Hi, This is Shauna, the CEO and founder of fuel talent. One of the things I have loved most in my 25 year recruiting career has always been the stories that people tell stories of leadership, career choices, company ideas and team building. My inspiration for starting the wet fuels you podcast came from being curious about people's lives and wanting to help share their stories. What path brought them to this place? What decisions did they make that led to failures and successes, who influenced those decisions and what lessons were learned along the way? I hope you enjoy the what fuels you podcast today on the what fuels you podcast. I have Matt Oppenheimer here with me. Matt is the co founder and CEO of Rome, Italy, the largest private digital Remittance company in the U. S. He was inspired to get into this space after seeing all of the hurdles consumers face while he was working in the UK and Kenya.

Since it was founded in 2011 remit, Lee has raised over $200 million continues to expand to more countries at an incredible pace. Matt is a husband, father, an incredible community leader. I'm so excited to hear more of this story and share it with you from

that. Thanks, Jonah. Great to be here.

Let's start with rapid fire. I'm throwing you off here. Favorite podcast.

Oh, I love the serial podcast. I got really, really hooked to

Syria. Which are you done

with it? I am done with it. Yeah,

that's a lot of hours.

It was I could not put it down. It was amazing.

I need to know when you have time to do all that, um, favorite country outside the U. S

s so many options on that one. But the rapid fire answer would probably be Kenya. Since I live there and have so many fond memories

of being I want to hear about that. That's incredible that you lived there. This is gonna be a tough one. Dartmouth or Harvard?

Oh, there is it? Ah, there's a deep, deep just connection I have with Dartmouth. Um, and it's just to such a wonderful community. Dartmouth,

Dartmouth extroverts or introvert? Extrovert. I love that, um, favorite ice cream flavor.

Well, I like all Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Um, and I'm gonna have to go with probably half

baked house. So God, yeah. I love Ben and Jerry's. Also, I want to be Ben or Jerry

We had in our wedding

as you did. That's random. I just said I had a gut feeling You're a nice cream. Get these mountains or water? Uh, love both, but probably mountains. Mountains. Yeah. Nice. Are you a scare

snowboarder? I am a skier, but I'm warning Nordic skiing, actually,

recently. Is that that? Is that like cross country Andrea? Yeah, so? So I get for you. I love it. Well, I know that you're you've competed in the Avalon's tape.

I'm a big runner and so much a marathon. I love running. Yeah. Yeah. Nordic skiing is, like, similar

to that. That's awesome. Okay, so, um, in getting ready for this podcast, I did a little research, and you're kind of famous in Idaho, and I didn't realize you were fifth generation. What was your childhood like? An Idaho. Like

I grew up in Boise, which is Ah, and really close to downtown Boise. So probably half a mile from there. And I love Idaho. I mean, all my family is there. Um, it's just really strong community of a group of seven friends from high school that I stay in very, very close touch with that so called truly like extended family for me, and they're diverse in terms of what they d one is a journeyman's relays power lines. Once a police officer, um, one is, ah, physician's assistant there. Just phenomenal. Like phenomenal,

phenomenal. Yeah, they all still in Idaho.

One went to San Francisco in 11 San Diego. But everybody else is, And I have. So, um,

and in high school, would they have kind of predicted that you would have been the guy that went to Dartmouth and Harvard and CEO of a tech

company? I don't know. You'd have has them that, but they're gonna keep me honest and humble and just I love those guys. They're they're sure. So there is that aspect of Idaho. My family's there. My brother, my niece, Um, his family, uh, my parents is just a wonderful place.

Are you the oldest of the youngest youngest? So your brother's? How much older? Six years older? 06 years older. That's awesome. They must be super proud of you. And so growing up, did your mom work. And what did your dad was in the family business?

My grandfather started a business called Oppenheimer Companies that my uncle and dad now run. And it's, um, a mix of both broadly real estate on one side and then food distribution, food processing. So

what kind of food?

It's everything from a food distribution program. So, um, making sure that suppliers of, like small stores all over the country can buy their supplies in an efficient way. Coming, go, go Bon um, I'm part of It's like food processing. So, like private label whipped topping, there's one branded product called True Whip. That's like a natural alternative to like Cool Whip. So it's kind of a diversified

in a lot of different areas, and so your grandfather started it. So did you think that that was kind of your trajectory?

