Matt McGowan.Supplied
Matt McGowan’s career spans the tech gamut; he’s had a hand in growing businesses from adtech to martech to software as a service. But the New Yorker-turned-Torontonian says his coolest job ever is his current one: director, general manager and all-around augmented-reality evangelizer at Snap Canada (that’s Snapchat to you). The California-based app, which launched in 2011 and has more than 360 million active daily users worldwide, is focused on virtual overlays that add another dimension to real life – like a recent AR lens collaboration with Taylor Swift that turns London’s Big Ben into an Easter egg for the Midnights album, and virtual try-on technology that helps shoppers understand what they’re buying online (McGowan uses it to select new glasses).
And while the weakening economy has contributed to a tough year for Snap, with share values decreasing as advertisers cut spending, augmented reality is becoming a more familiar part of daily life for many, with research suggesting that by 2025, 75 per cent of Canadians will use it frequently.
Having grown up instilled with the value of leading by example, McGowan is something of a megamentor, motivating and supporting Snap’s 100-person Canadian team and working with mentees through non-profit accelerators like Toronto’s Elevate and TechStars, plus speaking at events like the Queen’s Marketing Association Conference and sitting on the advisory board of Big Brothers, Big Sisters Canada. Sure, it takes up a lot of his time – but to McGowan, few things are quite as rewarding as what he’s come to call “servant leadership” (plus his network is *chef’s kiss*).
McGowan took the time to chat with The Globe and Mail about when he logs off (rarely), his sweaty Friday nights and an annual extravaganza he likes to call “Mattsgiving.”
It’s Friday night, work’s just ended – what are you doing?
At the moment, Fridays are really low-key. My natural state is to kind of merge business and personal. But as I’ve grown older and have had a family, I’m trying to separate them a little bit. One of the ways I do that is I usually throw sweatpants on – it just gets me out of work mode. We have dinner early, my kids, who are five and seven, are in bed by 8. And then my wife and I hang out for a couple hours. Literally Friday night between like 9 and 11 is the only time we get to ourselves.
With little kids, what does your downtime look like?
We find that we feel a lot better if we can put some time in and actually focus on ourselves. We have a home gym routine we do together, and though I must say I wasn’t too optimistic about it early on, I’m really enjoying it. I stick with my tried-and-true Bowflex adjustable dumbbells and bench; weight training is my exercise of choice. When I’m not lifting, I’m over on my Peloton cycling away to one of Kendall Toole’s classes.
When you first came to Toronto, was there anything about the city that felt surprising to you?
Toronto reminds me so much of the New York I grew up in. And this is meant to be the ultimate compliment. I was born in the mid-seventies and I grew up in New York in the eighties and nineties and that’s my favourite New York, pregentrification. Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas just off of Ossington reminds me of pretty much every diner in New York while I was growing up. Remember Seinfeld? The Lakeview Restaurant has the white coffee cups, no fancy bells or whistles; just great food and endless coffee refills and the ambience is nostalgic. When I think about it, all of Queen West from Trinity Bellwoods to Parkdale reminds me of the old Upper West Side. It reminds me of walking up Columbus in the eighties, smaller, but a very similar vibe.
Is there anything going on online you can’t tear yourself away from?
Social media is an integral part of my day, my industry knowledge and my experience. And I do strive for balance, but I’m on it all the time, especially Twitter and LinkedIn. When it comes to news, naturally I gravitate to what’s happening in the tech space and advertising world. Recently, I’ve been pretty dialled into the headlines about the changes and challenges in the tech ecosystem and the pivot that we’re seeing with companies who’ve traditionally been laser-focused on growth, and are now prioritizing profitability. I’m hooked into the developing news about the crypto world and more specifically FTX; I’m holding on to my seat as we learn more on that.
Do you ever think of what life would have been like if you had had Snapchat as a teen?
I think, for one, I would have more pictures, because I wasn’t the guy who carried a camera around. And for the most part I don’t have a lot of photo memories or video memories of my life before I turned 25. And so now I have this recency bias – the parts of my life that I have photos and videos of feel so much stronger in my own mind. There were a lot of moments I wish I had captured.
Since we’re chatting between Thanksgivings – do you celebrate both Canadian and American Thanksgivings?
So, we’ll be celebrating the eighth “Mattsgiving” where we invite our family and friends from overseas, other cities and here in Toronto to our house for an American Thanksgiving celebration. And it’s literally the highlight of the year. It takes days; we cook, we prepare, we move furniture around, we focus on, you know, what’s the music playlist going to be? I have so much fun with it. We’ll have 50-odd people, sometimes it gets a little crowded, and the guest list continues to grow. And even if we don’t see someone a lot, if they’ve come in the past, we keep them on the list. Traditionally, we partly rely on a catering service, like Pickle Barrel, given the number of folks who join us, but this year we’re cooking a lot more of the food at home. My wife’s best friend comes in from LA (she’s originally a Montrealer like my wife) and cooks the turkey every year. And we’re keeping it buffet style, there’s too many people to accommodate a sit-down dinner.