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I excel in connecting the dots—between ideas, people, capital, and opportunity—to help…
Articles by Matthew
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What’s Missing from the Financial Health Conversation? Policy.
What’s Missing from the Financial Health Conversation? Policy.
Last week, I had the opportunity to participate at Financial Health Network's annual #EMERGE conference where one theme…
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Matthew Cohen posted thisReading remains (one of) the most powerful ways we build attention, judgment, and the ability to distinguish evidence from BS. Those are core workforce + civic skills. As AI makes summaries + answers easier to obtain, the human capacity to question, contextualize, and think *independently* becomes more valuable. Reading may be our most durable skill. Full article via The Atlantic: https://bit.ly/4yzmIDI
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Matthew Cohen shared this250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the question that stays w/ me is: What responsibility we have now. PolicyLink’s "In the Making" discussion series is a timely reminder that #democracy has always depended on people willing to expand its promise, repair its failures, and build institutions worthy of the ideals we claim. The series is facilitated by Baratunde Thurston, features Dr. Michael McAfee, and is linked here: https://lnkd.in/g2uuNbyu Their upcoming summit, "We Are The Founders: Writing the Unfinished Story of Our Democracy," feels like an important gathering for this moment. For anyone thinking seriously about democracy, inclusion, #economicmobility, civic power, and the hard work of building a country that works for more people, this is worth a look. 👉🏻 Summit registration link: https://lnkd.in/gSCxuKTf
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Matthew Cohen posted this#HigherEd are facing an even sharper version of a Q employers (+ families) have been asking for years: what happens after completion? New federal accountability rules put pressure on programs to show that graduates achieve real labor-market value (not just credentials). The institutions best positioned for this moment will be the ones building stronger employer partnerships, clearer pathways, better work-based learning (#WBL), and more honest (+ discernable) measures of outcomes.
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Matthew Cohen posted thisIt is tempting to treat federal data + research agencies as back-office functions. They are not. 🎯 IES, NAEP, The Nation's Report Card, College Scorecard, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other NON-PARTISAN public data sources are part of the country’s economic + civic #infrastructure. They help students compare options, families understand costs + outcomes, educators see what is working, employers assess talent pipelines, & policymakers move beyond headlines. 👉🏻 When these sources are cut, weakened, or politicized, we make worse decisions. And, they matter MOST for people with the least margin for error, just trying to navigate complex pathways into #goodjobs. Nonpartisan data doesnt replace judgment or local context; but w/o it, accountability weakens, improvement gets harder, and trust erodes ---and, yes, trust could go even lower. 📊 Protecting independent public data should be basic operating discipline. https://bit.ly/4gx0wmX
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Matthew Cohen posted this#Apprenticeships will remain marginal + underutilized unless SMB employers can access & onboard shared (intermediary) #infrastructure. Who's scoping that out?
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Matthew Cohen posted thisI've been invited to meet with Jack Clark, Co-Founder and Head of Public Benefit at Anthropic. What? You thought it was just Dario and Daniela? 😉 There are actually seven (!) co-founders -- all former OpenAI EEs. 👉🏻 What is one (real) question you're asking about AI & future of society?
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Matthew Cohen posted thisJust as COVID laid bare basic needs insecurity + cracks in our edu (and other) systems, AI is exposing longstanding structural weaknesses in #HigherEd & #workforce development. AI didn't create these problems, but it's really accelerating the pressure to address them. 📌 My five #TLDR takeaways from the 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: (1.) Assessment must measure what students can explain, apply, defend, etc. (2.) Info literacy (e.g. #discernment) now includes knowing when to trust, question, verify, etc. (3.) AI can expand student support, but only w/ clear guardrails. (4.) #Credentials will face greater pressure to "prove" value & connect to opportunity. (5.) Human capabilities (and #DurableSkills) like judgment, curiosity, adaptability, etc. will matter more, not less. 🎯 The through-line: AI is forcing institutions to get more explicit about what students should learn, how learning should be measured & demonstrated, what edu is uniquely positioned to provide, etc. And the institutions that "win" will be the ones that use AI aggressively while also getting much clearer & better about what should remain distinctly human. Here’s the full report: https://bit.ly/4xoN2zG
