Chris Matton has served as General Counsel of Bandwidth since 2010. As General Counsel, Chris provides support and counsel for corporate, human resources, intellectual property, legal and regulatory matters. Prior to joining Bandwidth, Chris was a partner at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP. Chris also previously served on the founding team and board of managers of Veritas Collaborative, an eating disorder treatment hospital system.
Chris has worked with companies ranging from early stage to publicly traded companies and has represented clients in venture capital financings, private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of securities and other corporate matters. Chris earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Wake Forest University, where he also served as the Executive Editor of the Wake Forest Law Review.
1. What is in your pockets?
One wallet from Raleigh Denim. One Republic Wireless phone. Keys. Three rocks: one from Pompeii and one from the backyards of each of my grandparents’ homes. I have carried the Pompeii rock each day for nearly 30 years, the other two are more recent additions that I have carried for 20 years each.
2. What exciting thing has happened recently for you or your organization?
Bandwidth raised approximately $150 million in March to fuel our continued growth. We intend to deploy resources to reinforce success. We continue to succeed by working closely with and supporting many of the greatest and most innovative companies in technology. We are expanding our footprint overseas to continue to serve our customers outside the United States. I started working with Bandwidth as outside counsel in September 2004 and joined the Bandwidth team in July 2010. It has been incredibly rewarding and exciting to see the Bandwidth team continue to grow outside the United States. It’s also been incredibly rewarding to see the Bandwidth legal team contribute to this important mission. I’m also soon to be an empty-nester, which means that I’ve also been particularly excited to have my son Ross at home for the summer while he interns with Cree—another fantastic technology company here in the Triangle.
3. What is your favorite coffee spot?
When in Raleigh, it’s definitely Jubala on Hillsborough Street. Jubala has to be the coolest destination for coffee in Raleigh, although there are a lot of great contenders for that honor. If I go beyond the friendly confines of Raleigh, it’s definitely Cova—a Milan tradition since 1817.
4. What keeps you up at night?
Other than 8-10 cups of coffee a day? Companies that go public have to extensively and painfully chronicle their “risk factors” – aka, the things that keep the general counsel up at night. So there’s a fairly extensive summary of the things that keep me up at night that’s available for anyone on the planet who’s interested!
That long laundry list includes management of growth. For companies like Bandwidth that are fortunate to experience extraordinary growth, management of growth inevitably proves to be the greatest risk of all. Management of growth requires communication and coordination – a shared consciousness across the company and across teams. Management of growth also requires sustained urgency. No great organization can allow itself to succumb to complacency. We, like any great organization, simply have to get communication, coordination and urgency right to achieve our mission.
5. What is your favorite restaurant or happy hour?
I cannot possibly limit myself to one—Crawford & Son, Poole’s Diner, and El Rodeo on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh; and Panzerotti Luini in Milan. Each is fantastic in its own unique way.
6. What is next for you or your organization?
I am not a huge believer in long-term planning. I lock arms with great people attacking challenging and intellectually stimulating problems. Somehow everything else takes care of itself—even if it takes a while. But anything worthwhile takes a while. You cannot build anything meaningful quickly, whether it’s a company, a team, or a relationship.
I have locked arms with great people at Bandwidth and in Bandwidth Legal. I am as interested as anyone else to see what’s next for Bandwidth, Bandwidth Legal, and me personally. But I am exceptionally confident that it’s going to be great.
