Michael Port has written six books, including Book Yourself Solid and Steal the Show, the latter which—according to the former President of Starbucks—“might be the most unique and practical book ever written on the topic of public speaking.” He's been called an “uncommonly honest author" by the Boston Globe, a "marketing guru" by The Wall Street Journal, a “sales guru” by the Financial Times, “a public speaking phenom” by Jonathan Fields and “the best public speaking coach in the world” by Lewis Howes.
The founder of MastermindTalks, Jayson Gaignard, declared, "Michael Port is the best speaker I've ever seen." His books have been on the bestseller lists of the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Publisher's Weekly.
He was once a professional actor, having received his MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program, guest starring on shows like Sex & The City and Law & Order, and in films like The Pelican Brief and Down to Earth. These days, Michael can be seen on MSNBC, CNBC, and PBS as an on air expert in communication and business development and as the host of the most popular podcast on public speaking and performance, Steal the Show with Michael Port.
Michael’s Challenge; Save money. Even if it is just a little bit, start investing now. Check out Jack Bogle’s book The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.
Connect with Michael
Colin is a professional author and international speaker, and co-founded a publishing company. He travels full-time, moving to a new country every four months or so, with the country being determined by the votes of readers of his blog.
In the six years since starting his blog, Colin has lived in New Zealand, Thailand, Iceland, India, Romania, and Czech Republic, visited the 48 contiguous US states twice, road tripped through South America, rode the rails through Southeast Asia, and visited about 30 other countries.
Since hitting the road, he has pivoted from building brands for other companies, to consulting on branding, to building brands for himself. He has run nearly a dozen medium- and small-scale endeavors, in industries ranging from sustainable product design to subscription-based publishing technologies. He currently makes a living by publishing books through a publishing company called Asymmetrical Press, which he also co-founded with two fellow authors, Josh and Ryan from The Minimalists.
He also periodically teaches classes, gives talks at schools, conferences, and events, and runs workshops all over the world.
Colin’s Challenge; 20 minutes per day away from technology and other people to allow your mind to free associate and be creative.
Colin’s Writing
If you liked this interview, check out episode 23 with Nathan Chan. We discuss publishing and brand-building.
If there’s something interesting going on in Pittsburgh, Kit Mueller is probably involved in it. If there’s someone important you want to meet, he probably knows how to get an intro.
Kit is a relentless self-starter, with recent projects including Speak Freely, Data Driven Creative and Fygment. In addition to his own endeavors, Kit is dedicated to his community and constantly pushing to raise awareness for young aspiring companies and causes.
His story is one we can all learn from.
Kit’s Challenge; Go get coffee with someone who look different than you do. From a different background than you.
Zachary Slayback is an entrepreneur who writes on issues of education, innovation, and philosophy. He is an Ivy League dropout and speaks regularly on education, college, how and why to foster more entrepreneurship and issues related to professional development. He believes that entrepreneurs are the primary actors of social change.
Zak is a co-founder of Praxis, an alternative to the traditional route of attending college. Participants work at growing startups and learn firsthand what it takes to be an entrepreneur while creating real value and working alongside founders and CEOs. Getting fully immersed in the world of innovative enterprise offers an experience that a classroom simply cannot provide.
He was one of LinkedIn’s most influential voices on education in 2015 and has been published in Newsweek, the New York Examiner, the Daily Caller, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Christian Science Monitor, and more. He has also appeared on The Glenn Beck Program and HuffPost Live.
Zak lives in and works from Pittsburgh, PA. Feel free to contact him if you are visiting and want to grab a coffee.
Zak’s Challenge; Drop out of college.
Zak’s Writing
Where are all the Young Entrepreneurs?
James Osborne is a Certified Financial Planner who has spent his career in the investment management industry, helping clients manage their portfolios and plan for retirement, legacy, and lifetime goals. In addition to the CFP professional designation, he has an MBA in Investment Management from the University of Colorado. His disillusionment with the standard practice of investment management firms led to the creation of Bason Asset Management in late 2012.