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Matthew Cohen shared thisA #credential is only as trustworthy as the organization behind it. 💥 That's the idea at the heart of the new Issuer Identity Registry (IIR) from Credential Engine. I'm proud to serve as a member of their advisory board, helping to bring this work forward. 🎯 By providing a verified, consistent way to identify credential issuers, the IIR helps make sure that the information people rely on to hire, to enroll, to advance is accurate & trustworthy. This is an important step forward for anyone who issues or relies on credentials. 👉 Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4uTG5VX
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Matthew Cohen reposted thisMatthew Cohen reposted thisWe’ve spent years talking about the “skills gap,” but I think this misses something fundamental: the “career navigation gap.” The rise of genAI brings renewed urgency to this problem. Our latest report from The Project on Workforce at Harvard shares findings from a mixed-methods study on how low-wage workers and community college students navigate careers in today’s labor market. A few points: 💡 Individuals described constant pivots—switching jobs, exiting and re-entering education, responding to shocks. 💡 Career information is abundant—but it's difficult to sort through the noise without guidance. 💡 Family and friends are the most common sources of information, but often point to the same limited set of opportunities. 💡 GenAI tools show promise, but their use remains limited among the populations we studied, and they require safeguards against bias. We’ve built a labor market that requires constant navigation–but we haven’t built the infrastructure to support it. Without quality information, cross-income and -sector networks, jobs that are stable enough to plan ahead, navigation skills, and guidance from tusted intermediaries, even the most highly motivated individuals can stall. If we want to improve mobility, we can’t just invest in training. We have to invest in career navigation. Huge thanks to my co-authors, Joseph Fuller, Amanda R. Holloway, Ed.D., Rony Rodriguez Ramirez, Candace Megerssa, and Allyson Birger Dennis, Ed.M., and to contributing researchers Ali Epstein and Radha Biswas. Full report here: https://lnkd.in/eqSDJjgxPivots Without Pathways: Career Navigation in a Fragmented Labor MarketPivots Without Pathways: Career Navigation in a Fragmented Labor Market
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Matthew Cohen liked thisMatthew Cohen liked thishttps://lnkd.in/gbpccpSX It's inspiring to watch the next generation find the courage to speak up, stand tall, and support one another. As a parent, I am especially proud of my teen for becoming involved in initiatives that help young people navigate a challenging environment while remaining confident in their identity and values. Programs like those supported by UJA-Federation of New York provide a powerful reminder that our youth do not have to face these challenges alone. They are finding community, mentorship, and the strength to make their voices heard. At a time when many Jewish teens are encountering difficult conversations and moments of isolation, it is encouraging to see them choosing engagement over silence, education over fear, and pride over hesitation. I am grateful to the organizations, educators, mentors, and fellow teens who are helping create spaces where young people can be seen, supported, and empowered to lead. Most of all, I'm proud of Asher and so many others who are demonstrating resilience, courage, and a commitment to building understanding in their schools and communities. #nachas #UJA
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Matthew Cohen liked thisMatthew Cohen liked thisI've been investing in venture for over a decade, even started my own fund in 2019. I've had a number of exits across those funds, and almost every one disappointed me. Most were underwater, and the few that returned capital never became the thing I underwrote when I wrote the check. That's a verdict on me as an investor, not the companies I backed. Maybe the macro a little bit. Just a little. What I couldn't see at the time: the product almost never kills the company. A founder understands the problem, builds something that measurably works, and misjudges who will actually pay for it. I made exactly that mistake as a founder myself (!). In education, the gap is structural. The person who needs the tool and the person who signs the purchase order are rarely the same person. #1 pattern I see repeated in edtech. The write-offs never stung as much as what came after. Finding the signal a year later, already in my own diligence notes, underweighted because the founder was likeable or the deck was persuasive and I wanted the deal to work. This is the model - venture, and pre-seed in particular, runs on a tiny number of outliers carrying the whole fund. I have a few companies in my portfolio that are still on track to be just that - fingers crossed. A decade in, I'd rather be precise about how I've been wrong than round it into a 'lesson' for #linkedinfam.
