The Drunken Walk

Jill Koziol, Co-Founder and CEO of Motherly (and Matter Five alum!), joined us in San Francisco for a conversation with Matter Eight entrepreneurs. Pete Mortensen, Director of Program in San Francisco, talked with Jill about the incredible growth that Motherly has seen over the last few years.

Initially, Jill says, their growth was slow, but steady. By staying the course with conviction and always going back to their user-a digitally native, Millennial mom who is learning to parent in very different circumstances than previous generations-they built something that resonated. And over time, because they deeply understand her needs, they saw a huge spike in users without pouring tons of money into advertising.

Deepa Subramanian started out as a physics major and switched to computer science when she realized how much she loved that kind of problem solving. Since then, she has been a product manager at all kinds of of companies, from tech giants like Adobe to non-profits like Charity: Water-she even spearheaded the product direction with Hillary for America. As it turns out, political campaigns have a lot more in common with startups than you might think. In her "drunken walk" as an entrepreneur, Deepa stresses the value of testing with users, even when your users could be anyone in America. 

Deepa went on from Hillary for America to work with Kickstarter before starting her own company, Wherewithall, to focus on helping tech startups and non-profits grow.

For this week’s speaker series, we were lucky to welcome a longtime member of our community back to Matter. Jennifer Brandel, CEO of Hearken and Matter Four entrepreneur, joined us in New York City where she and Roxann Stafford, our Director of Program there, sat down to talk about her “Drunken Walk” as an entrepreneur who really sought to change the way journalists tell stories.

Hearken has turned journalism on its head by actually bringing audiences into the reporting process. It provides journalists the tools they need to ask people what they want to know before going out into the field. Hearken really opens up newsrooms to find out the real questions in their communities and create more inclusive content.

Caitlin Kalinowski, Product Design Director at Oculus VR, joined us for the second time at Matter in San Francisco to share tips for better prototyping with our latest cohort. This time it was off-the-record, so we’re re-airing our episode with Caitlin from last season.

Caitlin has been a designer for over ten years and got her start at Apple as one of the lead designers on the MacBook Air. Her Six Steps to Superior Product Prototyping is a guide that echoes what we teach at matter: create ugly prototypes, get feedback early, and fail forward fast.

Kaitlyn Jankowski, better known among friends and colleagues as KJ, is Head of Marketing at theSkimm. In her conversation with Roxann Stafford, Director of Program in New York City, KJ talked about the dedication and passion it takes to go on the drunken walk of the entrepreneur. As someone who has spent most of her professional life working at startups, she knows how hard it can be when things go wrong, and how satisfying it is when you succeed. She says finding mentors, sometimes in the most unlikely of places, can make all the difference to get through the journey.

In this episode of The Drunken Walk, a series that follows the ups and downs of what it means to be an entrepreneur, we spoke with Gaby Darbyshire, Principal at Framestore Ventures. Gaby sat down with Roxann Stafford, our Director of Program in New York City, to speak in front of an audience of Matter Eight entrepreneurs who just started their 20-week journey through with us.

Before Gaby was Principal at Framestore Ventures she was Co-Founder and COO at Gawker, and before that she studied physics and mathematics—at one point she was even a barrister. Her long, impressive, and varied journey is an inspiration for anyone embarking on the journey to start their own venture (or even just starting to think about it). Her best advice for making it through the drunken walk of the entrepreneur is to surround yourself by people who are honest.

We’re back with the first episode of Season Three of The Drunken Walk! Our eighth class of media startups just started their 20–week journey through Matter in San Francisco and New York City. Rebecca Kaden joined us for the first speaker series in San Francisco to talk to entrepreneurs and share her perspective as an investor and, to moreover, a former journalist.

Rebecca is the fourth partner ever to join Union Square Ventures and their first female partner. She spent nearly six years at Maveron prior to USV, and when she sat down with Pete Mortensen, our Director of Program in San Francisco, they shared their experiences about how having a background in liberal arts and journalism can be a superpower in venture capital, especially with early stage startups. Rebecca gets to the heart of how important it is for entrepreneurs to find the right fit when it comes to funding—and it starts with understand the human side of investors.

We’ve been bringing you live pitches from Matter Seven Demo Day every single day. You’ve heard from eleven teams so far—The Establishment, Grafiti, Gretta, Vigilant, Multimer, In the Room, Rewire, CivNet, DADA, Nametag, and SmartFeed. 

To close the show is Purple. Purple allows independent writers to build membership businesses by leveraging the personal, intimate power of text messaging.

If you haven’t heard the full series, start with the Demo Day intro and catch up on the full show.

We’ve been sharing pitches from Matter Seven Demo Day every single day for the past two weeks. So far you’ll have heard from The Establishment, Grafiti, Gretta, Vigilant, Multimer, In the Room, Rewire, CivNet, DADA, and Nametag.

There’s two more to go, and next on stage is SmartFeed. SmartFeed helps parents find and organize great shows, apps, books and more, all in one place, for everyone in their family.

If you’re just joining us, listen to the Demo Day intro and catch up on the full show.

We’re sharing pitches from Matter Seven Demo Day every single day — including Thanksgiving! So far you’ll have heard from The Establishment, Grafiti, Gretta, Vigilant, Multimer, In the Room, Rewire, CivNet, and DADA. 

Today, tune in to hear about Nametag, a platform for deeper, more intimate online conversations that are free of harassment.

If you’re just getting started, listen to the Demo Day intro and catch up on the full show.