After nearly 25 years leading multiple software companies and startups all over the country, PJ Bellomo decided in 2019 that it was time to move back home to the Capital Region.
He and his wife moved into the house they’ve owned for about 20 years on 11 acres in southern Washington County, across from her family’s farm.
"We always knew we were going to come home,” Bellomo said.
Bellomo began meeting with people in the state that year as he was deciding what to do next, and that’s when he was introduced to David Dussault, CEO of Schenectady-based P1 Industries, a machining and manufacturing company that makes turbine and generator parts for companies in the power generation, oil and gas, aerospace, hydro and other industries.
Dussault told Bellomo about supply chain issues P1 had been having. With growth, the company had been experiencing bottlenecks because it was so difficult to keep track of dozens of active, changing orders. That led to expensive downtime, premium shipping and higher payroll expenses.
"This is all 2019. This is pre-pandemic,” Bellomo said – and then supply chain issues got worse.
Bellomo decided to design a solution – a way to streamline the admin tasks that were getting out of control with the increasing number of orders. He founded the startup software company P1ston (pronounced Piston).
Account managers had been keeping track of orders with multiple Excel spreadsheets, emails and text messages, as well as a family of incompatible software platforms. And if one of the account managers left, it could be difficult to track those communication trails.
The P1ston software works by streamlining all of the order information and proceeding communications. The purchase order flows into a customer's account, and any communication and workflow is recorded and stays with that account — accessible by the company, vendors, supplies and the customer. Users can access the platform via desktop or mobile device.
Having easier access to all of that information in one place allows the company to accurately plan production and other processes. That then allows the company to complete orders more regularly, bringing in more cash to invest in new orders, Bellomo said.
"It just frees up all this cash you have tied in your business, and it has a really positive effect on your cash flow,” P1ston said. “On top of that, by reducing his cycle time ... it ought to increase his capacity, too. Which means revenue goes up."
Bellomo graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and began his career in manufacturing for GE at what was then its Waterford facility. He then moved to Washington, D.C., and began a career as a consultant for manufacturing and then management. He entered the software management field in 1999, leading the e-commerce software platform for Avnet in Arizona.
Bellomo then moved with his boss, who became the CEO of an e-commerce startup in Southern California called Commerce5. He took the COO role, and the two of them worked to turn around the company that had been on a downturn before they started.
"The short story is we turned it around in three years and sold it for $50 million,” Bellomo said.
Bellomo founded his latest venture in January 2020. The platform was fully rolled out in November 2021.
Since implementing the software, P1 has been able to reduce order time by about 40%.
"Which is massive,” said Lorenzo Agnes, director of marketing for P1. "For our team, there's a genuine sense of relief. We kind of see P1ston as a bit of a godsend, actually.”
As part of Dussault’s investment in P1ston, Agnes and other P1 employees have helped Bellomo develop the product.
"There's no greater asset that a software guy can have than a customer who's got the problem who says, 'Just keep experimenting on me,'" Bellomo said. “Not only did we relieve his pain, but they constantly gave us feedback."
Bellomo said the target market for the software is small- and medium-sized manufacturers. There are about 70,000 companies in the U.S. in that range, he said. There are companies doing similar things in the market for large companies, but he hasn't been able to find a service like this for smaller companies.
Bellomo has three customers and plans to begin pilots with some other companies in the Capital Region as the P1ston team of several employees continues developing the product.
Bellomo is raising pre-seed funding and then will hire some sales and marketing employees. He is planning a round of seed funding in 2023, and that's when the expansion will start, he said.
