Matt Mandell is the owner of Raincoats, Inc and the managing partner of GAM Payments, LLC and the founder of DCSnacks.com and Store4Summer.com. An entrepreneur in the true sense of the word, Matt founded his first company, Spotlight Productions, in 1993 as the age of 12. Spotlight Productions provided lights, music and fun foods for public and private events of all sizes throughout New Jersey and New York.
By 2008, Fox Business News was profiling Matt for a national program to teach students about entrepreneurship. Since then, he has also been widely publicized in both print and the media, and Matt has cropped up in Bon Appetit, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Washington Post Express, DCist.com, Fox 5, Fine Living Network, WTOP, NPR, Splendid Table, Campus CEO, Campus Technology, DailyCandy, and many other blogs.
To date, Matt has acquired, licensed, purchased, operated and sold companies. His experience spans eCommerce, moving, fashion, manufacturing, public health, entertainment and foodservice industries. He has managed a wide range of contractors and staff both local and remote.
He is a mentor at The Founder Institute and has literally spoken around the world, giving talks in international cities such as Berlin, Brussels, Paris, and Singapore. He has also served as a board member of multiple Entrepreneurs Organization chapters and Entrepreneurial Studies Education Group. Among his other memberships, you can find him involved in the Web Analytics Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Email Experience Council.
Before he became the entrepreneur he his now, Matt spent six years as a member of the Volunteer Ambulance Corps in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey as well as Emergency Medical Response Group in Washington, D.C., amassing more than 3000 hours of community service riding on an ambulance. An avid guitar player, Matt also chose to spend a week with luthier Frank Finocchio and hand-built an acoustic steel string guitar in the summer of 2002.
When he’s not creating new startups or mentoring companies or other entrepreneurs, Matt’s interests include playing guitar, music, travel, technology, food, art, architecture, design, and film.