ADAM | Co-Founder of PIATO
Adam is an idea man and a car guy – actually an auto enthusiast to the core! So it was not surprising when Adam came up with the idea of an alternative license plate medium in 2012. As the product became more tangible – so too did the excitement of possibility. Then in 2020, Adam decided it was time to devote all of his time to his license plate idea, where product perfection, branding, and partnerships started picking up speed. PIATO and the PIATO Plate were born. It’s WOT (wide open throttle) baby!
Adam was raised in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington DC areas (hard to pinpoint as he was driving back and forth). Adam has always been inquisitive about how things worked – this means many-a-thing were disassembled and destroyed! At the mature age of 11, Adam’s introduction to automotive mechanicing started with his first hand-built RC electric car. It wasn’t long before a handful of cars had been assembled, turning into informal competitions alongside the local hobby shop. At 16, Adam purchased his first car, a 1988 Hyundai Excel, and RC cars quickly became a pastime. Adam spent the next 2 years “tricking” out that ride. Even at 16, Adam was paying attention to the details of license plates and acquired a vanity tag for this badass Hyundai “LOWNSLOW”.
Adam shares this vision with one person who equally understands the excitement (of this concept)…
Meet Malissa.
MALISSA | Co-Founder of PIATO
Malissa has zest for life and all things mechanical. She has been an integral part of creating and developing PIATO and the PIATO Plate. Malissa is very resourceful and “sees” things a bit differently which does wonders for creating unexpected surprises and great ideas! She’s the kinda gal that prefers a torque wrench in her hand versus a brush with blush. These qualities are a direct result of Malissa being raised by a single dad–a master welder, craftsman and racecar driver–in a tiny town in Alabama.
Malissa, a tomboy at heart, started driving manual tranny cars at 8, to take the trash to the gulley (what you do when there is no city trash pick-up), and motorbikes at 10. Then and now, she’s no stranger to wheeled propulsion! Malissa “got it honest” from her Daddy–she’s one of those one-in-a-million finds who likes to “go fast and take chances” while rattling off an expletive or two along the way 🙂
TOGETHER
Together, both Adam and Malissa love to tinker, create, adventure, debate, and laugh. And together, Adam and Malissa built the ideas behind PIATO from ground up. Combined, they have spent 1,000’s of hours developing and perfecting the current product offerings and are motivated by the challenge in knowing how much more open-highway lay ahead. They have much fun finding artists to collaborate and create their vision with, and never turn down an opportunity to spend time in the workshop getting their fingernails dirty. PIATO is the first joint-venture in which Malissa and Adam have been able to integrate their innate passion and acquired skills with each other. PIATO provides a ton of satisfaction and energy to these founders.