A life of entrepreneurial adventures
Early career
Matt Hagger, born in England, is the founder of E-Man and a pioneer of product strategy and development in the field of web and mobile technology.
Before starting E-Man, Matt developed the first ever business directory for Cambridge during his summer holidays; introducing the web to 250 local businesses and giving Cambridge its first real web presence.
The company was acquired a year later.
Matt’s next venture, aged 22, was a pioneering project on the real-time (dial-up) web which triggered news alerts to the desktop of users’ personal computers as a solution to prioritising information.
Net Sorcerer technology, which he patented and raised $500,000 in research and development funds from Cambridge University Science Park, St Johns Innovation Centre, later became desktop news alerts for media companies across the UK, such as Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB.
Matt was invited some 15 years later after to mentor to other graduates and academics who have since received funding from St Johns Innovation Centre.
(Pictured on the left at Web Summit in 2008 with fellow brit Tim Berners-Lee, and creator of the world wide web)
A Pioneer in Mobile
The development of the web from dial-up to broadband and desktop to smart mobile devices generated a flurry of new ideas that Matt decided to pursue. First was a co-founder of the BlueWisdom team: the first Bluetooth smartphone app for connected people nearby to run on the first windows mobile device in 2004. Pre-GPS, in partnership with Phillips Microsystems.
Location and camera capability then led to the development of Zkatter in 2008, a concept for real-time capturing video and photo moments from locations into a feed, similar in theory to Instagram, except the metadata behind the moment of capture determined when it was discovered. This idea was hatched years in advance of the Smartphone revolution we see today. In 2010, Zkatter raised funding from Samsung and partnered with the company to help launch the mobile giant’s native smartphone platform, Bada.
Matt helped support the launch of Bada through alpha and beta stages, and created one of the first three Android applications ever made, when the Android team led by UI designer Romain Guy consisted of just six people.
Matt is pictured on the right with a G1 prototype in 2008 with Google founder Sergey Brin.
Matt’s other companies
Beyond Net Sorcerer and Zkatter, Matt’s other companies owned and incubated inside E-Man are Save The HighStreet, Jo, Zoomdoc, Wise Amigo, Tiipr, Snatch, Passport Power, Construo and My Switch Pro, Burn This and Ugenie.
E-Man, since its incorporation in 2000, has provided a Matt with a venture studio in which to create his own ideas and partner with world-class founders and corporations. This legacy has seen the creation of over 2,000 careers, as companies that were once just ideas brainstormed at E-Man with Matt and their co-founders raised capital in excess of $400m to support their growth.
E-Man built up a world-class ecosystem with many technology leaders, such as Tim Berners Lee and Steve Wozniak, backing the company’s process and ability to deliver significant value to early-stage ideology.
This has led to the creation of the E-Man Venture Fund, an early stage S/EIS fund launched to back innovation at the earliest stage. E-Man has also expanded into Los Angeles in order to help provide support to scale the companies it hatches in London, faster.
Pictured on a business trip to London with Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak on a flight from Silicon Valley.
Investing, Mentoring & Recognition
In addition to this, Matt has invested in and advised a number of high-growth technology startups. Matt is currently a shareholder/investor in over 20 companies based in Europe and California and under E-Man Asset Management Ltd. Outside of his entrepreneurial endeavours, Matt has mentored and consulted many startups and large organizations on the subject of technology and product strategy -- from companies such as the NHS, Disney, BBC, Mastercard to the very best early-stage startups in Europe and the USA.
Matt has been recognised for his work nationally in the UK. In 2009, Matt was named a Young Gun: The top 30 Entrepreneurs under 35. He is the only entrepreneur to be featured in the SMARTA 100 two years running with separate ventures -- Bizk.it being the overall winner in 2009! In 2010, Matt was the winner of Samsung's World Developer Challenge, netting $100k in prize money and in 2012, the year of the London Olympics, Matt won the British Airways-sponsored technology award category and was named one of six 'Great Britons' who would be backed to pursue their dreams by the airline, being sponsored to travel across the world.
Matt and his companies have been featured in many publications including Techcrunch, The Guardian, and BBC click, ITV, Venture Beat, The Sun, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, The Independent and many more.
Outside of Entrepreneurship
Matt is a keen musician and broadcaster. Before starting E-Man, Matt started a retail wholesale business aged 16, also designing board games. He then created and sold a music magazine, before rounding off his teenage years as front-man for indie rock band Gravel.
Matt later had a BBC radio show on Thursday mornings discussing technology with a mainstream audience and enjoys interviewing his friends. Matt remains curious, open to change and passionate about big data, AR and collaboration and its empowerment upon the movement and synchronisation of humanity through technology.
Matt dreams of a decentralised efficiency grid harnessing time and space, combining mapping with logistics and the maximisation of inventory usage, to optimise our time on earth.
Matt has a faith bigger than himself and needs every ounce of this as a lifelong West Ham United season ticket holder :)
Find Matt on all social channels: @matthagger
