Matthew Mahan

Matthew Mahan is an American politician and tech entrepreneur currently serving his first term on the San Jose City Council as the District 10 Councilmember representing over 100,000 constituents in the Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, and Vista Park neighborhoods.^[1] Previously, Mahan served as the Co-Founder and CEO of Brigade Media, a tech company intended to empower voters to shape the policies and elections that affect their lives by declaring their beliefs, organizing with like-minded people, and taking collective action.^[2]

Early Life and Education[edit]

Mahan was born and raised in Watsonville, California.^[3] He attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose on a work-study scholarship. Mahan made a daily fifty-mile commute on public transportation between the two cities.^[4] Mahan attended Harvard College and graduated Latin honors|magna cum laude in 2005 with a degree in social studies.^[3] He was elected as student body president at Harvard University. While in high school, Mahan worked with former State Senator Jim Jim Beall (California politician)|Beall and former Santa Clara Counsel Ann Ravel.Mahan cites these experiences as monumental to his decision to enter local politics.

Career[edit]

After graduating from Harvard, Mahan had offers to attend law school at Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. However, Mahan also received a Michael C Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship and chose to spend the next year working on economic development projects in Bolivia. Mahan then joined Teach For Teach for America where he taught seventh and eighth grade english and history at Joseph George Middle School in Alum Rock, Alum Rock.

In 2008, Mahan was the seventh-hire at a startup led by Sean Parker and Joe Green (entrepreneur)|Joe Green. Together, they formed Causes (company)|Causes, an early Facebook application that allowed Facebook users to form groups around common interests, spread awareness and raise money for nonprofit organizations.^[5] At Causes, from 2009 to 2014, Mahan rose from Director of Nonprofit Partnerships to Vice President of Business Development, then COO, and finally CEO and President, while the company attracted more than 186 million users in 157 countries.^[6]

In 2014, Parker and Mahan then launched Brigade with more than $9 million in investment from Parker, venture capitalist Ron Conway, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, and others. Brigade was created as a social media for civi engagement. Mahan stated that there was high desire for a tech platform in the political realm that makes the voter experience more transparent and accessible. In 2018, Brigade had over half-million users.In 2019, Brigade was acqui-hired by Pinterest and its technology was purchased by Countable.

Mahan also serves as the Co-Chair of the Joint Venture of Silicon Valley and on the advisory committee of the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of Southern California.

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