Yeah, my, um, certainly left a very, very strong imprint on me in terms of just entrepreneurship. But my parents, my dad, my uncle creator, rule that anybody who wanted to go into the family business in the next generation had to go work somewhere else for five years. And then all of almost all my cousin just went to the business, which is awesome, but a lot of other like, including myself. I developed a lot of my own passions, you know, gonna do different things. But I still, you know, love the family business. I love what they do. I think it's amazing what they've built.

Is it private? Is privately held company? Yeah, that's great. What were you into in high school? Really, Like music Sports, Mountains?

It's funny. I had a interesting high school experience. I was in tow, I guess people in relationships broadly and trying to make an impact, which has been a theme, I think, um, throughout my life, so I started a nonprofit. I saw that people under the age of 18 didn't have a voice in the political process. And so I started this nonpartisan group called the Youth Lobbying Organization, where we thought we'd take stances on issues. But Idaho is very diverse politically, boys, he's more liberal.

I think of it as being really conservative.

Yeah, yeah, it's certainly more conservative in Seattle, but so is most the country boy. See tend to be a little more liberal, and then rural Idaho tends to be more conservative. And so I started this organization where we brought together one student from every high school in the state. And again we create the bylaws. He had to have 2/3 majority take stance on issues. Tonight we took we never took a stance on an issue. What we did dio is we had this annual lobbying day where we brought together, You know, a lot of amazing people to help educate people under the age of 18 on issues that impacted them. And then we, um, had ah, everybody have an opportunity to meet with their legislators. Um, incredible s o they still like

that. There was little influenced you to get into that. Or your parents kind of politically involved.

Ah, their social and civically involved. Yeah. Um and so I think there was an issue that I cared about. And, um, I thought it was strange that people under the age of 18 didn't have a voice in that issue was that it was actually much more controversial issue. It was parental consent for abortion. I thought at the very least, people under the age of 18 should have like a voice in that process, given that it impacted people under the age of 18. I tend to be more liberal, so I tended to think that parental consent was not a good idea, not required. I testified back in the day, um, on that specific issue.

But the organization did not take a stance on the issue because when you bring together folks from all over the state, like a lot of folks do think even if you're under the age of 18 that folks should have toe have parental consent. And I tried to not be super politicized because my goal of the organization was not to change people's views or minds. My goal of the Islamic organization was to make sure the people under the age of 18 had, you know, a voice. And there were other issues that came up like pay around migrant farm workers. It was an issue that we talked a lot about, but we had, like former governor, speak. We had legislators

and incredible Matt, that's awesome. And where is that organization now? It did not continue because restart it. Yeah,

I, uh, went to college and I could tell you a couple of the funny stories, but I did a lot of things outside of school, and so I missed one semester. I can't believe I got through high school one semester. I missed 45 out of 90 days. Um, think about those numbers. Exactly about 50% of the time I was out and I was doing all these civic things like that. Um, I also

but that's leadership stuff that's like so hard to find is easy to find. The kid that can sit and kind of study and learn the test versus somebody who's putting themselves out there.

Yeah, I don't know. I just loved it. And I loved people. The other thing I did which was a lot of phone, was I realized that there was no safe space for people to go to party and have fun. And so I can't believe my parents let me do this. But way through these, like large, very large drug and alcohol free parties. And they were I mean, the big one after graduation was called like summer fest, and they were like, 500 plus people at her house. Um, we'd hire security. My brother,

who's six years older, as I mentioned, would help. Um, to make sure there were no drugs and alcohol. Um, there were fights. There were different things that happened that we had to manage. But the idea was that, like, I mean, there was just a lot of fun. We had, like, live music. We had,

like, mud volleyball. We had mud wrestling. We had, like, pie eating contest. Where did that was so

fun? In Idaho. I guess you could have a lot of property so you can have 500 people. It

was It was a lot of fun. So I did stuff like

that. Your high school was public. There's public like a

school that my parents went thio my uncle into grandma with you. My brother

was cool.

