Accelerating Market Entry Find Fit...Fast

About Upstart Labs

We partner with innovative software companies to launch new products and build market momentum.

MoPix, Self-Service Video Distribution

MoPix powers video distribution for independent filmmakers and alternative video content creators, with a framework they can use to brand, distribute and sell their work via the web, iOS and Android devices, and other mobile and digital media. MoPix closes the gap between traditional channels and direct distribution with a turnkey solution for monetizing video.

Our Program

Upstart Labs is a Portland-based business accelerator focused on early stage investments in technology companies. We invest the services of our experienced team of developers, designers, marketers and managers in exchange for equity in fast-growing companies.

Our program is three- to six-months of intensive development of your business and product. We use lean startup techniques and agile development to provide maximum results. We surround each company with hands-on mentorship, business experience and a valuable sounding board during a startup’s critical initial phase.

Our Partners

Our Upstarts

Chirpify

Chirpify came to Upstart Labs as a beta product with traction – but in a market that would limit its growth. Upstart Labs rebranded, re-focused, and re-launched the product and company into a social payments platform with promise.

More of our work

MoPix had a compelling concept but needed development chops to make their self-service digital film distribution product a reality – that’s where Upstart Labs came in.

We re-branded and re-developed Taplister.com using responsive web design to take this startup from a part-time hobby to a fully-fledged craft beer marketing platform poised for rapid growth.

It’s hard work to make a product look easy. That was the goal for PivotPlanet, a startup using new technology to solve the old problem of matching mentors with job seekers for career and business advice.

The Menuish team needed product marketing savvy to turn their vision of a mobile menus app into a reality. We helped them secure a data partner, focus the product feature set, and build the beta.

Delivering truly meaningful insights in Big Data analytics requires solid architecture and technical direction. Upstart Labs took an agile approach to building Measureful’s MVP, setting the stage for customer engagement and growth.

With its app spreading like wildfire, Celly needed help presenting a professional face to the world while keeping their development engine cranking. Upstart Labs stepped in to run launch marketing for this standout in mobile social networking.

The latest from our blog

About our team

We are designers, developers, marketers – and entrepreneurs. We work side-by-side with founders at startup speed.

Greg Rau Managing Partner

A successful entrepreneur himself, Greg brings a decade of technology sales and marketing experience to the Upstart team. Greg co-founded StepChange Group in 2007, later sold to Dachis Group. Prior to StepChange, Greg served as a vice president of sales and business development at Unicru, a web-based enterprise talent management solution later acquired by Kronos, Inc. At Unicru, he managed a national sales team responsible for more than $10MM in new business in the retail, food service and healthcare sectors. Greg holds a BBA from San Francisco State University.

Bryan Fox General Partner

Bryan has more than twelve years of experience as a developer and designer of mobile, social and web applications. He was a Senior Mobile Developer at Cloud Four, where he worked on a number of cutting-edge mobile web projects. Before that, he was an original employee and senior developer at StepChange Group, where he led development on a number of social media applications for leading brands. He’s also a graduate of Williams College.

Jenn Lynch General Partner

Jenn has ten years of software product management, product marketing and user experience design experience. Most recently, she was a director of professional services at StepChange Group, now Dachis Group, developing social media marketing initiatives for large enterprises. Prior to Dachis Group, Jenn was a product manager and product marketing manager in the enterprise talent management space at Unicru (now Kronos), Yahoo! HotJobs and BrassRing (now Kenexa). She is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kevin Tate General Partner

Kevin brings seventeen years of software marketing and sales experience in fields including enterprise SaaS, web analytics, social media marketing and e-commerce. Kevin was most recently the CMO of ShopIgniter and the VP of Business Development for the Dachis Group. As an entrepreneur, Kevin co-founded StepChange Group – which was acquired by the Dachis Group in 2010 – and helped lead Unicru’s $150 million acquisition by Kronos, Inc. Kevin is a graduate of Stanford University.