Blockchain, we are ascending the Slope of Enlightenment, Matt Hooper, Live! From Tomorrow

What is your own background briefly?

My name is Matt Hooper, and I am the creator and writer of Live! From Tomorrow, a new musical comedy podcast about tech and innovation. I started my career as a founder,  spent a few years working at other startups, eventually managed a pre-accelerator (Startup NEXT NYC; acq. by Techstars in 2015) and then served as the Vice President of Open Innovation at the  Barclays Investment Bank for two years.

Somewhere along the way I’ve had the privilege of being an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at WeWork Labs, and most weeks you can listen to me host IBM’s Blockchain Pulse podcast. I’ve worn a lot of ‘innovation’-related hats, and I’m still trying to find the most comfortable one; maybe it’ll be something tri-cornered, or have a propeller.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Funnily enough, if you’d asked me that just over a year ago, I would’ve said no. Live! From Tomorrow began life as a meetup all the way back in 2015, and my decision to try to grow it as a business was based on the feedback I’d been getting from our audiences–there seemed to be a growing demand, at least in the NYC startup ecosystem, to laugh while learning about innovative technologies. However, LFT was a variety show, a collection of comedy sketches, live music and interviews; it was not designed to be a scripted, narrative series.

Then, in early 2019, while in New Orleans to host a livestream for IBM, I asked myself the very question you’re asking me: was my leap from ‘dude at a bank’ to ‘dude who hosts tech things’ logical? My first thought was, naturally, “not really”–but my second thought was, “this could be kind of funny”. And so I began the process of turning the very experience I’d lived over the previous 18 months–making the leap from corporate intrapreneur to the host of several branded video and audio series– into a scripted, highly meta, 5-episode podcast.

How was the last 12 months? What were your big wins?

Honestly, being able to produce something that involved so many people in one room now seems like a massive victory given the way we’re all living. But if I had to think about ‘big wins’, I would say that a collaboration with IBM, ‘Blockchain on Broadway’, which we performed last May, was a definite high point. It was a full-on Live! From Tomorrow variety show, with songs, skits and a guest interview, performed in a massive venue in Times Square. We had the name of the show on the marquee, and it was a real thrill; it also felt like both the culmination of, and a new chapter in, a terrific relationship I’ve enjoyed with IBM for nearly three years.

The other big win would be the fact that a group of extremely talented actors and musicians came together to record this first season of the LFT podcast, and that we’re going to be releasing this show across all major podcast platforms on June 4th. During almost every recording session, I had to remind myself that this was, in fact, happening–and that I needed to bring my ‘A game’ if I wanted to keep working with so many amazing people. So, accomplishing this show at all, with so talented a group, is a definite big win.

What would you have done differently?

We recorded ~85% of a 5-hour, 5-episode series in only 7 nights, in a midtown Manhattan dance studio, in the middle of summer, with no air conditioning or windows. There is a lot I would have done differently 🙂

1 min pitch for what you are doing now / how are you managing during these corona times?

Right now, I’m gearing up for the launch of Live! From Tomorrow Season 1 while balancing a bunch of client work. Where I can, I’m trying to write scripts for Season 2, which will take the ‘Tomorrow’ in our show’s title more literally: it imagines the innovation ecosystem in a post-COVID world.

I am very, very lucky in that I can work safely from my home, and can continue to produce during uncertain times. On a personal note, I’d recommend re-reading some Harry Potter, re-binging Mad Men, and listening to (in no particular order) Fiona Apple’s new album, Waxahatchee’s new album, and The 1975’s new album. They’re hitting the spots when the world feels most frightening.

Why did you get involved with doing the show?

I figured I’d be a filmmaker pretty much until I got to college. When I was 27, unsure if I’d ever be able to combine my interests in entertainment and technology, my friend Dimitris and I got to talking about making some sort of ‘SNL’-meets-‘Shark Tank’ show. It would be a live event, we decided, with pre-taped video skits and real startup pitches. After four years of intermittent performances, and a half-dozen permutations in the structure of the show itself, Live! From Tomorrow was adapted into a podcast that comes out on June 4th–it’s the longest I’ve ever worked on (and off) on a single project, and it’s a strange and gratifying feeling.

Where do you feel we are at on the Gartner hype curve in terms of blockchain?

A-ha! Finally! A Blockchain question 🙂 Well, in the other podcast I host, IBM Blockchain Pulse, I am fortunate to be able to interview executives, founders, educators, developers, designers, and, on one awesome occasion, a space tech engineer, about where and how Blockchain is transforming their work. While the answers–and the excitement– vary, I would say that we are ascending the Slope of Enlightenment. It’s been a tough year, and there’s been a lot of hype, but the widespread acceptance of Blockchain technology in the enterprise will change the way the world does business, and as COVID lays bare a plethora of supply chain challenges, it is clear how urgently we need a more efficient, transparent technology.

How is it going / what response have you had so far?

With the IBM Blockchain Pulse podcast, I’ve received some of the kindest notes of my career from people all over the world who heard about the show on Twitter or LinkedIn and who have written me nice things about it. With the Live! From Tomorrow podcast, I am optimistic that fans of the live shows will follow us into the universe of podcasts, but you never know. The real risk of no longer performing for a live audience in any way is that we can’t know as quickly what’s funny, or what’s bombing, etc.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

I am a pitiful user of social media, as evidenced by the fact that I’m going to say “you can message me on LinkedIn,” where I also write a weekly newsletter entitled ‘The Height of Innovation’.

Who and where do you get inspiration from?

I’m a big fan of taking walks, so any chance I get to stretch my legs–which, in these socially-distanced times, I do very safely with a mask, and urge you all to do the same–I take it, even if it’s only for a block or so. I’m often listening to music or carrying a book when I go, and lately I’ve been inspired by a fairly wide array of voices: I’ve finally gotten around to Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, I just finished Ben Rhodes’ The World as It Is, I’ve been listening to the two Big Thief records from last year, and re-visiting St. Vincent’s MassEducation album from 2018.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Any chance I get to write it, I will: don’t be cynical. The world is very, very crazy right now, and we have elected many, many awful leaders. But it’s always darkest before the dawn, and, at the risk of being too ‘on-brand’, there’s always tomorrow.

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