Wieden + Kennedy Tech Incubator Picks Its Startup Class of 2011 | Excerpt via Fast Company

When Wieden + Kennedy launched its tech incubator, the Portland Incubator Experiment in 2009, the effort proved a fruitful collaboration between the ad agency and local tech talent; it even spawned a few going tech concerns.

But it didn’t fully integrate all that startup mojo with Wieden’s core business--creative problem solving for brand partners. With a new iteration of PIE that will see nine newly selected startups working in-house, the agency is looking to more directly connect its clients to tech innovation.

Wieden Portland just announced the winners of its PIE startup contest--nine companies ranging from a finance-focused cloud management platform to what’s being dubbed an “Airbnb for pets.” The startups will receive $18,000 in capital, a place to work, and access to Wieden’s leadership and the Portland tech scene’s best minds. But, perhaps more significantly, the budding companies will get access to a posse of high level brand players from Target, Coca-Cola, and Google--execs who represent not just marketing communications, but IT, retail, innovation, design, and other disciplines at those companies.

via fastcompany.com

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