We see high school. Yeah,

that's great. You have to go back and give the commencement.

I don't think

of that big of a deal that you

are. Yeah, I

loved it there. B f d. You are. And so how did you choose Dartmouth? Because all of my friends who went to Dartmouth it's like a thing. People are like obsessed. Yeah. With Dartmouth.

Yeah. How did undergarment It was less scientific. I ah applied to 10 schools. Um, didn't get into a lot of them got in Dartmouth. Um, I love the outdoors, and I thought I'd be a really hard experience, which it was, was a big transition freshman year. And I didn't go to a lot of high school,

given that you weren't

at school so hard, but I knew would be good for me. I knew it. Stretch me and I love being on the outdoors, and I wanted the experience of being on these coast for a while.

I know you studied psychology, and so how did you did you have business classes? Did you take business

classes? Yeah. I mean, Dharma, typical liberal arts education is the closest Would've been economics. And I took some economics classes, but I always was drawn to psychology. Just because I Look, I'm fascinated by people in your extra question. I'm very, very extroverted. And it's so key. It turns out in being a CEO is understanding reading people, recruiting people, et cetera.

Yeah. Yeah, well, And you're also one of the most generous CEO is that I've met. I have not met one person that's not like, Oh, yeah, Matt, I mean, you say? Yes, and I don't know how you're continuing to do that. Especially now that you have a baby, you're gonna have to start. I got I got you early. Don't have any more kids. You're gonna have to say no to things.

And so So you went to Dartmouth, and then when you graduated, I know you went to HBs, but you went, Did you do invest in thinking between

I did investment consultant consultant, which was mostly, like, you know, Dartmouth Dartmouth, which was when my clients has, um, a large endowment. You know, endowments. Foundations need to figure out how to do there. And a lot of you know, do it very independently. So dependent on how large the institution was in terms of the service's we provided, but its asset allocation for how they're investing, that it's it's investment manager selection and spending policy, things like that.

And it was really amazing. Amazing clients like the impact that some of them had on disadvantaged Children. There were some of the arts, there were educational institutions, just amazing amazing

place. Was it kind of a necessity for you in your mind to go get an MBA

I was thought of getting MBA. Um, and I even, like, started studying for the G mats and all that in college. Um, because I knew I'd be in business

of something. Were you thinking I'm gonna get an MBA so that I am contributing to the family business? Or were you thinking I already know that I might want to pursue my own

thing? Ah, I didn't know. I didn't know at that point, I just knew would be something broadly and an FBI also includes, like being able to run a non profit more effectively. It's kind of a broader, like business and management. I knew that that was gonna be the route that I headed in that I was very lucky enough. By the way, I was super, super lucky to get into Dartmouth. And I was super lucky to get into Harvard

and something about lucky. Lucky people call themselves lucky.

Ah, there's There was a lot of, like, a lot of privilege, a lot of other things that played into it. And I think that what I've always told myself throughout my life is like, Can I use that fortune and that privilege to hopefully make a bit of a positive

impact on the way. Yeah. Did you have any hardship? Like the kind of dips in your lifeline early

on? Yeah. I mean, there have been challenges, but nothing like a lot of folks face, right? I mean, and that's the great thing about growing up in Boise is you learn how much like privilege has an impact. Like I was starting the youth lobbying organization while, you know, some of my buddies had to work because they needed to pay for their own food in high school. Like and boy, she was not a ethnically debate diverse place, but it was socioeconomically diverse on that also has had a pretty strong, you know, impact on me, because when I say privileges,

things like that, it's a maid. It was so cool. I started the Islamic organization. I could be wrong, but like it was a privilege

to be, of course, because you have the opportunity to have the time to be able to do it exactly. It's like a big deal. Um, okay, so HBs you loved and friends of mine who went there have all said that it's extra good at, um kind of teaching organization and project management. Would you say that That's true? Yeah,

I think it's good at those things. I think the case method eyes also really helpful because half your grade is based on class participation. And I think that's a really good training for business and business. You don't get exams in the middle of the day. You have to insert the right views and move conversations forward. That doesn't mean talking all the time like that's not that HBs, like you did not get good grades if you did that. So I think that I liked that aspect of it. I liked the fact that it's just such an amazing group of people.

