Matt Williams (born August 21, 1972 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

) is an American Internet entrepreneur and the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Pro.com. Previous positions include CEO of Digg.com, executive roles at

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at venture capital firm

Andreessen Horowitz AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of M ...

Early life and education

Williams was born in

, and grew up in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

, attending

Shorecrest High School Shorecrest High School is a public high school (grades 9 through 12) in Shoreline, Washington, United States, one of two high schools in the Shoreline School District. Shorecrest was founded in 1961. Its mascot is Otis the Fighting Scot and stud ...

near

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

. His parents were both entrepreneurs: his father starting radio stations, including KUBE 93.3 in Seattle and his mother starting Lake Forest Park Montessori in North Seattle. Williams graduated from the

Eller College of Management The Eller College of Management (Eller) is a business school at the University of Arizona located in Tucson, Arizona. The Eller College of Management began in 1913 as bachelor's degree program in commerce before becoming the University of Arizona ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

Career

LiveBid.com

In 1996 Williams and high-school friend Sky Kruse cofounded Seattle-based LiveBid.com, a proprietary software site that partnered with traditional auction houses to stream their events online, allowing Internet bidders to participate in bidding. The firm was acquired by Amazon in 1999.

Amazon

Williams remained at Amazon until 2010, he occupied several executive roles, including General Manager of Payments. He was responsible for early iterations of various web products, including Amazon's Selling on Amazon and WebStore by Amazon. In 2001, Williams initiated a partnership between Amazon and the Annual Today Show Holiday Drive, a project of the Today Show Charitable Foundation, Inc. The partnership allowed Amazon customers to select and purchase a wish list of toy products for needy children from the site.

Digg.com

In September 2010, Williams became CEO of social news aggregator

Digg.com Digg (stylized in lowercase as digg) is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select articles specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launc ...

. He inherited a number of challenges: the technically marred release of site redesign Digg v4 had resulted in a decline in customer usage and an alienation of the site's core audience; at the same time, changes in the internet milieu - most particularly

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

's search algorithm - had made Digg's news aggregation model less relevant. After the departure of former CEO

Jay Adelson Jay Steven Adelson (born September 7, 1970) is an American entrepreneur, Internet entrepreneur. In 2014 Adelson co-founded Center Electric with Andy Smith (entrepreneur), Andy Smith. In 2013 he founded Opsmatic, a technology company that improves ...

, founder

Kevin Rose Robert Kevin Rose (born 1977) is an American entrepreneur, Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk. He also served as production assistant and co-host at TechTV's ''The Screen Savers''. From 2012 to 2015, he was ...

had run the company, making Williams the company's third CEO within a span of months. During Williams' tenure, the firm's metrics began to rebound. Site engagement increased significantly: Diggs and time on site by 20%, the total number of comments submitted per day by 50%. Despite this, the company's burn rate remained high, resulting in layoffs of 40% of staff and cuts in operational costs in order to approach cash flow positive in 2011. In July 2012, Williams completed the sale of Digg in three parts: some staff members were transferred to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

s SocialCode project for $12 million, a suite of patents were sold to

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

for $4 million, and the Digg brand and website was sold to

Betaworks Betaworks Studio, LLC is an American startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused media businesses. Its hybrid investor/builder model has led to both investments in fast-growing st ...

for stock plus at least $500,000 cash.

Pro.com

In mid-2013, Williams became CEO of the Internet startup Pro.com, a home services marketplace where users receive instant price estimates from home professionals and schedule appointments online.

Other activities

In 2012 Williams became

Entrepreneur in Residence An entrepreneur in residence, or executive in residence (EIR), is a position commonly held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. Typically, the EIR has le ...

at the venture capital firm

. Williams is a Member of the Board of Directors for SmartThings.

References

External links

Pro.com website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Matt 1972 births Living people 21st-century American businesspeople American technology chief executives Amazon (company) people University of Arizona alumni