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Matthew Cohen liked thisMatthew Cohen liked thisNextLadder and GitLab are right about this, and I'm sure they're right in part because it's been the right take for decades. Nearly twenty years ago, as a young engagement manager at McKinsey, I remember sitting in Michael Weinstein’s office at the Robin Hood Foundation. Michael was a giant in the campaign within RHF to quantify each and every investment using a dollars-and-cents benefit-cost ratio: literally how many dollars of benefit are generated for each dollar of Robin Hood's cost. Michael was relentlessly principled about rigorous quantification: careful documentation of outcomes, constructing credible counterfactuals, discounting future benefits, and translating very different forms of human progress into apples-to-apples benefit estimates. Michael even had a whole framework for converting QALYs into dollar-value equivalents. And I saw how their board responded: it gave them a kind of language to use for better understanding how their investments were impacting people, and for better understanding why certain bets were worth the risk. So when I see “Dollars in Pockets”, it looks familiar in the right ways, and should definitely be adopted by more philanthropic and impact capital institutions. A principle that has survived decades of practice, scrutiny, and refinement deserves renewed attention. Hats off to the NextLadder Ventures and GitLab Foundation teams 🫡
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Matthew Cohen liked thisMatthew Cohen liked thisAI is already transforming our economy — but I'm not losing sleep over mass layoffs. Change driven by AI will move faster than past waves of innovation, but I'm confident we'll repeat history: some jobs will disappear, most will transform in new ways, and plenty of new ones will be created. The problem is how we react. We fixate on the immediate impact of disruption — locally, when a business closes or relocates; nationally, when innovation upends an industry. The people best positioned to benefit focus on the opportunity. Everyone else goes into response mode. And what do we get from that combination? A scramble to retrain people through one-size-fits-all programs, a new initiative that spends as much energy on compliance as on impact, and a pivot to the next news cycle before we've even finished the last one. What if, instead of throwing a new platform, program, or round of rhetoric at every disruption, we built something designed to evolve as the opportunity presents: a training and workforce system that's as opportunistic as it is responsive? Grant funding should reward that same continuity — supporting shared, long-term goals, not just funding the next point-in-time reaction. Not a system aimed at a single moment in time, but one that treats innovation and disruption as constants — engaging people continuously throughout their education and career. What if we built a system fit for a modern economy — one that stops forcing square pegs into round holes, and stops leaving talent-to-opportunity matching to chance? A system that: -Clearly articulates job demand, now and in the future -Brings transparency to the tasks and skills each job actually requires -Lets workers align their skills to opportunity while identifying their gaps -Recognizes skills gained throughout a person's life, instead of relying on proxies that tell only part of the story -Enables training providers to tailor learning to their students and communities, and to signal validated skills, not just credits -Let's a worker build and carry their skills profile from platform to platform, instead of rebuilding it every time they log in or apply for a job This is possible. The Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on the American Workforce gave us a strong starting point, and plenty of others are building pieces of this system. The question is: what becomes possible when we put it all together?
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Matthew Cohen liked thisThis👇Matthew Cohen liked thisAI is already transforming our economy — but I'm not losing sleep over mass layoffs. Change driven by AI will move faster than past waves of innovation, but I'm confident we'll repeat history: some jobs will disappear, most will transform in new ways, and plenty of new ones will be created. The problem is how we react. We fixate on the immediate impact of disruption — locally, when a business closes or relocates; nationally, when innovation upends an industry. The people best positioned to benefit focus on the opportunity. Everyone else goes into response mode. And what do we get from that combination? A scramble to retrain people through one-size-fits-all programs, a new initiative that spends as much energy on compliance as on impact, and a pivot to the next news cycle before we've even finished the last one. What if, instead of throwing a new platform, program, or round of rhetoric at every disruption, we built something designed to evolve as the opportunity presents: a training and workforce system that's as opportunistic as it is responsive? Grant funding should reward that same continuity — supporting shared, long-term goals, not just funding the next point-in-time reaction. Not a system aimed at a single moment in time, but one that treats innovation and disruption as constants — engaging people continuously throughout their education and career. What if we built a system fit for a modern economy — one that stops forcing square pegs into round holes, and stops leaving talent-to-opportunity matching to chance? A system that: -Clearly articulates job demand, now and in the future -Brings transparency to the tasks and skills each job actually requires -Lets workers align their skills to opportunity while identifying their gaps -Recognizes skills gained throughout a person's life, instead of relying on proxies that tell only part of the story -Enables training providers to tailor learning to their students and communities, and to signal validated skills, not just credits -Let's a worker build and carry their skills profile from platform to platform, instead of rebuilding it every time they log in or apply for a job This is possible. The Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on the American Workforce gave us a strong starting point, and plenty of others are building pieces of this system. The question is: what becomes possible when we put it all together?
