I'm Matthew Schneider, a seasoned entrepreneur, musician, writer, and athlete. This site was formed to consolidate my story, press, media, and podcasts. This homepage documents my journey to the present and why I think you should join me in building something big. Feel free to reach out to my work emails or on LinkedIn.

How I got here

I've had a drive to build things that are exciting and unique since I was a child. I was coding and hosting Minecraft servers at 9 years old, attracting dozens of strangers and learning about computer programming. At the same time, I was working on a YouTube channel and frequently publishing content, discovering how to be entertaining and edit videos. 

In high school, I published a 90,000 word novel, earning the title of author. Despite a good reputation around town and high hopes to write sequels, I decided that authorship was not for me and began producing music. After releasing 70 songs, I figured the odds of earning a living from creating and publishing music were slim. 

At this time, two friends approached me and asked me to contribute to their stock market analysis group. I began day trading, buying and selling equities and derivatives. This was an exciting time, making and losing money. I'd just graduated high school, moved out, and kept my independence by DoorDashing in the evenings. 

After a fatal trade, I entered the commercial real estate industry, seeing that it had tons of problems that needed to be resolved and something interesting was always happening. After some studying, I saw the potential of tokenization, which allows for fractional investments into properties that are usually far and secluded from the general population. I began designing a product, working with a software development team, meeting new partners and clients, and establishing a reputation as a subject matter expert.

During this entrepreneurial time, I'd also dabbled with e-commerce, help some friends kickstart their businesses, and began public speaking.

What I'm working on

I own three businesses that compliment each other and will hopefully make the world a better place. 

e-States tokenizes commercial real estate — which means we can fractionalize the ownership in a commercial property, making the investment opportunity accessible to everyday people. We also digitize the property's data, making it more transparent and secure. Finally, we offer complimentary software solutions to manage the property.

Equina uses the same technology to help people invest in community initiatives, like fixing properties, small businesses, or bonds. It also sells a software suite to investors and issuers, whether that's an emerging real estate developer or small business owner, that increases efficiency and patches holes in these fragmented industries. 

Next Gen MKE organizes fun and educational events in the Midwest that bring together luminaries, visionaries, and leaders to discuss innovative topics and tap into the creative part of the brain. I enjoy hosting events and knowing that creating this forward-thinking environment is a good way to have an exponential impact. 

Why I'm doing it

I think people underestimate the amount of impact they can have on the world. Quite frankly, I always see people complain about this or that but seldom do anything about it. Life is too short to sit around and hope someone fixes my problems (and to be honest, no one is going to actually do this) so it's my motto to get after it and get it done. 

My efforts to democratize and optimize industries can and will have an immeasurable impact over the next century and my persistence through turbulence will hopefully inspire other people to stand up and take action.

I'm also invigorated by productivity and problem-solving, eager to embrace adversity and see what can be accomplished despite potentially bad odds. We should all strive to live meaningful lives and our circumstances—as humanity—would be better if more could maintain this mentality.