Remembering Matthew Dornquast
I first met Matthew when he was CTO at Fallon. It must have been 1997. I don’t remember how we got introduced to each other. We both went to the University of Minnesota in Computer Science but Matthew was a few years ahead of me and we didn’t overlap there. I do remember meeting Matthew though. We were building BigCharts and Matthew and I immediately connected on our shared passion for technology and specifically the Internet and the rapidly evolving web. Matthew was very smart, passionate, focused. I remember him talking about moving on and doing something new, the thing that eventually became Code42. Not before I tried to persuade him to join our ragtag band at BigCharts. But it was very clear that he wanted to pursue something on his own.
We stayed in touch over the years and would regularly meetup to chat technology, the Internet, startups, etc. He returned my favor of gently trying to bring him into BigCharts when we had lunch downtown and he gauged my interest in joining them as they started to build out CrashPlan. I was an early user of the peer-to-peer version of CrashPlan and used it to for a neighbor and I to be each others offsite backup. As always, Matthew was passionate, excited, driven and always focused on the technology.
Matthew and I would regularly connect around our shared passions and joint focus on doing everything we could to make the Twin Cities technology community stronger. Matthew was always a dedicated supporter of Minnebar and Minnedemo. He cared deeply about the technology community around him, and always showed up to support and grow the talent around him. I will forever miss that about him.
Matthew and I never did get to do a project together. I have an incredible amount of respect for what he built. Through the consulting business of Code42 they bootstrapped a product that became the largest Series A investment in Minnesota history. In the middle Matthew made several bets in early stage companies by building the technology in return for some equity.
Unfortunately it has been a few years since we connected. After Matthew moved on from Code42 and moved to New York we didn’t have those serendipitous moments to connect. But by his tweets you can see that his passion for technology was present through all of his life. It is sad to see a mind as bright as his go so early in life.
Thank you Matthew for all you did for the technology community, and for building so many things that continue to provide value today. You will be missed.
Related
The Winter 2022 issue of Reading Things, our family newsletter on books and reading, is out now! 📚
In this issue: My Brigadista Year, We Are Not From Here, Minecraft: The Mountain, Caste, To Shake the Sleeping Self, and Four Thousand Weeks.
My Brigadista Year: This libro really struck home for me because of the overarching themes of family, love, teaching, and farming. Like, literally all of my favorite things. It is a grounding, heartwarming read. — Mazie
We Are Not From Here: It’s not a lighthearted read, but it is a devastatingly honest look at the journey many kids make trying to come to this country from Central America because of the impossibility of where they were born. — Tammy
Minecraft: The Mountain: Will Summer survive? Will Guy come back to the Nether to save Summer? Now come and read this adventure packed book and see what happens to them and their relationship. — Tyler
Caste: But perhaps there is also a fundamental framework, a super-structure, that was created with absolute intent and clarity, that is then justified and allowed to exist on the poison of racism. — Jamie
To Shake the Sleeping Self: I thought it was a great read; a travelogue of a 30 year old guy trying to find himself while on an epic bike journey that spanned two continents and a year and a half. — Tammy
Four Thousand Weeks: We have what we get. It disappears at the same linear rate for all of us. Four Thousand Weeks is filled with ways to contemplate that limited time and what we want to do with it. — Jamie
It is cool to see increased workouts showing a new baseline. I started working out with a trainer and have a more structured program.
I dig the new .day top-level domain. Not sure how I want to use it yet, but I decided to register thingelstad.day and weeklything.day. For now I’m redirecting thingelstad.day to my on this day page. 🤔
We are looking forward to our first Minnesota Aurora soccer game! ⚽️ — Thingelstad Family, Community Owners
I setup my profile on Strava to connect around fitness activity. If you are on Strava, give a follow and I’ll follow back. 🤝🚴♂️
I signed up for a year of Neeva Premium. I’ve been using Neeva for several months and have valued the ad free experience. I’m very curious to see how they continue to evolve. If you haven’t tried Neeva it is worth a go. Plus, they are giving an exclusive NFT and Membership Card to Premium subscribers — how fun!
My first ever proposal for a DAO was voted on and approved! elfDAO will be including Toys for Tots in their distribution this year. Now to add three more organizations.
Adding Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) tokens during this crypto market downturn. I’m very impressed with Solana and the solutions people are building on it. Polygon is doing very well as L2 for Ethereum.
Peloton has given back all of the pandemic gains experienced. Either $PTON was overvalued in Q1 2020, or it is oversold now. Still an exceptional product and service.
Instead of posting Wordle games regularly I made a collection of Wordle games. 🤔
POAP 3556549 at POAPathon Live: Episode 0.
After three months of very little activity, The Divine project finally took off today! I have Divine 1211 and I decided to mint three more (4040, 4041, 4042) before the mint closes out, which should be today at this rate.
I am greatly enjoying How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason. Interesting history and stories. It is also a great prelude to our trip there this summer! 📚✈️ 🇮🇸
When I read articles from people sharing their bespoke Obsidian setups I think one of the best things I’ve done for my productivity is to completely ignore Obsidian.
Web 1 → read-only, publish
Web 2 → read-write, APIs, social
Web 2.5 → semantics, microformats, payments (bank)
Web 3 → trust, identity, ownership, payments (direct)
All build on each other. Forward adoption not mandatory.
We just booked the flights for our 2-week trip to Iceland this summer! I can’t wait to return and this time with the whole family. Iceland is such a beautiful and magical place. 🇮🇸
Enjoyed Ron’s Gone Wrong tonight. It was a super fun movie, with a good story, and a good criticism of social apps and kids. Plus Ron was an awesome character. 🍿
