About
I am a Partner at Grit Capital (www.grit.vc), investing in early stage fintech and martech companies. Previously I was a VP of Business Development at American Express, which acquired my third startup, BodesWell, in June of 2022. Before that, I co-founded Yesware (acquired by Vendasta) and worked in executive roles in software startups, including Vivox (acquired by Unity) and Floodgate (acquired by Zynga). My first startup, WGR Media, was acquired by CNET Networks in 2004. I earned my B.A from Naropa University and my M.B.A. magna cum laude from The Olin School for Business at Babson College.I have practiced meditation for (way) more than 25 years. I currently teach mindfulness, compassion and wisdom practices at mindfulaware.com and Natural Dharma Fellowship.
Experience
Partner
Grit Capital Partners · Boston, MA
Present
Investing in early stage fintech and martech companies: * Monark Markets - Alts as a Service platform unlocking privates for broker dealers. Raised $8m seed with F-Prime in Feb 2026. * Averi.ai - AI Content Engine for startups * Mesh-Platform.com - AI reg tech for the $12 trillion mortgage servicing industry
Vice President of Business Development
American Express · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Integrated BodesWell into American Express. Learned a bit about running a bank.
Co-Founder & Ceo
BodesWell · Remote
BodesWell.io created self-service financial planning software so financial institutions can extend the benefits of planning to the 86 million US households who don’t already have a financial advisor. American Express purchased BodesWell in June of 2022. Read more on that here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bodeswell-acquired-american-express-matthew-bellows/
Member of the Board of Advisors
MIT Sloan School of Management Mindfulness & Leadership Group
The Mindfulness and Leadership organization at MIT's Sloan School of Business was creating a space for the next generation of principled business leaders to explore the intersection between mindfulness and leadership. https://sloangroups.mit.edu/mindfulnessleadership/home/
Founder & Chairman of the Board
After eight years serving as CEO, I supported the growth of Yesware as Chairman of the Board through our acquisition by Vendasta.
Founder & Ceo
Yesware, Inc. · Greater Boston Area
Yesware helped sales people and sales managers reach more prospects and close more deals. Over 60,000 salespeople at companies like Yelp, eBay, Acquia, Groupon, Salesforce.com and Zendesk used Yesware every day. We were one of the first B2B SaaS companies to figure out Product Led Growth. Our company raised a total of $50m from Battery Ventures, Google Ventures and Foundry Group.
Vice President of Sales
* Served on executive team as we grew from 7 million to 27 million users. * Helped close third round of financing from IDG, Benchmark, Canaan Partners * Sold to Unity in Jan 2019
General Manager
• Responsible for sales, marketing and operations of leading videogame developer • Signed deals with Yahoo!, Disney, Electronic Arts, Nokia, Sony BMG, and Microsoft • Spoke at GDC, SXSW, E3, CTIA, Harvard and MIT • Helped sell Floodgate to Zynga - March 2011
Vp Mobile Entertainment
• Integrated my team into CNET after sale of WGR Media • Launched GameSpot Mobile, the most popular mobile games resource on the web • Signed content distribution deals with Verizon Wireless, Cingular, AOL and MSN • Served as co-chairman for the Game Developer Conference Mobile program (recording of one talk here: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1013277/World-Tour-of-Mobile-Innovations)
Co-Founder, Ceo
WGR Media, Inc.
• Co-founded first media company covering mobile entertainment • Closed deals with Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Qualcomm, Nokia, Yahoo! and many others. • Sold WGR Media to CNET Networks in 2004.
Director of Business Development
Engage Inc.
• Managed partnerships with over 4,000 websites worth $68 million in annualized revenue • Led seven person team that built company’s fastest growing media network • Developed business specifications for email advertising network
Education
Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business
MBA, Entrepreneurial & High Tech Marketing
Harvard University
Tibetan, Sanskrit
Naropa University
BA, Buddhist and Western Psychology, Buddhist Studies
Brown University
Writing, Environmental Studies
Phillips Andover
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