Bason Asset Management is a flat fee only asset management firm offering tax-efficient and cost-effective portfolio management based in Lakewood, Colorado. The firm’s philosophy is centered around low costs, passive (index) investments, tax management and fair dealing with clients.
James serves clients throughout the front range and Denver metro area and across the country. He has contributed to or been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Motley Fool, Investment News, Financial Planning, CoBiz Magazine, USA Today, Morningstar Magazine, ThinkAdvisor, Money magazine and Business Insider. James was named to Brightscope’s “Top 100 Social Influencer” list for financial professionals in 2014. He is an Indiana native, lifelong Hoosier basketball fan, and avid cyclist.
James’s Challenge; Give serious consideration to your weaknesses when it comes to your investments personal psychology and comes to terms with them.
Rob McLeod is a competitive athlete and motivational speaker living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He competes in ultimate frisbee, disc golf, dog disc and overall flying disc competitions. He currently holds 13 World Records (including 6 Guinness World Records), the Canadian Distance Record, 10 World Championships and 2 Quadruped titles.
Rob has also appeared in the 2014 & 2015 Guinness Book of World Records, the 2015 Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! book and the 2015 Reader’s Digest Canada Day edition. He is a brand ambassador for a number of companies and an ambassador for disc sports around the globe.
Rob’s Challenge; Go to agelessgame.com to try a different disc sport.
This episode of Going Deep with Aaron Watson is brought to you by the Ultimate Athlete Project. UAP is founded on helping athletes get results through well-developed workout plans that relieve you of the need to research effective workouts or worry about your workouts becoming boring. Check out a free core workout and learn more about what regular users are saying about the program.
Tadas Viskanta is the Founder and Editor of Abnormal Returns. His “forecast-free investment blog” has become a fixture on the financial scene for over nine years. Tadas is a private investor with over 25 years of experience in the financial markets. He is the co-author of over a dozen investment-related papers that have appeared in publications like the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management among others.
Tadas is also the author of the well-received book: Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere that distills lessons learned from his time blogging.
Tadas holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Indiana University and lives with his family in
Tadas’s Challenge; People are too hard on themselves when it comes to investing. Give yourself a break and do the best you can. The most important thing is learning from your mistakes.
Tadas’ Book
Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere
Connect with Tadas
Steve Gordon is co-founder and President of Ultimate Xperience Ventures, LLC, a sports and entertainment holding company. UXV owns a majority interest in the American Ultimate Disc League and has interests in video, print and digital services relating to Ultimate Disc content. Mr. Gordon also serves as the AUDL League Commissioner.
Steve is also founder & managing partner of the Chicago Wildfire, Chicago's professional Ultimate Disc team in the AUDL. The Wildfire began play in the 2013 season and play at Lane Tech Stadium in Chicago.
Steve is also founder of Capstone Concepts, Inc, a firm dedicated to bringing products and/or services that are unique or early in their life cycle to mass markets. Industry concentrations include financial programs, smartphone apps, sports and health-related products.
Steve’s Challenge; Eat organic 3x per week for one month and see how it affects your body.
Connect with Steve
Email; sgordon@theaudl.com
This episode of Going Deep with Aaron Watson is brought to you by the Ultimate Athlete Project. UAP is founded on helping athletes get results through well-developed workout plans that relieve you of the need to research effective workouts or worry about your workouts becoming boring. Check out a free core workout and learn more about what regular users are saying about the program.
Ben is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He helps the team create detailed investment plans and manage portfolios for institutions and individuals to help them achieve their goals.
Ben has been managing institutional portfolios his entire career, starting out with an institutional investment consulting firm developing portfolio strategies and creating investment plans for various foundations, endowments, pensions, hospitals, insurance companies and high net worth individuals. More recently, he was part of the portfolio management team for an investment office that managed a large endowment fund for a charitable organization.
Ben’s blogging mission is to try to explain the complexities of the various aspects of finance in a way that everyone could understand them. Both the economy and the financial markets are complex adaptive systems, but they don’t necessarily require complex solutions. Common sense and self-awareness are extremely underrated attributes in the world of finance.
