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A born and bred New Yorker turned Torontonian who has lived on three continents, Matt McGowan has worked alongside founders, executives, venture capitalists, private equity professionals and others representing some of the world\u2019s best known and hundreds of lesser known companies.<\/p>\n
McGowan, General Manager, Canada at Snapchat, was born and raised in New York City. He went to school there and high school in the Bronx and college in rural Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in about 900 square feet with two brothers and two parents, a dog and a cat. So room was at a premium you might say. Didn\u2019t spend alot of time at home. At home everyone was fighting for who could get the extra inch,\u201d said McGowan.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we were out and about a lot. Education took place in the playgrounds, the parks, the school. I\u2019d come home to shower and go to bed. Growing up on the streets of New York City is like a whole other level of education. It\u2019s hard to explain. Especially in the 70s and the 80s.\u201d<\/p>\n What did he learn on those streets that helped him in his career?<\/p>\n \u201cA few things. I think the big one is that no decision is a decision. Indecision is a decision. If you take what you\u2019re given, you deserve what you get,\u201d he said. \u201cExcuses don\u2019t matter. You\u2019ve got to go for it in life.<\/p>\n \u201cNew York is a crowded place. If I didn\u2019t go in to play basketball like in the park someone else would and I wouldn\u2019t have gotten the opportunity. If I didn\u2019t like raise my hand, agree to participate, someone else would. There were so many people. You had to figure out how to know what you need. Assertive for sure. Definitely.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso open minded. I think that was the biggest thing. We used to call New York the melting pot of the world. And I think it\u2019s a lot like Toronto is today to be fair. But New York was a lot of different people from a lot of different places all put in a really tight place and you had to learn how to negotiate, how to work with individuals. You were never alone. I was never alone growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n He went to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was known for its engineering background and he was an engineer early on. The college also had a strong hockey team where McGowan played.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t apply early to colleges. I didn\u2019t know where I wanted to go. I couldn\u2019t make a decision which ended up becoming a decision. The Director of Admissions at Lafayette College met with me which I thought was cool. I met with the woman responsible for admissions. And as I\u2019m walking out of her office she said \u2018let me leave you with one thing\u2019. And I\u2019ll never forget it to this day. \u2018You can go to a university anytime. You can only go to a small college once because colleges don\u2019t have graduate programs\u2019,\u201d said McGowan.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was deciding between Lafayette and some larger universities like Purdue I chose Lafayette because this is a once a lifetime opportunity. If I don\u2019t go now I\u2019ll never go back.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, math and sciences were always his strength. He thought he would become a chemical engineer. When he wanted to go abroad, he switched to business economics and he thought he was going to end up going to Wall Street, which he eventually did and worked for a few\u00a0 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what always attracted me to engineering was building something and on Wall Street I found that I was trading other people\u2019s kind of hard work. For me, I really wanted to build something. I got transferred to the San Francisco desk in 1998. San Francisco was going through a renaissance you might say at the time with all these tech opportunities. I quickly gave up a very well paying Wall Street job and rolled up my sleeves and tried to build something on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, McGowan is the General Manager of Snap Inc. in Canada, the technology company and augmented reality (AR) leader behind Bitmoji, Snapchat and Spectacles. He is also a Partner in an early stage venture capital firm, C2 Ventures, sits on several Boards, and volunteers his time as a mentor at both Techstars and Elevate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previously, he served as President and a member of the Board of Directors at Adestra, an enterprise Marketing Automation Platform which was acquired by Upland Software in Dec 2018. Prior to Adestra, McGowan focused on expanding Google and YouTube\u2019s leadership in the advertising and marketing space. He has also held leadership positions at Incisive Media (acquired), PropertyRoom.com, Headland Digital Media (acquired), and Charles Schwab Inc.<\/p>\n He also has a Master\u2019s from the University of Oxford.\u00a0<\/p>\n How does a Wall Street professional end up where he is today?<\/p>\n \u201cIt has all to do with San Francisco in the late 90s. I was in the minority there as a Wall Street guy and everyone else was building on this thing they called the internet,\u201d he said, adding he had a background in computers and during college he had a business building websites for offline businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just all kind of fit together. I spent a lifetime until about the age of 22 figuring out things I didn\u2019t want to do . . . I was peeling back layers of the onion so to speak for a few years saying I don\u2019t want to be on Wall Street.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be an engineer. I don\u2019t want to be this. And then boom I saw my peers building these really kind of innovative future looking businesses on this thing called the internet. And I said that\u2019s what I want to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI built a career since then \u2013 over half my life \u2013 working with founders building digital products and digital businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n McGowan described himself as a \u201ctransparent servant leader\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBy servant leader, I mean I like to flip the org chart upside down. When I started out on Wall Street the head of the trading floor told me it was our job to make him look good,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to make him look good we had to do all these things and that was how we dressed, how we showed up. What I learned quickly, I\u2019m an older brother of two younger brothers, all in the same room and I found that leadership came natural to me. They always looked up to me because I was older and had gone through whatever it was with my parents or with the teachers, the community, neighbours, whatever,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI quickly found that I don\u2019t want my team to make me look good. I think the best leaders help make their team look good. So we flipped the org chart upside down. It\u2019s my job as a leader to make sure that everyone in this office knows what\u2019s expected of them and when. And that they have the freedom to get that job done and that I\u2019m open-minded enough to realize that they may have a better way.<\/p>\n \u201cI get enjoyment out of watching our business grow and watching those who are growing our business grow in their roles and into new roles. I get enjoyment out of watching (my) kids grow and learning how to do things themselves . . . Those things all add enjoyment to my life and give me a sense of accomplishment that allows me to feel like I\u2019m doing something of value.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/retailinsider.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/London-Engalnd-2006_Incisive-Media.png\")
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