My Story

Hi, I’m Corey. I’m an executive coach, strategic advisor, and trusted partner to founders, CEOs, and executives who are charting their next destination — and building subcultures of innovation that last.

Through coaching and advisory work, I help leaders clarify, test, and strengthen their strategic visions; communicate them in ways that unlock buy-in, resources, and funding; and build the cultures that make experimentation and innovation possible.

But more importantly, I strive to create real-world learning experiences that help leaders like you develop the mindsets, strategies, and momentum you need to unlock your full personal and professional potential — and create an extraordinary life.

I don’t just want to prepare you for the personal and professional Point Cs ahead—I want to equip you with the mindsets and strategies to lead others in doing the same.

I believe that leaders are leverage — investing in leadership is the most powerful way to create the change you want to see in your organization and your life. That’s why I focus my time and energy on maximizing moments of impact with leaders like you — leaders committed to building extraordinary lives, organizations, and cultures.

My Story

Today, after founding and scaling Matter Ventures — a startup accelerator and venture fund for media entrepreneurs — I’m now running my second company, Point C, and leading the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Journalism School, where I help top media leaders tackle their biggest strategic challenges using a process I developed called Venture Design.

But my work goes beyond innovation strategy — I help leaders define their personal leadership frameworks and design the intentional subcultures they want to build around themselves.

I have one of the best jobs in the world. But I didn’t plan this career.

I found it through what I call intentional serendipity — following my curiosity, embracing uncertainty, acting on unexpected opportunities, and seeing where they would take me next.

A Nonlinear Path to Leadership

As a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill, I found my love for documentary filmmaking in the most unexpected way — by jumping out of an airplane for a summer internship at National Geographic.

Later, I talked my way into a job as a professional baseball coach for the San Francisco Giants in the Dominican Republic. That story helped me land my first role at PBS FRONTLINE, where I thought I had found my lifelong career — producing 17 documentary films.

I truly believed I had the best job in the world.

But I could sense the world was about to change — fast. And we weren’t ready to change with it.

So I pivoted.

I left one of the most prestigious jobs in broadcast journalism and headed to Silicon Valley with a mission: to learn how innovation, entrepreneurship, and business really worked — and bring those insights back to media and journalism.

I had a hunch that leadership and culture would be at the heart of it.

And I wasn’t wrong.

Bridging Two Worlds: Journalism & Silicon Valley

After earning my MBA at Stanford Business School, I was selected for a prestigious fellowship to teach at the Stanford d.school, where I began developing the early seeds of what would become my Venture Design process.

I then put those ideas into practice as the first employee at Innovation Endeavors, the venture capital fund backed by Eric Schmidt, where I built their startup incubator from the ground up.

My first exposure to venture capital was thrilling — but I realized it had pulled me away from my original mission: to apply these principles to media and journalism.

So I made the leap and founded Matter, the first accelerator for media entrepreneurs. There, I raised two venture capital funds, built and scaled a bicoastal team, and coached hundreds of founders and senior media executives — drawing on the coaching skills I had developed while training under one of the world’s top leadership coaches at Stanford Business School.

A Leadership Truth

During my deep dive into Silicon Valley — in sharp contrast to my early career in journalism, where perfectionism often ruled — I discovered a truth every leader must face:

You cannot innovate without embracing failure.

I thrive on helping leaders build subcultures of innovation — where experimentation is expected, not avoided, and where teams are equipped to both focus and flare, balancing creativity with execution.

A New Realization: My True Strength

Along the way, I discovered something powerful about myself:

I wasn’t just a builder. I was especially good at unlocking the creative, entrepreneurial, and leadership potential in others.

I redesigned and rebuilt the world’s top executive program for media professionals, coaching senior leaders as they tackled high-stakes transformations under high uncertainty.

But for a while, I missed being a CEO — operating on the frontlines, building and scaling my own team.

Then I realized something:

I could never have more impact than I do from the perch I sit in now — working with top leaders around the world on their biggest strategic problems, helping them build cultures that unlock innovation and transform their organizations into the best places to work.

Because leaders are leverage.

That’s why I founded Point C.

To focus on creating moments of impact with leaders who have the leverage to transform their industries, their organizations, and their teams—one culture and one strategy at a time.

If my approach resonates with you, explore my coaching plans and services and then let’s connect to determine what your Point C looks like—and how we can get there together.