We are excited to announce the first Matter class!

After an extremely competitive and rigorous selection process, we have invested in six ventures that we believe will change media for good:

ChannelMeter – A professional video analytics platform for publishers and brands focused on maximizing and engaging their audiences in online video.

InkFold – Creating a daily news experience designed to inspire curiosity and spark conversation.

OpenWatch – An investigative network for creating a just society through radical transparency.

SpokenLayer – Bringing human voice to the best of the written web.

StationCreator – Democratizing television through a platform where anyone can distribute their own 24-hour broadcast station online.

Zeega – Revolutionizing web publishing and interactive storytelling for a future beyond blogs.

These are rockstar hackers, hustlers, designers, and storytellers on a mission.

We selected them because of their potential to leverage scalable entrepreneurship to create a more informed, connected, and empowered society.

We are excited to bring these teams together to work elbow to elbow in our space in San Francisco to push each other, to give each other feedback, and to share expertise throughout this four-month journey. Not only do these teams have synergies because they work in complementary spaces across media, but they also bring deep and diverse skill sets and networks that each team can leverage.

We kicked off the program on Feb. 25 with a week-long intensive bootcamp focused on design-thinking and early-stage entrepreneurship. That set a solid foundation for the community by building a common vocabulary around user-centered, prototype-driven design process and culture.

Now, we have 100 days to Demo Day. Where you see the teams now is just a snapshot in time. Each team will constantly iterate on its product, its distribution strategy, and its business model by getting out into the world, testing its assumptions, and gaining traction with their customers. Each day they will be a step closer to hitting the sweet spot of feasibility, viability, and desirability.

The adventure has just begun.

This is where the values of public media meet the mindsets of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship.

Our values are rooted in storied media institutions that have been producing media that matters for decades – media that stands for something and creates a strong, positive signal in the ever increasing noise.  Institutions such as This American Life, The New Yorker, and FRONTLINE.

But our point of view is pure Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. Our culture is grounded heavily in design thinking and lean startup methodology. We believe you need to be audience-centered and prototype-driven while seeking a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model.

You have to fail early and often to succeed sooner.

This is the moment where the media institutions of the next generation will be built.

Matter is the disruptive playground where entrepreneurs can start with ideas that may seem small at first, but could very well become the influential media properties of the future. Twitter, Tumblr, and Kickstarter are just the start.

Our entrepreneurs respect and retain the values of today’s institutions but are ready to start from a blank slate, leveraging emerging technologies, seeking new business models, and, most importantly, designing for the needs and transforming behaviors of their audiences.

This is where it begins.

We supports media entrepreneurs through a four-month residential start-up accelerator in San Francisco. We provide investment, space, and, most importantly, a highly collaborative community and culture that helps our teams validate their ideas, iterate their prototypes, and gain traction with their audience.

After a highly competitive selection process, we will invest $50k in five companies who will work elbow to elbow in our loft in SOMA. We’ll kick off in February with an intensive bootcamp followed by regular rhythms of design reviews, educational talks, and coaching sessions that lead up to a demo day in June.  Along the way our start-ups will be surrounded by a supportive community of entrepreneurs, mentors, and organizational partners.

We have one goal in mind – to help our entrepreneurs build the next great meaningful media company.

San Francisco, CA (December 2, 2012) – Fusing public media values with Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, KQED, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Public Radio Exchange (PRX) today launched Matter Ventures, a start-up accelerator supporting media entrepreneurs building a more informed, connected, and empowered society.

Reflecting their commitment to media innovation and leadership development, founding partners KQED and Knight Foundation have each invested $1.25 million in the initial $2.5 million fund, while PRX will provide strategic and management support to Matter.