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Matthew Cohen liked thisThis week marks my THREE(!)-year anniversary at Ascent, which means I’ve now spent as much time at Ascent as I did building Ampersand Professionals. That feels completely wild. These three years have been such an incredible journey. I’ve learned so much, taken on challenges I never could have anticipated, and grown in ways I’m deeply grateful for. I’m especially appreciative of the many people who have taught me, supported me and trusted me along the way—and of the incredible teams I’ve had the privilege of working alongside. After so many conversations about AI with my teams this week, I’ve also been reflecting on how exciting it is to build and shape a marketing department during such a transformative moment. It reminds me of starting my career just as social media was changing everything for marketers. There is something really fun about taking the lessons from that era and getting to do it all over again, with a few more grey hairs. Also have to call out that I’m so proud to continue seeing AscentUP (what was Ampersand) continue to flourish and evolve as a key part of what sets Ascent apart, supporting students beyond financing to help them build better long term outcomes and careers. Three years in, I’m just so incredibly grateful for the journey so far, and very excited about everything still ahead!Matthew Cohen liked thisTime flies when you're building something great together. Our Anniversary Spotlights are all about recognizing the teammates who make a meaningful impact, support those around them, and help move our company forward every day. Thank you for your dedication, hard work, and the energy you bring to our team. Join us in celebrating this year’s June & July work anniversaries! 👏 Andrew W., Christopher Boynton, Leith Ouanes, Emma Leary, Luna Street, Andrew Baxter, David Skinner, Anthony Wetherell, Chantelle Isaacs, Chloe King, Michele Joo Shank, Jeff Fritz, Ella Tadmor, Allie Danziger, Jamie Kautzman, Ryan Valenzuela, Paul Bartlett, Susan Grubb Bussolari, PMP®, Daniel Witt, Olivia A., William Dusha, Alex Acosta, Jacob Terrell, CFA, Danny Lopez, Jacob Lin, CFA, Becky White, Ysidro Huerta, Emily Skoubo
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Matthew Cohen liked thisFor decades, Tom Kalil and his partner in innovation Kumar Garg have been quietly shaping and powering some of the country’s most important breakthroughs - leveraging scientific insight to set direction and public and philanthropic capital to derisk and provide the enabling infrastructure and insight for the next phase of discovery and broad use. This piece is a fantastic teaser on how they do it. What they actually know would fill volumes. Can’t wait to read the next post and tag along on this next wave of possibilities.Matthew Cohen liked thisIn my inaugural Substack post, I explore the role of philanthropy in promoting AI moonshots. Although the private sector will invest in many AI applications, philanthropy can play a critical role in harnessing AI to accelerate the development of vaccines for diseases of the poor, climate-resilient crops, and safe replacements for “forever” chemicals. Philanthropists can have an enormous impact by supporting the “public goods” for these applications, such as open datasets and well-designed benchmarks. I am very excited by the partnerships that Renaissance Philanthropy has with philanthropists to use AI to double the rate of student learning outcomes in middle school math, expand access to benefits for low-income families, fight climate change, develop targeted cancer therapies, and transform fundamental math. https://lnkd.in/dEVsXfCEKalil’s Corner: The Role of Philanthropy in Identifying and Pursuing AI MoonshotsKalil’s Corner: The Role of Philanthropy in Identifying and Pursuing AI Moonshots
Experience & Education
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Cohen Strategy Group, LLC
View Matthew’s full experience
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Founding Member
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
- Present 8 years 1 month
Economic Empowerment
The T3 Innovation Network (T3 Network) is a public-private collective action initiative aims to make it easier for different parts of the job market to share information and work together, with a focus on creating equity and opportunity for all.
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Executive Advisor
Harvard Business Review
- Present 5 years 3 months
Economic Empowerment
As a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, I offer strategic insights on emerging business trends, contribute feedback on content development, and help shape the frameworks that inform HBR’s global thought leadership.
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Member, Jewish Engagement Coalition, Office of Public Engagement
The White House
- 3 years 11 months
Civil Rights and Social Action
With a focus on making the White House inclusive and accessible to its citizens, the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) is responsible for creating and coordinating direct dialogue between the Biden-Harris administration and the diverse American public.
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President, Brotherhood
Temple Shaaray Tefila of Westchester
- Present 11 years 8 months
Civil Rights and Social Action
Our mission is to connect social action initiatives with foundational Jewish values such as "Tikkun Olam" (social justice), "Chesed" (loving-kindness) and "Tzedakah" (justice). Our goal to “heal the world” (or bring light where there is darkness) is fostered through philanthropic, multi-generational programming that affects social change and benefits local, national and international communities.
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Advisor
NewSchools Venture Fund
- Present 8 years 7 months
Economic Empowerment
We accelerate and strengthen the efforts of innovators who are making a positive difference in public education. We believe every young person should finish high school prepared and inspired to reach their most ambitious dreams and plans. It’s time to reimagine learning to help all students — especially those in underserved communities — succeed now and in the future. We meet this challenge with a rigorous investment strategy focused on impact, equity and innovation.
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Founding Member
Civic Alliance
- Present 6 years 5 months
Civil Rights and Social Action
The Civic Alliance is a nonpartisan business coalition that strengthens our democracy by supporting safe, accessible, and trusted elections and inspiring every American to participate in shaping our country’s future.
Publications
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BATNA Basics - Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table
Harvard Law School
See publicationLearn how to understand your BATNA----Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement----and never accept a bad deal again.
BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table includes three simple yet masterful strategies to deploying your BATNA successfully. You'll learn how to:
(1) Assess your BATNA using a four-step process
(2) Track BATNAs in multiparty negotiations
(3) Anticipate hidden hazards of BATNA research -
Negotiation Processes & Strategies Demystified
Cohen Strategy Group, LLC
See publicationWithout a clear understanding of goals and strategies, negotiations can be unproductive and may lead to settlements that are not very favorable to either party.
Organizations
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Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation
20/30 Leadership Council
- Present
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