Ben’s Challenge; Reach out to someone you admire and take them out for lunch/coffee. Networks are underrated.
Ben’s Book
A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan
Connect with Ben
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Mike Gable has been running Construction Junction since 1999. The nonprofit collects and sells salvageable building materials around the Pittsburgh area. This environmental recycling mission has been growing consistently year by year and Mike deserves much of the credit.
He works with contractors around the area, spreading his organization’s mission. He has applied business principles to a nonprofit, focusing on revenue, marketing and profits, instead of being reliant on donations and grants.
Mike’s Challenge; Be on the lookout for building materials that can be reused in projects around your city.
Connect with Mike
Aaron T. Walker, a businessman and life coach, inspires through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron an opportunity to broaden his perspective by examining his experiences and growing from them.
For 19 years and counting, Aaron has taken classes from and has been coached personally by his friend, financial guru, Dave Ramsey. Spiritual mentors David Landrith and Bob Warren have impacted his spiritual life beyond measure. Two other disciplined mastermind groups, 48 Days led by friend Dan Miller and The Torch have played a role in his understanding of how to live a significant, successful life.
Years ago, it only took a few years as a partner with David Patton Construction LLC for Aaron to help take the business from doing one to two projects per year to a multi-million dollar company, voted number one builder for three consecutive years by Nashville’s House & Home & Garden Magazine's People's Choice Awards. He sold his retail business to Cash America USA, a Fortune 500 company. In addition to being the owner of eight lucrative businesses, Aaron participates in civic endeavors.
Aaron’s Challenge; Call people randomly without asking for anything.
Aaron’s Book Recommendations
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Connect with Aaron
Jim, Executive Director of Pittsburgh’s AlphaLab accelerator program, provides mentorship, education and network-building for technology startups. His accelerator helps companies rapidly iterate through early stages of product and customer development.
Launched in 2008, AlphaLab is ranked #6 among accelerators in the US and a charter member of the Global Accelerator Network, where Jim currently serves on the Advisory Board. AlphaLab alumni companies include The Resumator, No Wait, Black Locus (acquired by Home Depot), Shoefitr and SolePower.
Jim guides companies by leveraging his experience and network gained from working closely with over eighty companies in the Innovation Works and AlphaLab portfolios and from his prior management experience in Silicon Valley. In the Bay Area, Jim built and managed software businesses at Hewlett-Packard, Agile Software (acquired by Oracle), and Instill Corporation (acquired by iTradeNetwork Inc). As a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Jim advised executive management of Fortune 500 companies on marketing, strategy, and organizational issues.
Jim holds a BA and MA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
Jim’s Challenge; Go out of your way to explore viewpoints opposite of the ones you hold.
Connect with Jim
Eric Brown co-founded ImpactGames to influence society and promote change through interactive media. Toward this end, ImpactGames developed PeaceMaker, a video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to promote dialogue and understanding. Unlike most serious games, PeaceMaker aims to bridge the gap between education and entertainment while reaching a mass market. PeaceMaker has been sold in over 60 countries, been featured in media outlets around the world, and has won several international awards.
Eric was listed among "100 Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World" in Newsweek Japan. He holds a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University and received a BFA in Painting with focused studies in education and computer graphics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Recently, Eric has been working with different groups around Pittsburgh to help bring products to market including Walkingthumbs’ product Blabcake. He has also helped found a non-profit called The Additive Project that has created 3D printing curriculum that is being used by Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Carnegie Library Labs group among others.
Eric’s Challenge; Make an effort to keep in contact with former colleagues and mentors that you admire and nurture those relationships.
Connect with Eric
Hitting my Kickstarter goal in 3 days was exhilarating! I want to teach you exactly how I did it and what I learned along the way!
Two Associated Posts
What I Learned from a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
The Steps I Took After a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
Book Recommendation
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World by Peter Diamandis
Aaron’s Challenge; Spend 30 minutes away from your phone and think about something that you really want. This can be something that you haven’t told anyone because it may seem a little ridiculous. Acknowledge it, and put together a rough draft of a plan for how you would make it happen.