Um, are you still in touch? I know you've got your seven besties from high school. What about Dartmouth and HBs?

Yeah, very fortunate. I have, like a very solid group of Dartmouth buddies. Um, and then at Harvard? Yeah, there's a group of us that get together. Um, once a year, we have a reunion this year. So we were just exchanging emails about all sharing a house there. It'll be

fun. It'll be super fun. Are many of your HBs classmates in tech. Or did they go kind of the consulting banking route?

It's a It's a range summer in, um, Tech, like one of my best buddies who ended up living on the same street as me in Seattle. Washington Randomly, that is, um, yeah, we since moved, but, like, we're both Yeah, he works for pitchbook. Um, okay. One of our best friends works for the housing. I think the housing development authority,

um, in New York, like the post Sandy like Hurricane Sandy relief effort, she Holly. And now she's got even a bigger role there. So it's a real range of different

jobs. I think it's great that you've got friends that are doing all sorts of different things. Yeah, And then tell me how you ended up. Ah, working Barclays and Kenya and Linda. I mean, how cool did you raise your hand and say you picked me or did that kind of happen organically?

Yeah. So when I was looking at jobs post Harvard, I wanted to do a general management program So a lot of folks like, assumed that Barclays was an investment making role. But there's corporate banking like providing banking service is to your average business, right? Small business. And then there's retail banking, which is having like a Barclays or, you know, Bank of America. In the U. S. Contacts bank account, I was in their corporate and retail banking and when I was looking at jobs, I looked at a variety of general management rules. But what I was drawn to you at Barclays was the fact that it was international,

which has also been a kind of theme throughout my life. And, um, I got really good advice from the now Dean. He was one of my professors, but now dean of, um, hb Escalate his name's Nick Norah and he was basically like, OK, go, go do Barclays like, But London is like international I really internationally I had done some volunteer work in Africa, and so I just is this conversation stuck with me because after I had been in London for a bit, I took the definite road less traveled with him. The Barkleys, like you don't if you're trying to work your way up in the Barclays like you know mothership,

you don't go to Nairobi, Kenya, and run digital channels for them. It's just far afield. But Newton's, um, advice stuck with me, and I went there and had a great experience in Kenya. And then that's obviously where the idea for remotely

came from. Yeah, and so tell me about that. Like, do you remember the moment when you thought of the idea and who did you first kind of

run it past? The idea was more organic in the sense that like and it's actually much broader than Kenya. Um, the other thing is, as a kid growing up in Boise, but it was really important to my parents that we traveled internationally, and so I've been too close to 100 countries, and we went to places as a young young kid when I was like six or seven years old to a lot of developing countries, and I saw a six year old like how much inequality and how much poverty there was in a lot of developing countries. Thankfully, that trend is like dramatically improving in terms of poverty, But it struck me as a young kid and now fast forward to Kenya, and I saw that Remittances were an enormously huge impactful and sustainable part of pulling people out of poverty, giving people opportunities. And I saw that in Kenya there was also a product called in Peso, which is like a domestic mobile wallet. It was it's transformed.

Financial service is in Kenya. And I was like, Well, why couldn't we use mobile phones to actually, you know, transform the international payments, landscapes, the Western Union and MoneyGram of the world, which is not, at the end of the day, a rocket science idea. But the timing for that was ah was right. And and even over the last Since I started business in 2011 smartphone adoption globally has continued to grow. And people are just trusting smartphones for financialservices.

And as that's how I do my due, like big, huge transactions on my found. Yes, I'm scary. But I'm Michael. I guess this is what

we're doing these days. Exactly. Exactly. And so it's Ah, it was the right time started business. And thankfully, um, I think we've helped a lot of people,

so walk me through starting the business. Yeah. You're in Idaho because you went back to Idaho? Yeah. And why did you go back to Idaho?

