Bye for real, but not forever
This was my first day at Matter on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. I still remember walking in to the big SF warehouse-like space, lined with whiteboards and peppered with post-its. I had no idea what I was in for.
In numbers, I can summarize it pretty easily. Over the course of three years, I’ve gone from:
+ Evaluating 0 to ~406 pitches
+ Running 0 to 6 accelerator classes
+ Meeting 0 to 109 entrepreneurs
+ Operating on 1 to 2 coasts
+ Working with 1 to 5 to now 9 amazing teammates
It’s harder to represent the growth I’ve experienced in numbers alone, something to which I’m sure our startups can also attest. I came in with no prior investing, industry, or programmatic background, but I was smart, scrappy, and willing to do the job. Corey took a chance on me, and for that I will be forever grateful. I went from being a design thinking neophyte to startup coach and bootcamp facilitator. I went from newbie networker to the chief connector for our startups. And I went from never having seen a cap table to due diligencing like a pro.
But even that doesn’t capture it. There’s something intangible and deeply emotional about my growth at Matter. We use the words “culture” and “community” here ubiquitously, but that doesn’t mean they have lost their power. Matter is somewhat of a bubble itself, and while that usually has a negative connotation, it’s a little different in this case.
The people here are all intrinsically motivated by similar core values to better serve society. Whether that comes from the underlying principles that founded the legacy media institutions we grew up with or the individual passion of a media entrepreneur, it has created the sort of environment I always dreamed Silicon Valley could be. One that cares deeply.
To all those that make up the Matter community — our partners, our entrepreneurs, our mentors, and of course my amazing team — thank you. All of you working together on Matter’s common mission gives me hope in a dark time. Those looking in who want to be a part of this special place, stop looking and start applying. I promise it’ll be worth it.
It’s with deep sadness and intense optimism that I’m announcing that today is my last day at Matter. The past three years have been a rollercoaster, and I don’t use that metaphor lightly. Building Matter has been simultaneously one of the most challenging and most rewarding parts of my career so far. One that will go down in my own narrative as my own personal accelerator with the culture and community that I hope to take with me for life.
Starting this fall, I will be attending MIT Sloan School of Management with a focus to take my work further. I’m excited to join another powerful community dedicated to tech innovation, entrepreneurship, and media. Before the semester starts this August, I’ll be traveling across the globe for five months, mainly for fun but also to understand how the rest of the world is thinking and acting in reaction to the radical change taking place. Not sure what form my reflections will take yet, but watch this space.
And even though I’m saying goodbye to Matter for now, I’ll never say goodbye to the mission or the people. (And I definitely won’t be a stranger to the Matter NYC office while I’m on the East Coast.) To those of you I’ve met through Matter, please make sure to connect and stay in touch and for those of you who I have yet to meet, I can’t wait.
