite right. But we're doing our best to fake it. And because of that we're not really working from home.

PIE wants to help. That's why we've assembled a panel of PIE mentors: one who helps lead a successful remote only company, one who has worked as a remote employee for a decade while working alongside an online school student, and one who has assembled the most fervent community of remote workers on the planet — all while leading a remote company, himself.

Join these incredibly insightful PIE mentors for an open and honest discussion about how to be truly successful as a remote employee. And how to manage remote teams. And deal with all the life that happens when that life all happens in a single place.

Invited panelists

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPzMoKczEaE

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 — we've got a wide range of topics at our disposal.

To hear the whole interview, visit https://www.crowdcast.io/e/founder-nick-lambert-ama 

Join PIE and long time PIE mentor Saul Colt for an AMA (but we recommend that you tap into his Word of Mouth marketing genius). And please stay tuned to the end, when Saul provides some incredibly creative ideas for making your company stand out. 

Saul is the Founder and Creative Director at The Idea Integration Co. In his career he has been named as one of the iMEDIA 25: Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators as well as been called one of Canada’s best community builders/experiential marketers. NYT Best selling author and Internet Pioneer Chris Brogan once referred to Saul as “exactly who you want representing your company” and that message has been echoed by media properties ranging from Inc to Forbes Magazine.

Saul has had many career highlights including being selected as the first international employee of Zipcar and the person responsible for launching Zipcar into the Canadian marketplace. Was the first marketing person and a key part of the growth of FreshBooks.com (The #1 Cloud Accounting service for Small Business Owners) as well as leadership roles at Rogers Communications and the first Chief Evangelist of Xero.com.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Saul is also a Professional Speaker and Consultant specializing in Word of Mouth Marketing, Stunt Marketing,  Social Media, Customer Experience,  Community Building and Business Courage.

Thanks for listening! Please consider subscribing to the PIEdcast on your favorite podcast network. And we'd love to see you ratings and reviews. 

Please join us for a Q&A session with PIE alum and mentor in residence Sylvia Salazar of Tono Latino, a media company that helps distill politics down to digestible chunks — with a special focus on informing Latinx and Spanish speaking communities.

Sylvia is a Colombian immigrant and a computer engineer turned political activist. Her passion is helping other people understand what is going on in the world of politics and encourage them to become more politically involved and vote. She is determined to change Latinx representation in politics and in media.

As her following has grown, Sylvia has experimented with a number of video formats and has a variety of creative ways to make short form video work. (You can experience her creativity firsthand on Instagram.) She's excited to share that expertise with you.

For the full conversation, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMYvTlyyMY

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.

For the complete hour-long conversation with Q&A, visit Community Projects in Times of Crisis with Marcelino Alvarez of Fresh Consulting.

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. And give you some tips and tricks on how to get the best photography out of your smartphone.

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.

For the full hour-long conversation with Q&A, visit Photography, Visual Media, and Your Brand with Aaron Hockley of Tech Photo Guy.