Greenville, South Carolina
Matt
Cook
Digital strategist and director
I work across product and marketing, usually when the work is important, ambiguous, or new. I work with leadership to define the strategy, shape the first thing worth shipping, and align the people who can carry it forward.
The internet isgetting weirder.
AI is changing the operating model for digital. Small teams can do work that once required 20 people. The giant web AOR is disappearing. Startups get to working software sooner, using natural language and sharp insight. Design is becoming more bespoke again. The internet can be stranger, more beautiful, and less standardized. Brand matters more because creating is getting cheaper.
But easier creation makes differentiation harder. Search is weakening as LLMs become a new interface between people and companies. Increasingly, companies have to earn attention from both users and machines.
The questions are changing: What still needs a human? What should be accelerated? How do we compete for brain space while delivering real value? How do you build AI-native experiences that aren’t just chat? How do you design around outcomes instead of walls of generated text? What comes after pages, apps, prompts, and mom-and-pop SAAS? How do you become useful, distinctive, and memorable when software is easier to make and attention is harder to earn?
The old pressures remain: grow, launch, evolve, become more valuable.
Programs
A few programs.
Different problems,
different roles.
- 01
IVERSON
Strategy, production, and programs
Brought in for a high-stakes, confidential engagement that needed clarity and momentum. That work has grown into an ongoing role across strategy, production, brand, and digital initiatives.
- 02
National Design Studio
Digital strategy and production
Directed a multinational design and engineering team through a compressed, high-stakes launch, keeping strategy, production, and client decisions aligned across time zones.
- 03
Toast
AI strategy, product direction, and marketing
Advising senior marketing leadership on how AI is reshaping marketing, brand, audience strategy, and proprietary data. From prompt architecture and early tools to AI-native experiences, data strategy, and new ways of designing and shipping.
- 04
Galaxy Digital
Product strategy and design operations
Spent nearly two years shaping a trading product from its earliest stages: originating the design strategy, introducing testing with traders, and building the product-design operating rhythm alongside the lead designer.
Index
Client index
| No. | Organization | Assignment |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Adobe Lightroom | Marketing website strategy and design |
| 02 | Cargill | Branded feed-products app |
| 03 | Cornell University | Digital design system and website redesign |
| 04 | Dragon Alliance | Ecommerce redesign and rebuild |
| 05 | ESPN | 30 for 30 teaser website |
| 06 | Faith and Liberty | Trail app strategy, design, and build |
| 07 | Fan Controlled Football | App, website, UX, and content strategy |
| 08 | Galaxy Digital | Digital product |
| 09 | Content systems, prototyping tools, and Android R&D | |
| 10 | Grantland | Website design and build |
| 11 | IFTTT | Digital design system and website redesign |
| 12 | Land id | Go-to-market strategy |
| 13 | Louisville Fund for the Arts | Research and mobile app UX |
| 14 | Mailchimp | Email design prototyping |
| 15 | Microsoft | Halo 5 marketing website |
| 16 | The New York Times | Paywall strategy and design |
| 17 | Nike Vision | Technology discovery and email strategy |
| 18 | The Parker Foundation | Portfolio platform and healthcare R&D |
| 19 | Radio Free Europe | Website design and development |
| 20 | Reading Is Fundamental | Content strategy, design, and development |
| 21 | Sony | Gran Turismo marketing website |
| 22 | Specialized Bicycles | Venge and SBCU websites |
| 23 | Tinywins | Marketing production for a medical venture |
| 24 | Toast | Marketing, publishing, ecommerce, and data strategy |
| 25 | Walmart | Grocery website, lockers, prototyping, and branding |
Background
How I got here.
I started at a small design studio, left to get my MBA at Clemson, then cut my teeth helping my friend Dan build his web agency SuperFriendly. After that, I joined my friend Jamie as he built Arbitrary, a creative technology studio. Between the two, I ran projects for Google, ESPN, The New York Times, and plenty more.
From there I built and sold my own digital agency, became a partner in Atlas Local, and helped grow Really Good Emails to more than a million annual visitors before its acquisition. I still like starting things, including Grok Conf, Parliament Social Club, and another venture that’s staying quiet for now.
Today I work independently across strategy, direction, and delivery. Increasingly, I’m brought in early to help leadership decide what should happen, shape the strategy, get it into market, and give the team enough clarity to carry it forward.
Field notes
From collaborators.
“I have worked with Matt across a number of digital, creative and strategic initiatives that have been critical to Toast's growth. In every initiative he has overachieved our expectations by bringing a rare balance of data, customer insight and creative vision to the table to produce innovative solutions that overperform on our KPIs and challenge our standard way of thinking.”
“Matt should write a book about leading teams of smart people to create something out of nothing.”
“Matt knits together and leads teams of super talented people to make award winning websites and products. You should pay him to do this for you, too.”
“This f#$@!%ing guy.”