Matt Brown has been a motivated, creative entrepreneur from his very first software company that provided electronic label design, at the age of 15. From there, he went on to build a series of successful digital design agencies over several decades, as the internet became a fixture in daily life. A project for a consumer packaged goods client led to the idea of a modern traceability and production management platform for companies that manufacture products. He founded Wherefour Inc. in 2015 to offer small to mid-sized businesses access to best-in-class production tools. Matt holds a B.S. in business from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the University of Denver.
Hello Matt! We are happy to offer you an opportunity like an interview to tell a wider audience more about you and your experience.
You have an impressive background, and first, our readers and I would like to know more about how you started your career and got into this field?
I was around 7 years old when my parents took a trip to France, to meet some distant relatives. They came back with some local candies as souvenirs.
We were living in Colorado then, which at that time seemed like it didn’t have a wide variety of products around, so these candies seemed so “exotic” from what I was used to!
The idea that there was this different world out there sort of blew my seven-year-old mind, and made me fascinated with how and where things were made, what they were like, and how they got all the way around the world.
My father was working as an engineer, and his company had a policy where employees could check out and take equipment home on loan. These were expensive and unusual machines, so I grew up surrounded by technology and had access to it at an early age.
Over the last couple of decades, I have been a founder or partner in a number of companies that provided technology design and advice to other businesses. These were all “early days of the internet” kinds of companies.
Along the way, I started working with more CPG companies as clients, starting in Colorado and then really amping up when we moved to the Bay Area. There are so much food, wine, beer, or cannabis companies out here, it’s hard to NOT work with them. Consumer product companies have so many challenges: science, logistics, marketing, staffing, financing, etc. and they encounter some of the hardest challenges businesses face. That makes them very interesting to me.
Tell us more about your company? How did you come up with the idea of such a business?
One client in the cannabis space was opening a new dispensary, and wanted our help to develop a touch screen payment system that talked to their POS, which was a cannabis-specific product. It was a very technically challenging project, but we made it work. For me, it formed an idea that the struggle of the cannabis industry to “trace” everything was applicable to virtually all manufactured products. So that was the genesis of Wherefour.
What difficulties did you encounter in the process?
When we first started, the idea of “traceability” was something we had to educate potential customers on first, before we even got to the idea of using a product for it. So it took quite a while for us to figure out the best way to explain and demonstrate just what we meant by “traceability” in manufacturing. And had to build a software platform to do it all too, of course!
You work with start-ups. What are the specifics of working with such companies?
A lot of our work boils down to helping young companies navigate the things they haven’t had to deal with yet, or maybe don’t know is coming. A manufacturing business goes through so many fundamental changes as it scales, it can be daunting (and dangerous) for companies or founders that haven’t done it before. So educating our customers and helping them avoid pitfalls has become a normal part of our product and service.
Can you share the success story of your customers?
Some of the best stories we hear are when someone is thrilled that they were done with the mock recall portion of their annual inspection in only 20 minutes out of the 3 hours allotted. They are so happy and relieved, and we get to live vicariously a bit through them and their experience. That’s fun for all of us.
Tell us more about ERP platforms. What is their advantage?
I think of an ERP as the “operating system” of your business and a way to establish a single source of truth for data about your business. Without that, knowing your costs, cash flow, receivables, etc.
Because so much data is flowing into your system, it can be effective in helping you make faster, and better informed decisions. Now that more people are working remotely, a good system can help support that, and allow business owners to keep an eye on things, even when they are not physically in the office.
Now let’s move on to other questions that will help our readers learn something new about you. What is your favorite movie?
I’d have to say “Office Space”. I can watch it over and over because it reminds me so much of what I used to observe in some of my technology company clients.
In what place do you feel the happiest?
Where we live now, Sonoma County, California. I spent summer here growing up, and the combination of climate, good food and wine culture, and being close to the ocean is my happy place.
How do you prefer to spend your free time?
I enjoy hiking and being outdoors as much as possible. It’s the antidote to too much technology!
What’s your favorite time of year? Why is it your favorite time of year?
Definitely fall. The holidays that time of the year provide some of my favorite foods, and the weather is a little “random”, which I enjoy.
Thank you for answering the questions!
