# Matt Smolin

> Matt Smolin is co-founder and CEO of Hang, a New York-based customer engagement and loyalty platform now positioning itself as an AI marketing system for restaurants, beauty and apparel brands. Hang originally launched in 2021 as an NFT-powered membership platform and raised a $16M Series A led by Paradigm in 2022, with backing from Tiger Global, Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures and MrBeast's Night Ventures. Under Smolin, the company has moved past its web3 branding into AI-driven segmentation, campaign automation and loyalty for brands like Just Salad, Jeni's, Boba Guys and Taziki's.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Hang
- **Organizations:** Hang, Headliner, Hall Capital Partners, UBS Investment Bank, Group One Trading, Gelber Group
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BBA, Finance, The University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business
- **Known for:** Raised $16M Series A for Hang from Paradigm, Tiger Global, Thirty Five Ventures, Night Ventures, Shrug Capital and Good Friends, Bootstrapped Hang to $2.2M ARR prior to Series A according to Latka, Signed early customers including Budweiser, Bleacher Report, Pinkberry and Superfly

## Career timeline

- **2013** — Trader Trainee at Group One Trading
- **2014** — Exchange Traded Derivatives Sales Trader at UBS Investment Bank
- **2015** — Trader roles at Gelber Group
- **2016** — Private Equity & Venture Capital Research Analyst at Hall Capital Partners
- **2017** — Co-founded Headliner, serving as CEO
- **2021** — Co-founded Hang after leaving Headliner
- **2022** — Raised $16M Series A for Hang led by Paradigm
- **2024** — Named Shoptalk speaker; contributes to Adweek and Unite.AI
- **2025** — Repositioned Hang as an AI marketing platform for restaurants, beauty and apparel brands

## Achievements

- Raised $16M Series A for Hang from Paradigm, Tiger Global, Thirty Five Ventures, Night Ventures, Shrug Capital and Good Friends
- Bootstrapped Hang to $2.2M ARR prior to Series A according to Latka
- Signed early customers including Budweiser, Bleacher Report, Pinkberry and Superfly
- Shifted Hang's platform positioning from Web3 loyalty to AI-driven customer engagement
- Contributing author at Unite.AI and Adweek
- Speaker at Shoptalk

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Featured in Retail Brew's 'Coworking' column
- **2024-02** — Speaker at Shoptalk
- **2025** — Hang repositions homepage as 'The First AI Platform Built for Marketers'

## Links

- Website: https://hang.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-smolin
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/estimatted

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/matt-smolin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-09