Key Takeaways from Brainstorming Collaboratively A few weeks ago, I participated in my (long overdue) first design thinking bootcamp at Matter [https://news.matter.vc/]. I‘ve been working at Matter for a little over a year now, and though I’ve immersed myself in the design thinking culture and

A single evergreen is easy to spot. But you need serious technology to see them all. It’s as true with stories as it is with conifers. Let me start with a bold statement, follow with an anecdote and then end with a gift. The Bold: A publisher’s best

This piece was originally published on my Known site at werd.io. [http://werd.io/2015/6-honest-reflections-on-being-an-early-stage-startup-founder-aside] I previously co-founded Elgg [http://elgg.org/] and served as CTO at latakoo [https://latakoo.com/], but Known [https://withknown.com/] is the first time I’ve been a CEO. Candid reflections have

(This piece was originally published on my Known site at werd.io. [http://werd.io/2014/some-reflections-on-a-summer-at-mattervc-written-on-the] Known is a simple way to publish on your own site and syndicate to your social media profiles across the web — click here to learn more [https://withknown.com/].) When the garage door

Matter has reached an important and exciting milestone with the announcement of four new media partners [https://news.matter.vc/expanding-the-impact-of-matter] and the introduction of our fourth class of startups [https://news.matter.vc/the-six-that-matter] . As Corey reflects on a remarkable two year sprint [https://news.matter.vc/expanding-the-impact-of-matter] and

For the last three years, every morning on my way to work I would wander through the shuk [https://www.google.com/search?q=shuk+hacarmel+tel+aviv&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=1082&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=zz7lVKXIIdPSoAT9RQ&

It all started with a crate of records. A black grated plastic square teeming with tunes, album covers as the entryways into a circular trance of needle and vinyl dancing to equal harmony. As I sat listening to an early rendition of Desperado by the Eagles [https://www.youtube.com/

Be scrappy. One of the many phrases you’ll hear from Corey Ford, the managing director of Matter. [https://news.matter.vc/] What is Matter? A start-up accelerator with the mission to support media entrepreneurs focused on “building a more informed, connected, and empowered society.” A pretty lofty mission, but

Startups have always intrigued me. The passion, the resourcefulness, the risk and the potential reward. But since I've always worked for large companies, I haven’t always had the opportunity to move through projects at lightning speed. Recently, I had the opportunity to step out of my element

KQED is a co-founding partner in Matter [http://matter.vc/], a San Francisco based startup accelerator supporting early stage media entrepreneurs. As a KQED [http://www.kqed.org/] staffer, I recently was able to go through the design-thinking boot camp that the entrepreneurs experience. Matter leverages a human-centered, prototype-driven process

Leveraging community and culture to think bigger I joined the Matter team in January of this year, just a couple of months ago. At the time, it was 13 weeks into the 20-week program for Matter’s second cohort, “Matter Two”. With only five weeks to demo day, I got

How to conduct an effective user interview At Matter, we are all about a human-centered, prototype-driven design process. Why human-centered? Because humans are the users. They drive the desirability, and ultimately, the success of your product. Getting them on board is one of the greatest challenges, but this also makes

In honor of GoPop’s 2.0 launch, we thought we’d share their story thus far. GoPop [http://get.gopop.co/] allows people to express themselves and communicate with each other visually, with interactive, two-sided “pops” made up of images, videos, and gifs. The team (formerly called Zeega) are