For years I’ve followed the progress of Matter Ventures, the San Francisco-based media accelerator run by Corey Ford. I can no longer remember exactly how I was introduced to Matter and to Corey, but I do remember the first demo day that I attended a few years ago, at an event space associated with WNYC. Somehow I had gotten an invitation, but I was on the fence about whether to go. I had recently started in a new role, and was feeling pressed for time. In the end, I went, mostly because an engineering lead I was trying to hire was likely to be there and I was hoping to stalk him in his natural habitat.
When I got there, I recognized a face, then another, and another, and I realized I was walking into a room full of many of the most talented people in digital media in New York, with all sorts of opportunities for stalking talent! And this from an accelerator that was based in San Francisco. When the demos started, and the ideas began to flow, I was sure there was something special going on.
Over the next several years I got to know Corey and his program better. I was more and more impressed. The rigorous application of design thinking, the selectiveness applied to the participating startups, the quality of the ideas and the people, the energy surrounding the whole process, all supported my initial reaction.
I also loved the enthusiasm and optimism around the potential of digital media. Despite the very real disruption of the industry, Matter clearly believes in the potential of media to reinvent itself, evolve and thrive. I do too.
However, it was never practical for my New York-based organization to actually work with Matter because they ran their program in San Francisco. While I understood the obvious appeal of the Bay Area, I thought it was a shame for Matter’s presence in New York to be limited to the demo day — a missed opportunity for both Matter and the city that is the undisputed media capital of the world.
So I couldn’t be more pleased that Matter is finally launching a class in New York — with the participation of The New York Times and the support of the Google News Lab. I’m so happy to be able to offer the team here at The Times the opportunity to work alongside the inaugural Matter NYC class. And as a veteran of the first wave of the Silicon Alley startup scene back in the ’90s, I am thrilled to play a small role in injecting this wonderful ingredient into what is now an incredibly vibrant tech/media/startup scene in New York.
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