PieShell

Meet PieShell: Kickstarter for Foodies

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

PieShell has just launched a new crowdfunding platform exclusively for food and beverage entrepreneurs. Currently, up to 75% of crowdfunding food-focused projects fail to reach their financial goals. Unlike general sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo,the PieShell platform focuses exclusively on food and beverage projects. This narrow focus keeps food and beverage projects from getting lost in a myriad of unrelated technology, media, and lifestyle campaigns, while connecting entrepreneurs with a food-centric audience who want these businesses to succeed. Unlike other platforms, PieShell͛ also provides a pre-launch incubation road map designed to help projects succeed. The innovative stepping-stone funding approach gives PieShell projects a better chance to be fully funded. PieShell Founder & CEO Cheryl Clements, a tech-savvy Fortune 500 veteran spent 15 years working as an SAP implementation consultant for companies like Hershey, General Mills, and Miller Beer before launching the PieShell platform. No stranger to the difficulties food entrepreneurs face as they start and scale a company, “The Pie Shell” was the name of Cheryl’s Mom’s first business more than 30 years ago. In high school, Cheryl worked side-by-side with her mother, and together they made close to 10k pies out of the basement of her childhood home. “It really was a labor of love where we all worked together as a family to help make my mother’s dream come true. The name PieShell is homage to Cheryl’s mother, who passed away in 2007 and the company carries on her spirit of community. Industry professionals welcome PieShell, citing it as a much needed funding resource. Jeffrey Zurofsky, legendary restaurateur and co-host of the Bravo series Best New Restaurant, gave a candid assessment of the financial landscape for food: “For the majority of small food entrepreneurs there is no good place to go,” he said, “PieShell is filling a niche for people raising money for food startups.”