Venturing into the Future of Work
In August, I hit my one year anniversary as an investor at Moment Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the Future of Work. Once the imposter syndrome (mostly) subsided, I’ve had a chance to reflect on my journey thus far. I hope it sheds some light on me as a person as well as what we’re excited about at Moment.
If you take a look at my background, you may be wondering what the son of a chicken farmer (hi mom!) and doctor (hi dad!) who studied chemical engineering (ray Bucknell!) and worked as a management consultant is doing at a Future of Work focused venture firm. Let’s unpack that…
My mother grew up in the rural Catskill Mountains of New York (upstate for those in NYC or Long Island but downstate for those in Syracuse and Rochester). Her parents, my grandparents, owned a “small” 20,000-chicken farm in the area made re-famous by the summer camps in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. My mom walked 5 miles to school and 5 miles back (apparently both ways were uphill), and helped my grandmother for several hours each day on the farm with tasks like candling eggs by hand (performed quality control checks, no cracks or blemishes allowed). As my grandfather got older, the family had to either adopt technology and scale up the farm, or shutdown forever. My mother and her three brothers had other ambitions. Hard to believe, but clearing out chicken droppings and chasing roosters around wasn’t the most romantic occupation for teenagers. So, they closed the business and demolished the chicken coops. My mom received an associate’s degree from a local state college, went into accounting, met my dad, headed to Manhattan, and the rest, as they say, is history.
My dad, who grew up in The Bronx, was the son and grandson of retail fish market owners. My grandfather, great-grandfather, and great uncle all had rival stores at one point (food-for-thought for a business school case). In similar fashion to my mom’s family, my dad and his brother both decided to become doctors and the Divack fish business ended.
Enter me (yes I’m back in the story now!), a lanky middle-schooler who preferred mathletes to the physical labor my grandparents endured. After freaking out from one too many medical television shows, I decided the doctor path was not for me. With no farm, fish market, or medical school applications on my desk, I had an open slate. I became enamored with applied math and science, fell in love with chemistry (thanks Mr. Bickford) and majored in Chemical Engineering. In truth, I picked it because I heard it was the hardest major at my school, plus I got to (accidentally) blow things up.
After graduating at the top of my class, without being too adept in the actual chem lab, I sought out management consulting to spend a few years testing different companies and roles. I specialized in software at pharmaceutical companies because I was able to speak both medical (thanks Dad!) and engineering talk. At Accenture, I learned how large organizations operate, as well as the plethora of inefficiencies they hired us to fix. That was where the Future of Work first took hold for me…
I spent most of my time helping sales and marketing teams automate and digitize slow, pen-and-paper processes. I designed and configured tools to streamline operations. We helped traditional, antiquated industries, such as pharma, financial services, and book publishing, adopt cloud software for the first time. I was able to travel the globe and witness firsthand how large, incumbent companies struggled to adopt digital tools.
After leaving Accenture, I worked at a boutique consulting firm, Acquis Consulting Group, and had the privilege-of-a-lifetime to hold a chief-of-staff / program management role at an emerging biotech startup, Avexis. We created the most widely used gene therapy in the world, treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy, one of the most awful, deadly genetic diseases. We reengineered how the company operated, improved communications, and helped them meet critical developmental timelines. After working with their c-suite executives and board members as we grew and ultimately went public, I became enamored with aiding and advising organizations through hyper growth.
To bring the strands of my career together, I left my home state of New York, moved with my fiancé (now wife) to the west coast, and embarked on an MBA at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business (go Bears!). I studied the ins and outs of venture capital and entrepreneurship. As my time at Haas was coming to an end (and as my dream of becoming a VC was fading), I stumbled upon two unassuming and engaging people at a networking event. Upon hearing about the upcoming launch of their latest fund, and their specific definition of the Future of Work, a lightbulb went off inside. I could finally combine my family background, schooling, and work experiences to reshape my career. Better yet, I could help budding entrepreneurs looking to reimagine industries. I told them they needed to interview me. I met them in Palo Alto the following week, and we were off to the races.
Fast forward 18 months, although the world is quite a different place, my belief in our thesis has never been greater. I’ve had the opportunity to diligence investments we’ve made in mental health, consumer packaged goods, and e-commerce. I continue to be amazed by the incredible entrepreneurs I have the privilege to meet and the businesses they are creating. If you can change the internal, day-to-day operations of an industry by using technology in a new way (which is no easy feat as I’ve experienced several times over), you will alter that industry forever.
I’m thrilled to continue venturing in the Future of Work. I’m looking for those farmers, fishermen, doctors, construction workers, and (enter your profession here) who are leveraging software to transform their way of working. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if any of this story strikes a chord with you.
Matt Divack is a Senior Associate at Moment Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on the Future of Work. You can reach/follow him on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