So the second part of your question of like was there You give me a nudge or, you know, what was that moment? I do remember vividly sitting on the deck of our place in Kenya, and I was talking to a guy who's been a mentor of mine since I was interned with him in college. Got a Mark Solan, who's now at Techstars Ventures. And he was then the general partner at a venture capital firm, and Boise called Highway to Adventures. And I called him and I said, Here, here's the idea And he just was, like, so just encouraging and was like, Do it, you gotta, like,

go for it. And so I moved back to Boise to be entrepreneur in residence at Highway 12 interest. And I actually and a lot of ways would have loved to build the business in Boise. But I knew, like, very early on a month to Yeah, it's just too. I was the first time entrepreneur. The talent. There's a lot of amazing, amazing people in Boise, but the scale of size, the business we were building, it would have been a pretty pretty big barrier. So that's when we detect stars in Seattle and moved to Seattle.

And did you have, like all entrepreneurs, have that kind of vision and ambition, but also some element of some self doubt around kind of where you're blind spots? Might be, um, did you feel well prepared?

Well, the first part of self doubt absolutely. I think that anybody who doesn't who says they have no self doubt I'm skeptical that I at least Comptel you have self doubt all the time. And that was not just the beginning of the business that goes through every day of every year, and I like that I'm being stretched. But with being stretched definitely comes like self doubt that actually, while we're on that topic, I try to be pretty mean. My job seven years later with close to 800 people worldwide.

And how many

offices for before yet? Yet, But London? Seattle, uh, Nicaragua in the Philippines. Yeah, but every year what I do says my job is so different is I do with unorganized 360 and I put together a development plan and I share that development plan with, you know, a broad set of folks. I went through it verbally with the entire company. So I think it's important to lead by example that like it, maybe it's the other side of self doubt, but more importantly, like we're all growing in developing. And that's a big part of why At least I'm doing a startup is my own. It's personal growth and development. Reasonable. What is making a positive impact on people's lives? Reason number two and I'm very intentional about it is my own growth

development, and so does everyone else do the same thing? This 360 is also

we do have an organized like annual performance reprocess that includes a 360 component. But we want to continue to invest even more and more because there's there's the 360 and then there's development plans. We want to continue as a company to investigate. But ultimately it also has to be employees lead like you can't the best systems and process can't, you know, make someone develop. It has to be employed lead and there has to be that desire toe grow,

develop. Yeah, well, that probably also helps dictate your culture. So you came You did techstars and found cofounders,

yet we had one co founder going in okay, which is a wonderful guy, all three co founder, Still with the business. Seven years in Scherbatsky, Lottie's, uh, joined as a co finding engineer. And then there's my co founder and CEO, Josh Hug. So all three and we met Josh and Textures. But Chivas and I came into Techstars to co

founders. And how did you know that you guys would kind of groove? Did you do any sort of vetting of like, personality assessments are kind of like How do we pick our lane and make sure that we're kind of complimenting one another?

Yeah, I knew I needed someone strong. Technically, you know, it's really important to know what you don't know when I've talked to a lot of folks both technologists and business folks who I think, by definition because they don't know, don't appreciate how hard the other job is. Right. And so I went into it saying, I want the best technologists and product folks because I know virtually nothing about that. At the time, I knew less than nothing, if that's possible, and Shiva's was in Pittsburgh winding down, his previous startup moved out to, uh, came out to Boise.

We we didn't do any personality assessment or anything like that. But every person I met, I, um, spent a lot of time with. So he came out to Boise. We spent a bunch of time together.

And what was your vetting process mentally? Yeah, Like, how did you make sure that you were

aligned? Yeah, well, now there's a lot more structure to it, and I can talk about how we that now, back then, it was more, Um, look at it was always focused on culture, right? I probably couldn't have articulated like, I want someone who has a bias for action and who sweats the details and his data driven and his customer centric. But those were ultimately the things that I was looking

for, right? And what about just Are we on the same page with the direction of the company and what we want to build, and then we want to kind of go big.

Yeah. Yeah, that was always That was always a prerequisite. Um, so that was important. And then I had other folks chat with Shiva's the time around the technical aptitude, but it was a co founder component to so didn't wasn't an interview. Is more of a conversation,

right for sure. And so have the roles changed. And how are you spending your time these days versus those early days?