People to Thank
Liam Rosen, TopScore & Skyd Magazine
Joe Marmerstein,
Kenny Chen
Alex Galbraith
Art & Denise Chau
Greeno, who has helped me edit a few episodes of the podcast
Dan O'Connor, the very first backer
Tyler Kunsa
Jimmy Leppert, UpCall Ultimate
Dan Tremblay
Larry Gioia
James Park, Los Angeles Aviators
Kevin Tang
Ryan, CB Insights
Karly Schwab
Michael Wilson
Ryan Richardson
Adam Pelleg
JoJo
Paulson Domasky
Alex Thorne
Mark Fedorenko
Dave & Portie Watson
Nathan D Hessington VI
A special thank you to my family members who supported me;
Aunt Cheryl & Uncle Denny - You guys rock. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Holly - You’re the best!
Mom & Dad - Thank you for always believing in me.
Ashley - I couldn’t have done any of this without you.
Morgan came on the podcast to talk cognitive biases, personal finance, and writing. He took an interesting path to his current career and uses that to his advantage when teaching through his writing.
Morgan Housel is a columnist at the Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal. His work is also featured in USA Today, The Huffington Post, and Business Insider.
He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing 2012 anthology. In 2013 he was a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award and Scripps Howard Award. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California.
Morgan’s Challenge; Go out and read things that you know you are going to disagree with to round out your view of the world.
Morgan’s Book Recommendations
The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham
Confessions of a Street Addict by Jim Cramer
Morgan’s Writing
Financial Advice for My New Son
122 Things Everyone Should Know About Investing and the Economy
Connect with Morgan
Apart from his family, and new technologies, Ultimate Frisbee is Patrick's biggest passion. He has been very involved in the World Flying Disc Federation, personally launched the Portuguese Beach Ultimate tournament (Bar do Peixe), and an international organization that focuses on promoting Beach Ultimate, called BULA (Beach Ultimate Lovers Association).
In 2004 Patrick and BULA organized the first World Championships Beach Ultimate in Figueira de Foz, Portugal. With 450 participants from 22 countries it turned out to be a serious success, and he has continued to put the event on for over a decade.
The 2nd World Championships in Brazil in December 2007 and the 3rd in 2011 in Italy were also organized by BULA, Patrick, and local players. Just last year, he led efforts to produce the 2015 World Championships in Dubai.
Patrick played on the Portuguese national team through 2014, as well as with national champions LUC, and in Paganello top international all-star team: SeXXXpensive. He has also the Chairman of the WFDF Spirit of the Game Committee and served as president of the Portuguese flying disc federation through 2014.
At the heart of the new economy Patrick turned into a highly effective marketer and 'evangelic' salesman. One company he co-founded, ChemConnect, has been covered in several case-studies and an article in the Wall Street Journal "Top Online Chemical Exchange Is Unlikely Success Story".
Patrick’s Challenge; Find a way to be more efficient with your professional time so that you can spend more time with your friends and family.
Efficiency Tools
Zero Inbox
Clear Context
Boomerang
Connect with Patrick
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Adriana Withers is one of the partners in Vicious Circle Ultimate, an apparel company dedicated to custom manufacturing high performance gear for ultimate frisbee athletes. Her partner Don Cooper came up with the idea for VC just before Canadian Nationals in the summer of 1998 and the company has been growing ever since.
In this episode, Adriana discusses throwing apartment parties to pay rent, the challenges of starting up, and the proliferation of companies in her industry in recent years.
Adriana’s Challenge; Practice gratitude regularly and show appreciation for the people in your life.
Connect with Adriana
email; adriana@vcultimate.com
Hahna is the Chief Technical Officer and cofounder of Sole Power Technologies. The company builds an shoe insole that charges a battery while the used walks. That battery can be used to charge a cell phone or other electronic device.
