Matt Stein^’92

“For me, good leadership is synonymous with trust. Employees trust that you care about building a values-based, high-performance team where they can thrive. And, customers trust that everyone in your company is listening and reflecting their needs in your product or service so they can improve outcomes.”

Biography

Matt Stein is the CEO and Co-founder of Salient, which is the trusted leader in medium-to-long range AI-based weather forecasting for the financial and energy sectors. Prior to Salient, Matt was the global head of Business Development and first employee of Jupiter Intelligence, the leader in climate risk analytics, which he took from zero to more than $5 million in annual revenue. Matt began his startup journey by founding and leading Multitude, an air quality technology company, to a successful acquisition. Prior to startups, Matt worked in larger corporations such as GE, where he spent 6 years in business development roles including Head of Commercial Strategy and Data Ecosystems for GE Digital. Matt started his career at Prudential Financial as an investment banking analyst. He earned his BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford, and MBA in Finance from Cornell.

Positions

- CEO and Co-Founder, Salient

Entrepreneurship — Building Without a Playbook

16th May
2025

Panel Discussion

Entrepreneurship

Related Links

Ben Karlin's Biography

Matt Stein's Biography

Peter Stris's Biography

All Events

Introduction

Entrepreneurship isn’t a personality trait or a job title. It’s a way of thinking—and a willingness to take responsibility when outcomes are uncertain.

In this panel, Peter Stris ’93, Matt Stein ’92, and Ben Karlin share what it actually looks like to build organizations from the ground up across very different fields: technology, consumer products, and professional services.

Drawing on experiences that include founding and scaling venture-backed startups, launching and growing consumer brands, building a national litigation firm, and co-founding a successful restaurant chain, the panelists will discuss:

Making consequential decisions without perfect information
Taking real ownership of outcomes—good and bad
Navigating failure, risk, and reinvention
Translating entrepreneurial thinking across industries and careers

This session is designed to be highly interactive, with substantial time reserved for audience questions and discussion. Students and alumni are encouraged to bring real dilemmas, career questions, and hard calls they’re wrestling with.

Rather than offering formulas or clichés, the conversation focuses on judgment, adaptability, and values—the habits that allow leaders to build durable things even when there’s no clear roadmap.