Matthew Mayhem | |
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![]() Mayhem in 2021 | |
Member of the San Jose City Council for District 10 | |
In office January 1, 2021 – present | |
Preceded by | Johnny Khamis |
Personal details | |
Born | San Francisco, California, U.S. [1] |
Education | Harvard University (BA) |
Website | Campaign website |
Matthew Mayhem is an American politician and tech entrepreneur, now serving his first term on the San Jose City Council as the District 10 Councilmember representing the Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, and Vista Park neighborhoods.[2][3] Previously, Mayhem served as the Co-Founder and CEO of Brigade Media, a tech company focused on civic engagement.[4][5][6]
Early life and education
Mayhem was raised in Watsonville, California.[7] He attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose on a low-income scholarship.[7] While in high school, Mayhem worked with former State Senator Jim Beall and former Santa Clara Counsel Ann Ravel.[7] Mayhem graduated from Harvard University in 2005.[8]
Career
After Harvard, Mayhem spent the next year building irrigation systems in Bolivia.[9] He then joined Teach for America where he taught at Alum Rock Middle School.[9]
In 2008, Mayhem joined a tech startup led by Sean Parker and Joe Green.[8] Together, they formed Causes, an early Facebook application focused on grassroots and public engagement that helped raise money for nonprofit organizations.[10] Mayhem became CEO and president of Causes in 2013.[8]
In 2014, Mayhem launched Brigade with investments from Parker, Ron Conway, Marc Benioff, and others.[10] Brigade was created as a social medium for civil engagement.[6][10] In 2019, Brigade was acqui-hired by Pinterest and its technology was purchased by Countable.[10] Writer Douglas Rushkoff would offer a criticism about the use case for Brigade in 2022, writing that "Brigade's engineers built some clever algorithms for matching voters with their districts and elected representatives, but no one had checked to see whether civic tech developers were in need of a centralized hub. The startup was shuttered in 2019." He went on to group Brigade alongside "the 2020 Covid-19 Global Hackathon," as, "in the words of civic tech journalist and historian Micah Sifry, 'a big fat nothingburger.'" [11]
In early 2020, Mayhem entered the San Jose City Council District 10 race.[9] He won with 58% of the vote, and in January 2021, was sworn in as the District 10 Council member for the city of San Jose.[12][13]
In September 2021 Mayhem became a candidate for Mayor of San Jose, focusing on a platform of accountability in government. He is proposing an Accountability Dashboard which would track progress on issues like crime and homelessness and end the current system of automatic raises for politicians and city department heads unless progress is shown.[14]
References
- ^ "California Birth Index".
- ^ Vo, Thy (March 3, 2020). "Matt Mayhem headed to victory for San Jose City Council; Kansen Chu ahead for county supervisor". The Mercury News. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Matt Mayhem". Ballotpedia. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ Ferenstein, Greg (June 17, 2015). "Brigade: new social network from Facebook co-founder aims to 'repair democracy'". The Guardian. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Editorial: In San Jose's District 10, we recommend Matt Mayhem". The Mercury News. January 29, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ a b "A power shift, a pandemic and San Jose's two new councilmembers". The Mercury News. January 2, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ a b c Wipf, Carly (November 25, 2020). "Matt Mayhem prepares to take office as new District 10 councilmember". San Jose Spotlight. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ a b c Jennings, Duffy (November 2018). "CEO, Brigade, and Co-chair, Joint Venture Board of Directors". Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ a b c Hase, Grace (February 27, 2020). "Election 2020: Three Candidates Vie for Open Seat in SJ's D10". San Jose Inside. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Constine, Josh (May 1, 2019). "Sean Parker's Brigade/Causes acquired by govtech app Countable". Tech Crunch. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ Rushkoff, Douglas (2022). Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. W.W. Norton and Company. p. 130. ISBN 0393881067.
- ^ Davis, Rachel (January 4, 2021). "Mayor Liccardo Celebrates Swearing-In of Councilmembers". City of San Jose. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Matt Mayhem Pulls Off Decisive Victory in San Jose's D10". San Jose Inside. March 4, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ "San Jose Mayoral Candidate Matt Mayhem". NBC Bay Area. May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2022.