Meet Matt Stauffer | CEO, Speaker, & Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Stauffer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Hm, I think they’re both the same: it’s about education and sharing.

When I first started my company, there was no reason for anyone to want to listen to me or hire me. I didn’t have a reputation.

But before I started the company I worked as an educator and as a communications specialist for a nonprofit. So as I moved into a career in programming, it just felt natural to write down (and share) everything I learned. So I was blogging, tweeting, podcasting, streaming, you name it, and after years that became the foundation of my personal brand and eventually the company’s brand.

It’s been almost 15 years now since I first started teaching programming online, and I’ll still meet people who want to hire our company or work for us, who mention how they learned to code from my early writings and my book. I also have the amazing opportunity to speak around the world, I host several podcasts, and my book is now on its third edition, so it’s easy to say that across the board, sharing everything I learn is one of the most foundational concepts leading to the success we’ve seen.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more? What sets you apart from others? How did you get to where you are today and what are the lessons you’ve learned along the way? What do you want the world to know about your story?
Sure! My business is called Tighten, and we’re a custom web application development agency. Basically, when people need web or mobile software for their business, their non-profit, their startup, and there isn’t already a tool out there to do it for them, they come to us.

What sets us apart from others? We’ve been at it since the earliest days of the Internet and we’ve found processes, people, and a tech stack that allow us to understand what our clients need and get it live on the Internet with unmatched speed. I’m proud of that. But I’m also proud that I’ve got a team of incredible human beings who are brilliant, kind, empathetic, and knowledgeable, who constantly delight our clients, and I’m proud that these apps we build quickly stand the test of time, rather than just vibe coded offshore garbage that goes live quickly and fails quickly.

How did we get here business-wise? I founded the business together with a partner in 2011, and he stepped away in 2023. So I started just as the more tech-focused owner, primarily building our practice, our team, and our reputation. But over the last few years I’ve had to learn an entirely new set of skills as I’ve taken on the full management of the agency, so I’ve gotten to learn much more deeply about finances, sales, and operations. I’ve heard a lot of agency owners start getting bored or restless after a decade, but I can tell you, completely changing your role within the company really staves off any boredom you might feel! It’s like I’m starting completely fresh, and it’s been a lot of work getting here.

Lessons I learned along the way… I think the biggest lesson for me was to learn that integrity means a lot more than I used to think it did. I’ve always talked about how important integrity is, but absolutely hadn’t thought about all the ways it can manifest in leadership positions. There are two key ways that come to mind right now–first being how you talk about your team and your company when you’re with them, compared to how you talk about them when you’re with your spouse, or other owners, which is a really common spot for folks to show some inconsistency. And the other is the desire we have to say things that make people happy, which leads a lot of sales-minded folks to say whatever the person on the other side of the table wants to hear, whether from a sales perspective or an employee benefits conversation or whatever else… it’s so tempting to say a thing that you know will make your conversation partner happy, but are you ready to deliver on that? Can you actually definitively do what you’re promising? Integrity is key, and it’s *hard*. But it’s vital.

What do I want the world to know about our story? We wrote about this in our manifesto, but when we started Tighten, we wanted to create the sort of company we wanted to work for. When other business owners heard what we were trying to do–how we wanted to care for our employees, what systems we put in place to make this a great place to work–they would often laugh and (kindly but patronizingly) say, “good luck!” And they weren’t wrong. This whole thing was a big experiment. But.. 14 years in, the experiment’s still going strong!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oof, this is really tough. I moved to Atlanta in 2019 and have young kids, so I feel like, even though I’ve been here for six years, I really don’t know the city like I want to, you know? I’m embarrassed even to share because the old heads will laugh, but whatever, this is what I know.

We would definitely hit as many parks as possible. Atlanta’s got great parks. And museums–the High, for sure, but if they’ve got kids we’d be at the Children’s Musuem, the aquarium, Fernbank, the zoo, all of that.

Then.. Beltline. We’d start by going over to Lee & White, hit up the taco and coffee places there and Monday Night Garage. But taking a visitor by Ponce and just wandering through that place can also be so much fun. Hop’s Chicken, Botiwalla… there’s so much just in Ponce, and so much more around there on the Beltline.

If they want more than just the parks, I’m not touching Lake Lanier, but if we wanted to leave town a bit we might head up to Ellijay (I’m a midwesterner originally, I love the apples!), or Stone Mountain.

Other restaurants I’d definitely want them to see… Bread & Butterfly, By George, Seven Lamps, Barcelona. There are *so* many places I’ve only been a few times and would just feel out their vibe to see if they were interested… Bulla, Kimball House, Marcel, Fat Matt’s, La Fonda Latina, geez, I literally could just keep listing these, and we haven’t even gotten to all the places I *want* to try.

For coffee, I love East Pole, Portrait Coffee, Harbor, Opo in Decatur.. although I’d probably use their visit to try out new places I’ve heard of like Black Coffee, Chattahoochee Coffee, Chrome Yellow, and I’m sure there are so many more.

There are also so many good places for food that aren’t the big sexy bougie places, but we still love them. Bole and The Corner Grille in East Point, Slutty Vegan, probably a few places on Decatur’s square, Salaryman, Lee’s Bakery, yah. It never ends.

And I *have* to give credit to my wife for introducing me to a large number of these places. I’m the coffee nerd around here, but if we didn’t discover a restaurant here together, she likely is the one who introduced it to me.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Whew, I don’t know if there’s enough time to truly hand out the credit that’s due. I’ve been blessed to have so many people in my life who’ve made such a huge impact on my growth, from my parents and siblings to my teachers and professors to so many mentors and friends, and I want to honor how each of them shaped me to get to this point. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be where I am without any of them, and my parents are absolutely the first and foremost on that list–they worked so hard to help us become good people, and it’s so evident in how I and my siblings turned out.

However, and I know this will sound corny, today I have to shout out my wife, Imani Vaughn-Jones! This woman is such an incredible and powerful influence on the person I’ve become and am becoming. When the person you wake up with every morning believes in you, encourages you, inspires you, and is your first counsel on every issue, when they remind you of who you are and bring their own wise, supportive, and loving perspective… there’s nothing like it.

Website: https://mattstauffer.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattstaufferatl

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattstauffer/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stauffermatt

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattStauffer

Image Credits
Stephen Glass, Yaz Jallad, Giles Park