I’m John Matze, an engineer and entrepreneur who founded Parler in 2018. I was everywhere in late 2020 and early 2021 – first in good ways, and then in bad. After the chaos stopped and fewer people were (literally) calling for my head, I had a choice to make: Lean into the chaos, or step back from it and reboot.

I chose the latter, and for the last 2 years I’ve been working on Hedgehog, a news-forward community for healthy, respectful, and productive conversations online – though we will call out idiots when we see them. You can check us out here.

I also started a podcast, Greater Perspectives, as an example of the kind of in-depth conversation we want people to have on Hedgehog.

I’m an amateur pilot, a gardener, human to five chickens (didn’t see that coming, did you), and a dad.

Happy to talk about all that and more. Ask me anything.

Proof

Update: I'm stepping away but will be checking in throughout the day!