Montclair State Alums Connect with Startup Guru, Publish Book

Crowdfunding site Kickstarter helped Matt Cartagena not only raise money, but connect with one of the nation’s top funders of startups and land a publishing deal.

Cartagena, a Montclair State alum, was noticed by Brad Feld during a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to self-publish the book “Accelerate.” Cartagena co-authored the book with fellow Red Hawk alum Luke Deering, and Chris Dowdeswell.

The co-authors began tagging Feld, co-founder of Foundry Group, in tweets about the Kickstarter campaign for the book, which features 18 startups that had gone through Feld’s Techstars program. After Feld kicked in some money, the trio asked him to write the forward for “Accelerate,” and he agreed.

“I was excited,” said Cartagena about connecting with Feld. “That was big for us. It really couldn’t have turned out much better.”

“Accelerate” includes interviews with entrepreneurs who participated in an accelerator, and delves into what they learned from the experience. The book began as a blog by Deering and Cartagena.

“We had loads of content and decided why not do a Kickstarter campaign and turn this into a book,” said Cartagena, who has received two degrees from Montclair State—a bachelor’s in finance and economics in May 2011 and an MBA in August 2014. Cartagena also received a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from the university’s Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship.

The successful Kickstarter campaign raised about $13,000, according to Cartagena.

But the Feld connection wasn’t done yet. Feld reached out to the “Accelerate” authors, telling them he was creating and investing in a new publishing company, FG Press, and asked if they would want “Accelerate” to be the third book published by FG Press.

“We thought it was a really good fit for marketing purposes,” said Cartagena. “Brad is very well-connected…we really couldn’t think of a much better affiliation than him and his company.”

It all might not have happened without Montclair State. Cartagena met Deering on campus, when he was thinking of switching from a business major to nutrition. Deering, who received his finance/economics degree from Montclair State in 2008, convinced Cartagena to stick with business. Deering would become a mentor to Cartagena, who began helping Deering with his startup, VineUp.

Cartagena said his mom, who works in real estate, influenced his decision to become an entrepreneur. After working about 18 months in corporate jobs, Cartagena decided to pursue his MBA full time at Montclair State so “I’d be able to dip my toes in some other projects.” Those other projects included the blog with Deering.

“It’s really the connections,” said Cartagena about how meeting Deering eventually led to the publication of “Accelerate.” “He’s been a mentor to me. He showed me this was possible…he’s been absolutely invaluable as a mentor.”