Yeah, the world's definitely changed. It's, um, you know, the beginning is all almost all directs, kind of individual contribution work. And in a highly regulated, highly complex business like Remittances, I loved that I could have my job. I felt like a CEO was to get all the things like, out of the way in a positive way, like we went. We did all the things right away from a regulatory perspective on all that from Day one, getting licenses in every state like there were so many things like that that I felt like If I can empower the product team to build a phenomenal product, just that's what I was doing. And I was I was deep in that.

Now it's all you know. We've We've been lucky enough to bring in, like, the best of the best in every respect of function. And so it's management. It's it's leadership. It's setting the right culture, its recruiting. It's all those things which everything very different than the early days. But I also left

Do you have? I know that you If you weren't doing this, you could You would be such a killer recruiter because you really are just a connector and you do have a genuine interest in people. Do you have any go to strategies around interviewing or good questions that our listeners could steal?

I mean, the biggest one, which is hard to really make super actionable tomorrow. But I do think it's the most effective is like truly getting to know people over a longer time period, especially with a kind of senior executives were recruiting. Now, um, that's important. And like we just hired the former CM of ancestry is our CMO and I have known Rob for two years. Um, and I wasn't trying to recruit him. I was just getting his advice, you know, when I met him and always kind of caught up with him when I was had time in the Bay Area. And so that's a big one is like playing the long game,

um, and said He's here now in Seattle.

Yeah, he's relocating his family in Seattle.

Yeah, which used That's a hard one to good clothes.

Yeah, he's he's excited and we're so excited. So that's been a lot of the hires. We may have been like that, Um, because it's just hard. I mean, I can tell you our interview process and questions I asked were together. But I really do think it's hard in one conversation to get to know somebody well enough to make a very important decision around executive hires.

Well, maybe it is a couple nuggets around your process and a couple interview questions. And then I really want to understand also the fundraising cause. Raising over 200 million is like, That's That's not nothing. Is this kind of a big deal? Yeah, you're

a big deal. I don't think so. But I surround myself with people who are big deals and a very good That's my secret, um, interview process. I think what's important in a philosophical level is screening on values. So we have First of all, when we talked about culture, we have 14 cultural values. Sounds

like a lot 14. Yep. That's the most I've ever heard. Yeah,

but if you look at a lot of companies like take, um, the Amazon g e se game is honest gamble because we're in Seattle and I don't wanna compare. A stamp is on in terms of the content of our culture. But in the construct for how they embed culture, they have leadership principles. They have something like 14 15 something like that. It's over 10 and I think that they're not. People confuse culture with, like a You gotta memorize those, and that's not what it's about. It's about having a North Star of behaviors, of how people interact, how people get things done that is unique to a company, and every company has them. Some companies just choose to define them on be more intentional about them. And so we have 14 and to be fair, like we refresh them every year.

And I think that's a good idea.

Yeah, because then people actually engage and understand them, too, because if you do have just 14 you

don't engage on and what's the process? You're not engaging. All 800 people on this conversation

are are yeah, we got to figure it out this year, to be honest, because we've grown a lot, but we engaged everybody. The last time we did a refresh. We were a lot smaller.

I just have to, like, take that in ferment it. 800 because I think we've met you. There was, like, five people. We were sitting in a room like the size of the studio. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, it's an amazing team. Would do You have fear around having that money in plays. You know, sometimes for me, I like to know that we're people.

People. You want to know who they are, you wannabe. Have them feel like they have access to you. Idiot. That's hard to dio.

It is. It is, um the ah, we've tried doing some things that ah, still don't The people say we'll never scale, but like once a month. So last night, Um, my wife and I had we always cap It'd about 10 people, but we had about five ish 56 remotely employees, their partners and the kids. And we had a wonderful dinner for, like, two or three hours, and I got to know them and I got another family, so I can't do that with everybody now because we're hiring faster than you know, 10 per month.

We intentionally keep it small because then we actually truly like. We're all around one table, and we get to know each other and so intimate. Yeah, and so, you know, I don't know. Everybody is deep as I used to, but I try to still get to know folks across all levels in a genuine way. Because even if I don't know everybody on the product team or the marketing team were you name it like I've had, you know, several of them over to my house for dinner. It's great

school, Sonia. And that's nice of Emily, too. Is she an ex? An extroverted, an introvert?

