Matthew Gardner
Principal, Pit Road Fund
matthew.gardner@nd.edu
801.971.9221
PROFILE:
Matt Gardner is the Managing Principal of Notre Dame's $23M Venture Capital Fund. Matt is also the Director of Notre Dame's Venture Studio. In this role, Gardner is responsible for the investments of the fund and also working with strategic Alumni to co-create startups that will become a force for good in the world.
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:
Though the U.S. is home to the world’s premier higher education systems and an incredible entrepreneurial business culture, these two forces are often disconnected by what is known as the “Valley of Death” - a narrow space in the life of a University invention when it is too mature to be eligible for research funding, yet simultaneously is too immature for venture capitalists, talented entrepreneurs or established companies to fund or license. Traditional Technology Transfer offices have tried to fill this gap; however, those models are outdated and show no results (95% are ineffective). At Notre Dame, Gardner drives the movement to market of University technologies, ensuring that the life-changing potential technologies at the University of Notre Dame can be developed and launched.
Prior to joining the team at the University of Notre Dame, Gardner served in many roles at the University of Utah in a similar program. From 2013-2017, Gardner oversaw the launch of nearly 120 start-ups through The University of Utah's TVC Accelerator, helping the University achieve a ranking of the #1 Technology Transfer Office in the country. In the same year, the University was ranked as the #1 program in entrepreneurship.
While at the University of Utah, Gardner’s responsibilities were many and varied. Technically, he owned all aspects of product management, including outlining a crisp strategy for how to win in the chosen space, defining features that will help the technology get there (working closely with the engineering team), partnering with design teams to build the ideal user experience, and crafting the go-to-market plan. Gardner also worked directly with the product's customers to understand their needs from both a business and technical perspective. He served as the overall business owner of the projects, responsible for developing business and pricing models, identifying opportunities to grow the business globally, diving deep into customer usage and adoption signals to identify big bets, and representing the product to customers and executive leadership at the highest levels.
EDUCATION:
Gardner received a B.A. in English from the University of Utah.