The Drunken Walk

Andrea Turner Moffitt is the Co-Founder of Plum Alley Investments, a membership network that is thinking about funding in a new way. Plum Alley members are looking not only for financial returns, but also for the right teams to solve the most pressing problems.

Andrea talked to Matter Seven entrepreneurs in New York City about how important it is to understand your investors to find the right fit and develop the strongest relationships.

Jennifer Tacheff, VP of Partnerships and Growth at Women Who Code, is building a community that promotes diversity in tech—and the response has been incredible. Over 100,000 members have joined them in just a couple years.

Jennifer joined Matter Seven entrepreneurs in San Francisco to talk about how having a focused mission spurs growth, and, even more importantly, how to create spaces where growth is substantial and long lasting.

Hannah Donovan has been a designer in digital media for over ten years—mostly working for startups. She’s led teams at Drip, The Echo Nest, and Vine, and co-founded This Is My Jam and Trash TV. In addition to startups, she’s also worked for big media names like MTV and CBS Interactive.

Hannah joined Matter Seven entrepreneurs in New York City to talk about how her community helped guide her along her journey, and eventually led to her new venture that aims to more deeply connect audiences with creators.

Chris Wilkes, VP at HearstLab, joined Matter Seven in New York City to talk about his experiences in media innovation and investing. Chris’s career in digital media has spanned over twenty years, and his latest venture, HearstLab, is a community of women-led startups working inside Hearst Tower. Tune in to his conversation with Matter’s Director of Program, NYC, Roxann Stafford.

Beth Viner is the GM at Kickstarter, where she supports the communities that use their platform. She makes sure that creators and backers have the best possible experience, facilitating the relationships that make crowdfunding work.

Beth joined a room full of Matter Seven entrepreneurs in New York city to talk about her own path to leadership and how the most unexpected things can lead to big break throughs.

Christie George is the Executive Director at New Media Ventures, a seed fund and network of angel investors that supports media entrepreneurs who are working to create a more progressive society.

Christie sat down with our San Francisco Director of Investments, Ben Werdmüller, to talk about how to invest in companies with a social mission without losing track of business basics. Christie and Ben talk about what it’s like to be at the forefront of a new kind of investing in Silicon Valley.

Caitlin Kalinowski has been a designer at the forefront of cutting-edge technology for over a decade. She got her start at Apple as one of the lead designers on the MacBook Air before she left for Facebook. Now, she is the Head of Product Design at Oculus VR.

Caitlin shared her Six Steps to Product Prototyping with a group of Matter Seven entrepreneurs in San Francisco. The talk included everything from advice about how to iterate to how important it is to train people to give negative feedback. The tools she uses as a designer are really aligned with the design thinking process (yes, it’s called that for a reason) that Matter entrepreneurs learn in our 20 week accelerator program.

Jeanne Brooks is the founder and CEO of Virago Futures, a venture that uses community design to rebuild systems to change the future of media. In a world that is more connected than ever, Virago Futures is finding ways to rethink and rebuild systems to make them accessible to all.

Jeanne Brooks joined us in New York City to talk with Matter Seven entrepreneurs about how collaboration is the key to designing a more empathetic and inclusive society.

Paul Quigley is the co-founder and CEO of NewsWhip, a platform that is using science to transform the media industry. NewsWhip is bridging the gap between the ever-increasing number of internet users and seemingly infinite content to give publishers the tools to engage their audiences with meaningful content.

Jane Metcalfe is the founder of NEO.LIFE, an online publication that makes sense of the neobiological revolution. Previously, she co-founded WIRED. As well as WIRED Magazine, the group owned HotBot, the internet’s fastest search engine at the time, invented the banner ad, won numerous awards, and practically invented online publishing. Most importantly, it put a human face on the technology revolution and the people who drove it. In this talk, recorded live in front of an audience of Matter Seven entrepreneurs in San Francisco, Jane discusses building a team packed with world-class talent and giving them the space to do their best work — as well as the role of media in transforming how the world sees entire industries.