What to expect when PIE opens applications for the next cohort

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

It’s that time of year. Time for PIE to start looking for another group of promising founders and startups. It’s also time for PIE to engage in a new experiment. And that experiment — which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one — is that, for the first time in more than a decade, this class of PIE will be completely virtual.

That must have come as quite a shock. We’ll give you a moment.

The next PIE experiment

Ready for more? Cool. Here are some things to expect with the next version of PIE:

• PIE applications will open on July 13, 2020. They will close on August 2, 2020, at 11:59PM Pacific Time.
• Interviews with finalists will be held at the beginning of September.
• PIE will start at the beginning of October.
• The next PIE Demo Day will be March 18, 2021. Please save the date.
• We will be accepting applications for three types of companies: software; hardware or manufactured objects; and traditional consumer products like food and beverage, apparel, beauty, and outdoor. All of these companies will complete the exact same application form.
• Speaking of the application process… In an effort to save founders time and effort, we are working to revise the PIE application so that it is easier to complete. We’ve removed many of the complex and time intensive questions. We’ll save those for companies that make it past the first phase of the selection process.
• If you would like to view a draft of the application, you are more than welcome to access the current draft of the application cheat sheet we provide every year.
• Recognizing that many of the questions we ask in our application process may already be answered by your existing pitch deck, we will also be providing the option of submitting a presentation in lieu of completing the application form. Neither method is weighted more or less favorably than the other. We are simply trying to save founders time.
• Since the PIE Q&A sessions last year were well received, we are currently planning to hold online events to field your questions in the coming weeks. The easiest ways to stay in the loop on those sessions is to subscribe to the PIE newsletter, follow PIE on Twitter, or join the PIE Meetup group. We will be hosting these sessions on Crowdcast, so if you are a regular Crowdcast participant, please follow us there, as well.
• If you have immediate questions about PIE or our programs, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

A few frequently asked questions about PIE and PIE Shop

More soon. And thanks, as always, for your interest in PIE. We’re looking forward to reviewing your application.

Apply to PIE

Originally published at http://blog.piepdx.com on July 1, 2020.