As a child, Hahna was inspired by the technology in science fiction books, shows, and comics. She became an engineer because she wanted to make such technology a reality. For her, developing an energy harvesting shoe insert meant creating a device that could be found in an Isaac Asimov book. She also has a lifelong dream of going to space, which grew bigger while designing robots at NASA. As company CTO, she leads product design and is the only one capable of drawing more than stick figures.
Hahna’s Challenge; Spend some time every day learning about a topic you want to get smarter on.
Popular Science Invention of the Year
Connect with Hahna
email; info@solepowertech.com
Ilana Diamond is the Managing Director of AlphaLab Gear, Innovation Works’ hardware start-up accelerator which provides physical product startups with connections, investment, mentorship and more. Ilana helps entrepreneurs rapidly progress through the early stages of product and customer development by leveraging her experience and network, gained from over 20 years of leading and growing companies, from early stage to exit.
Prior to running AlphaLab Gear, Ilana served as the President and Chief Executive Officer at Sima Products. She built Sima’s management team, developed and managed a network of Asian manufacturers and led profitable sales growth at national brick and mortar retail chains such as Target and Walmart, internet retailers such as Amazon.com, and specialty catalog retailers.Based on innovative technology developed by Sima, she also founded and managed a commercial alerting startup, raised outside capital spun it off into a separate entity. In 2010, Ms. Diamond negotiated the sale of Sima and transitioned operations to the new owners.
Ilana currently serves as a Member of the advisory board at Sole Power, LLC. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Tie Pittsburgh. Previously, she sat on the Executive Board of the Consumer Electronics Association.
Ilana’s Challenge; Pick one thing every day that you are going to do well. You can’t do everything well every single day.
Connect with Ilana
Twitter @Ilanadiamond
Theresa Brown, BSN, RN, works as a clinical nurse in Pittsburgh and recently wrote a NYT best-selling book, The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives.
Theresa received her BSN from the University of Pittsburgh, but before that earned, a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago and taught at Tufts University. Her column "Bedside" has appeared on the New York Times op-ed page as well as on the Times blog “Opinionator” and she is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. Previously she wrote for the New York Times blog “Well." Her writing has also appeared on CNN.com, and in The American Journal of Nursing and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is an Advisory Board Member of the Center for Health Media and Policy at the Bellevue School of Nursing at Hunter College, and a participant in two different Robert Wood Johnson initiatives: "Flip the Clinic" and "The Power of Narrative."
Her first book Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between has been adopted as a textbook in Schools of Nursing across the country. Theresa lectures nationally on issues related to nursing, health care, and end of life. Her clinical work has been in medical oncology, hospice, and palliative care. Becoming a mom led Theresa to leave academia and pursue nursing. It is a career change she has never regretted.
Theresa’s Challenge; Spend 30 minutes reading one poem per week.
Theresa’s Books
Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between
The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
Connect with Theresa
This episode of Going Deep with Aaron Watson is brought to you by the Ultimate Athlete Project. The Ultimate Athlete Project is founded on helping athletes get results through well-developed workout plans that relieve you of the need to research effective workouts or worry about your workouts becoming boring. Check out a free core workout and learn more about what regular users are saying about the program.
Leah Lizarondo is an innovator and food advocate. She is also the founder of The Brazen Kitchen, a food education practice and influential blog and the co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, an innovative technology-driven nonprofit that fights hunger and waste.
Leah received her Master's Degree in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University graduating with Highest Distinction and is an advocate for healthy food accessibility, food safety policy and sustainability. She has trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and received her Certification in Plant-based Nutrition from Cornell University.
She served as one of the Trustees at the global Awesome Foundation: Food, serving with leaders and creative innovators in food and is an Ambassador for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.
She began her career as a product manager in Southeast Asia, working in consumer packaged goods and as a consultant working with technology startups. She served in leadership positions at global nonprofits before moving on to her passion in food and health advocacy. She is interested in the intersection of food, health and innovation.
Leah’s work has been featured in print and online publications including MSN’s Re:Discover Series, NPR, Oprah.com, GOOD Magazine online, and lots of local media. The Brazen Kitchen was named one of the Top 100 Foodie Blogs in 2013 by IPE and won the 2013 National City & Regional Magazine Awards for Best Blog. In April 2014, she gave the TEDx Talk “Why the Farm Is Not Getting to the Table.”