The intensive, four-month acceleration program is designed for media startups with multi-disciplinary teams who have early-stage prototypes, such as participatory platforms, mobile applications, B2B media services, and content production engines. Matter will invest in entrepreneurs who show high potential to create media ventures that make a meaningful, positive impact on society while pursuing a sustainable, scalable, profitable business model. Over the course of two years, the fund will run four class cycles, each consisting of five startups. Applications for the inaugural class, which will begin in late February 2013, will be accepted starting today through January 6th, 2013. An online application and guidelines can be found at www.matter.vc.

Startups selected to participate in Matter will receive a $50,000 investment and will work side by side in a creative space in the South Park area of San Francisco’s SoMa district, right around the corner from where Twitter got started. The structured program will kick off with an intensive design thinking and entrepreneurship bootcamp followed by a regular series of design reviews, mentoring sessions and educational workshops. The collaborative culture will help teams develop a human-centered and prototype-driven approach. At the end of the four-month program, teams will pitch at a demo day to the Matter community and potential investors.

Matter Ventures will be led by CEO and Partner Corey Ford, who most recently built and ran Runway, an accelerator for Innovation Endeavors, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s early stage venture capital firm. Ford has also taught design thinking at Stanford’s d.school and helped produce 17 films for FRONTLINE. Partner Jake Shapiro is the founding CEO of PRX, an Ashoka Fellow, and a former Associate Director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Jigar Mehta, the co-founder of GroupStream and 18 Days in Egypt, a Knight Fellow, and former New York Times video journalist, will serve as Director of Operations. Executive leadership at Knight Foundation and KQED will also join the Matter Ventures advisory board.

“It is important to remember that everything big started small,” said Ford. “The institutions that create meaningful media today seem like they’ve been around forever. But they were built from scratch by risk takers who started with an experiment and a vision for how they could impact the world through media. Matter is where today’s aspiring entrepreneurs can build the meaningful media institutions of tomorrow.”

“Successful media companies are mission-driven and deeply connected to the needs, values and behaviors of the audiences they serve,” said Shapiro. “We see extraordinary opportunities at the intersection of emerging technology, new business models, and great storytelling that informs us as citizens.”

“The way people make, consume, share, and pay for media has changed drastically in a very short time, and with Matter we hope to leverage the wisdom of our Silicon Valley neighbors to help the public media adapt to those changes,” said John Boland, President of KQED. “The accelerator model will foster entrepreneurial innovation that will revolutionize how organizations like KQED create and distribute content, raise funds, and help our audiences make better sense of a rapidly changing world. Fresh ideas will help ensure that we remain a distinctive, relevant and essential service in the 21st century.”

“An exciting group of leaders both on the national and local level are starting to push the future of media, combining public media values with the best practices of entrepreneurship. Matter can now help them experiment, iterate and have the same avenues for development as other Silicon Valley tech startups,” said Michael Maness, VP for journalism and media innovation at Knight Foundation.

Applications for Matter are available today at www.matter.vc and are due by January 6, 2013. Information sessions for potential applicants will be held on Thursdays at 6:00pm on December 13, December 20, and January 3 at the new Matter space at 421 Bryant St.

Download Matter photos and logo: http://imgur.com/a/lVEZs#1

For information contact:

• Matter Ventures and Public Radio Exchange: Jason Gordon, 212.627.8098, jason@pkpr.com
• KQED: Scott Walton, 415.553.2145, swalton@kqed.org
• Knight Foundation: Andrew Sherry, 305.908.2677, media@knightfoundation.org

About KQED
KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. Home to the most listened-to public radio station in the nation, one of the highest rated public television services, and a leader in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration—exposing them to new people, places and ideas. For more information, please visit www.kqed.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more information, please visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About Public Radio Exchange
PRX is an award-winning public media company, harnessing innovative technology to bring significant stories to millions of people. PRX operates public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, offering thousands of audio stories for broadcast and digital use, including signature PRX programs like The Moth Radio Hour. PRX mobile apps for public media include This American Life, KCRW Music Mine and Public Radio Player. For more information, please visit www.prx.org/about-us/press.