We Help Founders With Intros, Advice, & Belief

Mat Capital is a small firm that helps founders increase their odds of building a generational company. In exchange for our help, we'll ask for a small equity stake in your company. Learn how we provide value below.

How We Help

There are a few key things we have identified that we can assist with that have a disproportionate impact of the future success of an early stage founder.

01.
We Will Connect You To Our Deep Network

Raising capital? We know the best funds. Need a lawyer? We know the best lawyers. Looking to get better networked with YC founders? We can help with that too. Consider us your agent to meet whoever you need to meet to be successful in your tech career.

01.
We Will Help You With The Inputs That Output Greatness

We have been in the startup world for a decade. We've raised from the best and helped outsiders start with just an idea to nearly running their industry. We know what it takes to be great, and we will push you to do just that, and will be brutally honest with you when you aren't.

03.
We Will Believe In You When No One Else Does

Founding a startup is not straight up and to the right. Times can get hard. We are here to accelerate you in peace times and be a shoulder to lean on and to strategize with during the war times. We partner with founders first, their companies second, and will be there for you when you need it

The Portfolio

Here are a select number of ventures we have ownership in. Testimonials/case studies available by request.

About Me

My first company, PubLoft, was backed by Jason Calacanis in 2019 with a $100K check after we hit $24K MRR. Through his accelerator, I met dozens of active investors who became the foundation for the investor network I still work with today.
‍
To further grow my network, I launched Forward Thinking Founders later in 2019, a podcast where I’ve interviewed over 900 early-stage founders and investors, often before they broke out. Notable guests include Laura Behrens Wu (Shippo, $150M+ raised), Alex Bouaziz (Deel, $690M+), Jack Altman (Lattice, $330M+), Kashish Gupta (Hightouch, $172M+), and Hunter Walk (Homebrew, formerly led Product at YouTube).
‍
I joined Prenda in November of 2019 (YC S19) as the first growth hire when they had raised under $2M; by 2022, they’d raised $45M.

I founded Seedscout in 2020, a platform helping founders raise capital via curated warm intros. Seedscout facilitated intros that led to over $5M of direct investments to pre-seed founders, and contributed to over $200M in value creation. It had a global focus.
‍
Locally, I’ve helped Arizona-based founders like Adam Laor (Sinatra), Josh Hsu (Legix), Danny Friday (Sail), Christie Kerner (My Little Mascara Club), Ana Tomboulian (Thoron), Christian LaRoasa (Rosotics), Hunter Bjork (ISA Industries), and Max Bregman (BreatheEV).

I mainly support founders by making targeted intros to investors, advising on how to capitalize on those intros, helping them get more of them, and preparing them to approach their next round when it’s time to raise again. Every founder mentioned here has had a Silicon Valley investor write them a check as a result of an introduction I made. Here’s what they’ve said:
‍
“Mat and his network got me trained up on how to play the game of pattern matching, warm nodes, and charts and activating them simultaneously.” – Adam Laor

“Mat made multiple introductions to current investors of ours, who are great human beings, and have been strategic for our growth.” – Max Bregman

“Mat’s influence extends beyond funding; he has also provided invaluable advice and education on best practices pioneered by top-tier Silicon Valley firms and startups.” – Hunter Bjork
‍
Today, I run ad sales at Product Hunt, a Silicon Valley based startup backed by a16z and Sequoia, remotely from Phoenix Arizona. On the side, I advise AZ based founders via Mat Capital.

Get in touch by emailing me: mat@matsherman.com