Matt Pasternack

Check it out, we’re talking about Matt Pasternack. This guy’s the real deal, a straight-up startup machine with a crazy mix of education, tech, and leadership creds. Started out as a Teach For America corps member, yeah, he was in the trenches teaching 7th and 8th grade English in NYC public schools. That’s where the passion for education first lit up. Dude saw firsthand how tough it is for kids to learn to read, and that clearly stuck with him.

From there, he jumped into the education world hard. He worked as a director of assessment at School of One, part of New Classrooms, which is all about rethinking how we teach and learn with tech. Then he got into the data game with Junyo, focusing on analytics to help schools make smarter decisions. Basically, he’s always been obsessed with making education better through tech and data.

But he’s more than just about schools. He’s got serious chops in entrepreneurship too. Back in 2011, he founded Junyo, proof he’s got that startup hustle running through his veins. Then he jumped over to Clever as VP of Sales for six years, crushing it and helping one of the top edtech companies scale like crazy. Building products, growing teams, selling tech to schools? No cap, he’s a straight-up pro.

In 2018, he co-founded VotingWorks, working on transparent, secure election tech, talk about civic impact. That’s a whole other level of mission-driven work. He was president there until 2021, making sure voting systems are fair and trustworthy. This shows he’s not just about education, he cares about democracy and trust in systems.

But here’s where it gets even more interesting: in 2021, he launched Once, a company dedicated to helping kids learn to read fluently. As CEO now, he’s taking all his experience, education, data, tech, leadership, and applying it to solve one of the most fundamental problems: early literacy. It’s like he’s gone full circle, from teaching in the classroom to building tools that can actually change how kids learn at scale.

He’s also got a solid academic background, Yale undergrad in history, some time at Stanford Law School, and he’s a YC alum from W19. That mix of education, tech, and startup hustle makes sense given his process.

So what’s the story here? Matt’s all about impact. He’s been in the trenches, seen what works and what doesn’t, and now he’s using that to build stuff that actually moves the needle. His whole life screams: start something, fix it, scale it, and make a difference. He’s not just doing startups for the hell of it, he’s got a mission to change education, secure democracy, and enable kids to succeed.

Long story short, Matt Pasternack is that rare combo of educator, entrepreneur, and tech innovator who’s been through the grind and keeps pushing for real change. That’s why he’s so important.