Fresh PIE

I'm excited about PIE.  Who doesn’t love a good pie?

[PIE's first pie - - sweet, delicious, local Marionberry.  Mmmmm.  Damn fine PIE.]

 

Pie is delicious.  And you get out what you put in.  To a Pie, that is.

Bear with me.

And I believe if you put fun interesting driven people with varied backgrounds, skills and interests into an enclosed location, unexpected things will happen.  So we are doing an experiment in the un-rented retail space inside the W+K building in Portland. 

Portland Incubator Experiment, or PIE for short.  It's called an experiment, because we have no clue  how this thing will net out.

It started with conversations years ago, chance and intentional encounters and a lot of “wow, wouldn’t it be cool if…” rap sessions with people I care about and respect, inside and outside W+K.

And now it’s happening.  And I don’t think anyone involved can really believe it did.  But we’re pretty psyched.

So why hasn’t W+K made a lot of noise about it?  That’s my fault.  Believe it or not, I’d rather talk about what comes out of the space than what MIGHT come out of the space. I am sick of bombastic claims of the “new better different” bilge that agencies crap out regularly.  Show me, I say.  Don’t talk – demonstrate.  

For another thing, it’s not owned by W+K –  PIE is a collaborative that everyone inside will participate in.  Hopefully it will foster interconnections between previously disparate groups and corresponding quantum leaps in thinking.  At very least, it may generate some delicious slices of pie.  Like the Marionberry one we had today. 

And the folks in the space are kicking ass on a shoestring – everything is recycled and easy to break down.  Our partners bring their own mobile devices and computers.  What you do see, if you walk or stop by, we built cheap in under 30 days. 

So no, there hasn’t been an official press release, and no I haven’t dropped hints in my twitter stream or blog.  Because until people were inside, there wasn’t anything but a neat idea.  Most importantly, the folks behind this and I have also been VERY concerned that people in the space retain their intellectual property.  So I’ve been working with lawyers and management and the folks inside to ensure that no-one loses what they have by participating.

And I’ve always wanted this to be about the people inside and what they do.   Sure, W+K  is involved – I work for them, after all – and yes, I’ve been spearheading it from our side.  But it’s our work that will speak for us, one way or the other.

What’s in it for W+K?  The chance to learn.  An opportunity to help our clients make leaps.  The chance to make participatory digital culture.  And if something really blows up big, we’ll all be happy.

But even if it doesn’t, that’s ok, too.

Because this is about learning.  About failing forward fast with people who understand that in digital culture, you innovate or die.

We have hopes, but no preconceptions. 

And who the heck doesn't love a good PIE?

Comments

[Frank Ille]

There are no apples/substance in this PIE.

I worked with W&K extensively while working at Microsoft corporate and you guys were neve short on minutia.

Interesting concept but zero details as to what PIE really is; services provided, requirements, cost, etc.

MORE INFO PLEASE

[Marcus]

Someone put a bug in Kveton's ear about starting a group blog that aggregates posts from each of the start-ups. (Tumblr would make this really easy.)

We're all still terribly curious about what's going down in there:)