She is an extra. Yeah, and it is very nice of her. She is so, so supportive.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, it is like a 50 50 situation here. Yeah, and so what would those employees just ask some random and play who might be kind of slightly removed from you? What words would they use to describe you? Do you think?

Oh, I don't I don't know. Um

what words do you hope they use to describe you?

What words do I hope they would use to describe me? I would say compassionate comes to mind, directs. Inspirational has to be some of the words.

And what about how are those words? Different than how Emily would describe you? I think they're probably pretty pretty similar. Yeah. So you're, like, mad at work is the same as Matt anywhere. Yeah, I think so. So do you have rituals? Do you follow any kind of I get up in the morning. I meditate. I read

I do get up on my best days and meditate. Um,

So you're gonna be that guy? Yeah. Who I want to be when I grow up.

Yeah, It's a little cliche

now, but I have. No, it's not. It's important as a reason why. It's cliche.

Yeah, but I have done it for a long time, and it does bring me kind of balance. I exercise a lot. So this morning I got up and went to hot yoga. Um, I do that a couple times a week. Um, I jog into work, um,

and then shower and we're

Yep. And I jog the yoga too, So I tried it and try to find time, right? Like

to eat right, too.

Ah, no, I don't think so. Running is like, found

time for me. I like it. And so, um, I know I've met your wife Emily a few times. She's lovely and lucky to be married to you, and I'm sure you feel the same way. How did you meet?

Ah, we met at the ah Fremont Abby Arts Center, um, in Fremont, which is where we live for a long time. And then we found each other on Facebook and the rest

is history. That's so cool. And so when And you got married a few years ago. Yep. Now you're a dad. Yep. And how has that changed you? Is it different than what you thought?

It's been wonderful. And she's in Alice about her is getting to the age where she's just like smiling, interacting Maur and just seeing everything in the world with a sense of wonder. And so it's been really fun to see the world through her

eyes. Now, yeah,

it's the best. So just like, present in the moment. And she's just a cool kid. Like yesterday. We had some flight issues coming back from Idaho the day before, and the flight was canceled. We go to bed at, like, midnight. We get up it 3:30 a.m. Pacific 4:30 a.m. Mountain Get delayed on the tarmac again Fly back land Just rolling, rolling

with it. I'm sure you got so many comments hunt the plane because everybody looks like Oh, no, next to the baby. And you're like, Just kidding. You're not? Yeah, she's Superman.

And this dinner we hosted last night too. I think she's an extra because his dinner we have the last night too.

She was like, Hey, everybody has it gone Looking around, Um and so I'm going all over the place because I feel like as I told you, this podcast is kind of all of you. So not just you, the CEO of remotely view the dad. You the friend? Um, you the activist. I love all the things that you're so passionate about your clearly like awake and paying attention to the world. And, um, do you have someone that you would say? Kind of really inspired? You have read the It's your grandma has a real inspiration.

Yes, Some of the folks that first come to mind terms of who have inspired me are my grandma. My dad wrote a book about my grandma called, and the title is something my grandma used to always say was, which was it will all work out. And so certainly my grandmother on my dad's side is who we're talking about right now. Jane often ever. She was definitely an inspiration to me. My grandmother on my mom's side was also like, huge, like she was born in Nebraska, I believe. And during the Dust Bowl with, like, 12 siblings, um, got in the back of a van and drove west looking for work with her family.

They picked cotton in California. They like, um, tried to make ends meet and eventually landed in Boise, where she met my grandfather and they were married for 50 plus years. She always had such a just both. My gram grandmother's like, optimistic can do attitude like me. My grandmother, My dad's side had, like, polio. Um, it was put in a full body cast, like the trials that they went through. I feel like I just have so much respect and admiration for so they come to mind.

Actually, Justus humans, my dad comes to mind my uncle, my aunt on my on my dad's side. Deanna Oppenheimer. She is amazing. Mentor.

Wait. Did I just hear her speak? Is she here in Seattle? Oh, yeah. Okay. That's your aunt. She's fantastic. Did the board

list yet? Board ready. Born ready? Yeah. Yeah. She was one of the speakers. Yeah. So she is huge. She's She's been a We've been close since

that this final.

