Experience

Commerce Ventures

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• General Partner

  • Aug 2017 - 6 years 5 months

  San Francisco Bay Area Commerce Ventures is a VC fund focused on innovation in the retail and financial services sectors.



Gemvara (acquired by Berkshire Hathaway)

• CEO

  • Mar 2011 - May 2017

  Boston, MA Matt was the CEO at Gemvara, a revolutionary eCommerce company that enables jewelry customization at scale. The company’s investors included Highland, Canaan, Balderton, and Norwest. Prior to becoming CEO, Matt was CFO and Chief Product Officer where he was responsible for engineering, product, finance, and analytics. Matt joined Gemvara when it had less than $1MM in revenue and helped drive significant growth in sales and achieved profitability. Achieved profitability 1.5 years after… Show more Matt was the CEO at Gemvara, a revolutionary eCommerce company that enables jewelry customization at scale. The company’s investors included Highland, Canaan, Balderton, and Norwest. Prior to becoming CEO, Matt was CFO and Chief Product Officer where he was responsible for engineering, product, finance, and analytics. Matt joined Gemvara when it had less than $1MM in revenue and helped drive significant growth in sales and achieved profitability. Achieved profitability 1.5 years after taking the CEO role. Efficiency improvements included the development of software to automate manufacturing and customer service and the optimization of marketing channels. These changes and the success of the new offerings quadrupled contribution margin in 2015, grew top-line revenue and enabled profitability in early 2016. In 2016, Gemvara was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK.A) jewelry group (Richline) and Matt became responsible for all digital efforts of the acquirer. Matt led the effort to build a digital hub to accelerate B2B sales launched its first private label program with a major jewelry retailer. Matt and the team also acquired a brand with >$1Bn in historical sales and re-launched it as a direct to consumer business. Show less



Highland Capital Partners

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Principal

  • Jul 2006 - Mar 2011

  Matt was a Principal at Highland focusing on information technology investments with a specialty in digital media, e-commerce and online marketing. Matt was actively involved with Bullhorn (acquired by Vista Equity), Pixable (acquired by SingTel) and Gemvara (acquired by Berkshire Hathaway).



Google

• United States
• Software Development
• 700 & Above Employee

• Corporate Development

  • Jun 2005 - Sep 2005

  Member of corporate development team. Evaluated digital media investments.



Morgan Stanley Venture Partners

• United States

• Venture Associate

  • Jul 2002 - Aug 2004

  Identified and managed investments in the technology sector. His investments included Avamar (acquired by EMC for $165MM), Tarari (acquired by LSI for $85MM) and Perceptive Software (acquired by Lexmark for $280MM).

• Analyst

  • 1999 - 2003

  Matt was a member of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Corporate Finance group, where he was part of the Google IPO team and advised clients such as Dell and Intuit.