Check out the CrowdRise Campaign
Leah’s Challenge; Write a letter to yourself one year from today explaining your vision for yourself.
Connect with Leah
Twitter @LeahLizarondo
Instagram @412FoodRescue
Avi Geller has taken a long and thoughtful route to entrepreneurship. During his time on Going Deep, he discusses how he moved to progressively smaller companies and developed a vision for the future of wearable tech.
He is now focused on “hearables”, a segment of tech focused on headsets and earpieces that deliver real time information to users. As a member of the AlphaLab accelerator, Avi is leading Maven Machines towards being a player in the Internet of Things.
Avi’s Challenge; Start something, like a social gathering or a project, that you take ownership of and do a great job.
Connect with Avi
Twitter @avishaigeller
avishai@mavenmachines.com
Ever wondered what the path to being an Amazon #1 bestseller looks like? Meet Taylor Pearson.
Taylor taught himself Portuguese while working as a freelance Spanish interpreter, then bought a one-way plane ticket to Brazil to teach English. Between teaching classes, he played semi-pro football and built a profitable publishing business selling advertising to kitchen furniture manufacturers.
He cold-called marketing agencies using my small kitchen furniture publishing business to get a job. Went from intern to lead project manager in less than six months at the leading digital marketing agency in Memphis. While there, he managed accounts for international manufacturing brands and higher education institutions.
He left that to join the Tropical MBA team, a top 25 iTunes podcast and 10k+ subscriber blog. There he assisted in event planning and community management for The Dynamite Circle, a private mastermind forum of over 1000 of the web’s top location independent entrepreneurs. He also managed the online marketing and sales for a portfolio of 7-figure eCommerce businesses in the hospitality industry, primarily the Portable Bar Company, which grew over 527%. Then, he ran sales and product development for a valet parking software startup, selling into enterprise parking operators while managing product development and strategy.
Now, he primarily writes on his blog and consults with authors, entrepreneurs, and CEOs about how to find clarity and confidence in their businesses, expand their marketing through thought leadership and scale their internal business systems.
Taylor’s Challenge; Publish something publicly this week and share it on social media.
Taylor’s Book = The End of Jobs
Book Recommendations
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont
Connect with Taylor
email; taylor@taylorpearson.me
Dick Zhang is President and CEO of Pittsburgh, PA based Identified Technologies. Dick leads his rapidly growing team’s efforts to deliver real-time job site updates to industrial companies around the world using robotic aerial drones.
Prior to founding Identified Technologies, his previous work included corporate finance at Goldman Sachs and project management at Bristol-Myers Squibb. A technologist as well as an entrepreneur, he is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania with training in Mechanical Engineering and holds several U.S. patents.
Dick has been featured as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Pittsburgh Business Times Fast Tracker, and Point Park University guest lecturer.
Dick’s Challenge; Push yourself outside of your comfort zone so that you’ll continue to grow.
Media Coverage
Connect with Dick
Twitter @thedickzhang
Matt Zieger moved to Pittsburgh to join The Forbes Funds in August of 2014 as the Executive-in-Residence for Social Innovation. As a former foundation CEO, small business owner, and long-time economic policy leader Matt has fifteen years of experience bringing together Governors, CEOs, civic leaders, philanthropies, and global innovators to build and advance transformative investments in public education, international business development, government innovation, and knowledge-driven economic development.
In this role, Matt leads the Forbes Funds efforts to accelerate regional understanding and adoption of emerging tools to affect positive societal outcomes at substantial scale. His current focus areas include the development of new platforms to increase access to capital and advanced technologies for nonprofits and social entrepreneurs such as impact investing funds, social impact bonds, and prototyping technology solutions that positively impact the communities and organizations we serve.
Matt’s Challenge; Say yes more often.
Articles
Connect with Matt
Email; zieger@forbesfunds.org