🎧 The Drunken Walk, S2-E1: Morgan DeBaun — CEO, Blavity

Ben Werdmuller
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

Our guest on this episode is a remarkable entrepreneur: Morgan DeBaun, CEO and co-founder of Blavity.

Together with her co-founders, Morgan figured out how to build a media business that isn’t dependent on a conventional advertising model while also elevating the voices of populations too often shut out of the media — all with a constant focus on mission, on the needs of her audience, and on prototyping toward success. They’ve reinvented media in the spirit of FUBU — for us by us — for a new generation. Inclusion is about more than representation of creators: it’s about owning the means of production, too.

In her fireside chat with Matter’s Director of Program in San Francisco, Pete Mortensen, Morgan describes how she was inspired to join Blavity full-time following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. As Pete says: “If not her, who? That, to me, is the greatest sign of an entrepreneur who will find a way to success in spite of incentives to stop going. If you feel like you and your team are the only ones who can do something about the situation you want to impact, you probably are.”


The Drunken Walk is a series of live fireside chats, blog posts, and podcasts from Matter Ventures, the world’s only independent startup accelerator for media entrepreneurs.

Our seventh accelerator class is underway in San Francisco and New York City. Learn more about our amazing teams.

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A Matter-Driven Narrative

This is where the Matter community gathers to tell stories on their journey to building the future of media using a human-centered, prototype-driven process. You'll hear from our entrepreneurs, mentors, partners, and us. Learn more about Matter Ventures at www.matter.vc.

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Ben Werdmuller

Written by

Humanist technologist

A Matter-Driven Narrative

This is where the Matter community gathers to tell stories on their journey to building the future of media using a human-centered, prototype-driven process. You'll hear from our entrepreneurs, mentors, partners, and us. Learn more about Matter Ventures at www.matter.vc.

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