Yeah, and she's so she's just I talked to her all the time about right management leadership issues because she's managed hundreds of thousands of people, so she comes to mind. Um, So there's so many people and a lot of like a lot.

A lot of females, I'm sure your mom and yeah, that's awesome.

Totally my mom. Like it's a lot of family, actually.

That's really cool. That's your foundation right there. Yeah, that's that is a privilege to have not just the privilege of any sort of socioeconomic privilege, but just the positive energy around you. Totally. Exactly. So you it can help you be fearless as a leader. Yeah, that's great. Oh, and what about other CEOs Any that you would love to have coffee with?

Ah, it's a good question. How do you think that, um, Warren Buffett Interestingly, I've always felt like he is a very thoughtful, very humble, very grounded. And I know you're obviously more of an investor than a CEO, but like he's been someone who I've

always admired. Yeah, if you just had a free day to yourself. You're an extrovert. Said probably with other people. But what would you want to be doing?

Yeah, probably go and do a long run. Get up in the morning, Have my cup of tea. Um, do my kind of meditation. Morning routine. Going a long run, maybe. Also do some yoga, like I feel so much better. And then I'm also an early bird, like I get up super early, so I'd probably come home, and Alison Emily would be getting up that mess. It's, like, four.

And you literally get

up it for No, not for, but I get up early. Yeah, I'd hang out with them, um, go adventuring and do something with them. If I woke up a little bit later, I'm going to run with Alice, which

is so profound. And so what do you, um, hope for Alice? Like, what kind of world are you hoping you can help inspire?

I mean first for her, and then I'll talk about the world. She lives, and I hope that she lives a life of happiness and it's full of adventure, and I think that there's a lot of things I hoped for. But that's what comes to mind in terms the world she lives in. And I think the role I hope she'll play is part of it. Is, um, having compassion? I feel like is like one of the most important things, especially in today's world, that there's so much divisiveness so much there's them and there's us. And I think that, um, part of how I was raised and grew up in meeting a lot of different type of people It's just one of my favorite things about life. I hope that she also has a desire to truly get to know people that are different than her,

because we gotta unwind the US and them mentality in so many different ways, like you can pick whatever example of that in today's world comes to mind and start like talking because fundamentally, I think people are good and fundamentally I think people want to solve problems and people want to solve similar problems. Sometimes they'll be disagreements. And I hope that Alice Conjoined that conversation is opposed to the US and them mentality that

concern me, Man. It's a huge concern. I completely agree. And so the question that I always ask people on this because the name of the podcast and the reason why I started it is what fuels you. I think

what fuels me is I mean, purpose comes to mind, but also just relationships comes to mind like I and very like a the end of the day at the end of life. I really believe that at the end of the day, we have relationships, and those I think are most important in most poignant and a family. But they also extend far beyond that. My dad's actually was said that it's like the end of day. Life is all about relationships, not about money. It's not about not every more and so like, I think what fuels me was released last night like is that I didn't get much sleep in there before We had this dinner with, you know, um, a group of millions at our house and like I was loving it cause I was like, getting to know them on a personal level. That's what fuels, man.

Yeah. So this podcast probably resonates for you because that's what this is. And yet 100%. What drove me to even do this is that I'm wired the same way. Um, and I feel like it's fun for others to get to know you who would want to otherwise grab coffee with you. So hopefully this has enlightened our listeners to be able to know Matt up on hammer a little bit better. I know it's been

fun for me. Know this has been fun. Thanks

for doing this. I think it's really, really cool, you know? Thank you for participating. I might ask you to come back because you're I'm sure we're gonna have fun watching you this year and in years to come. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the wet fuels. You podcast. Be sure to subscribe. Rate and review on iTunes. Google podcasts are Spotify and follow us on social media To keep up with the latest news and episodes, you can also contact us at podcast at fuel talent dot com to provide feedback, ask questions and share topics or guests you would like us to cover in the future. We hope you feel inspired by our guests and that we have helped fuel your day. Join us next time for another episode of what fuels you.