Interview with Matt Marino: Entrepreneur, Investor, Freediver

Our CEO, Alissa Peterson, sat down with Matt Marino, a new investor in the SeaAhead Ventures Launch Fund and Angel group, to hear more about his journey and interest in investing in ocean startups… 

Alissa Peterson: Hi Matt! How are you?  To kick us off – for our newsletter we include conversations with people from our community that can bring different aspects to the forefront – startups and partners – and I think you have a really interesting story.  

Matt Marino: Well, I will warn you, I may not be that interesting. [laughs] 

Alissa: I doubt that! Let’s start off with you introducing yourself. 

Matt: So, my name is Matt Marino. I came to the Boston area 25 or so years ago to attend Boston College. Met my wife there, and settled in New England. I went back to business school in 2010, Boston College, very intentionally to transition my career into renewables and clean energy. And, I did, with 6 years with the First Wind team, a developer of large-scale wind and solar projects. Really amazing team and platform that I learned a lot from. And then had a concept, for a technology that would make my job as a developer better, which was the genesis of the company I started in 2016. The company was called Galehead Development and the software is called LandCommand. It was the classic entrepreneurial journey of self-discovery – and, pain and suffering – for many years, but also the most fulfilling thing, I've ever done, but it was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. 

Alissa: Can you tell us more about what Galehead did? 

Matt: Galehead was doing what we call upstream development in the utility-scale renewable space. So that means we were identifying markets, ultimately identifying sites that had the right combination of permitting features, interconnection, power market pricing - all the things that go into having a locationally valuable project. We would acquire the land, or the rights to the land, do the permitting, the interconnection, and then we would sell these projects before they were constructed to larger energy companies. We were using the software to be really, really good at it. We never monetized the software outside of our work at Galehead. 

Alissa: What was it about the idea for Galehead that made you want to start your own company? What made you say, hey, let's take a jump and do this? 

Matt: I'm not gonna tell you I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. The only thing I can remember as a kid – I actually I told my dad, “I don't know what I want to be, the only thing I know I don't want to be is a businessman”. [laughs] 

So, I'm not this person where I've always been dreaming of doing a startup. I met my co-founder in business school. We actually won a business school competition, but ultimately pulled back as I got my job at First Wind, and he got his job at Liberty Mutual. We weren't gonna side hustle it, so we focused on our professions – but we just kept talking and exploring different ideas over the years. It was this confluence of factors, I saw the market opportunity in renewables, how exponential it was about to get. I knew the real problem that developers had with greenfield development. I’m not a tech engineer, which is why I brought in Patrick, my co-founder to help develop LandCommand. The stars kind of aligned. I struggled a lot with, oh my gosh, am I gonna really take this leap?  But, these conditions were really interesting. I've been really driven by the impact of renewables on climate, but also economic development and, the country's energy security –  these issues are really meaningful to me. These were all factors in realizing that maybe the startup was the best way to honor those values, to allow me to get over the fear factor. 

Alissa: I understand that you recently exited the business. How did that go? 

Matt: Macquarie initially invested in the platform in 2022, but we, the founders, retained control. Then ultimately Macquarie bought the core business completely, earlier this year. We spun out a new company that's called ETX Upstream, because as part of that deal and structure we retained the software/IP, so we kept LandCommand, and now we're doing upstream development in new markets. So, we're not doing solar and wind development, we're basically looking at emergent big markets for a similar upstream development model: primarily the grid, data, load and carbon verticals. 

Alissa: And now, in this stage of your journey, you're also investing. Have you been investing as well for a while, or is this a new part of the work you're doing? 

Matt: Along with my Galehead partners, we created a vehicle on the side where we could invest together if we saw something good. That vehicle is called Grounded Infrastructure. It's basically our own angel fund. We've done 5 investments, generally in the climate and energy space. But it was a passive vehicle- we still had full-time Galehead jobs. So, what's changed in the last 6 months is that without the confines of the Galehead role, it's given me some opportunity to maybe take a little bit more of an active role in start-up investing. For example, I'll be investing in the SeaAhead Fund! 

With the investing, there's certainly something to having been through the journey myself. Investing gives you the opportunity to relive some of that – but vicariously. So that's part of the appeal – and being able to do things besides just write a check (advising, mentoring) is really interesting to me. 

Alissa: What brought you toward oceans? 

Matt: I might have shared some of this with you when we first connected, but it's always been a big part of my life. I contemplated in undergrad studying marine biology – I didn't. I was a swimmer early, my mom says, like, I swam before I walked. I don't actually know if that's true, but I'll take it!  I did a bunch of open water swimming through triathlons, and I've been a scuba diver – it's my happy place, right?  

But from college through Galehead, it kind of went dormant. I chose a different path, and I didn't have a lot of time or resources to enjoy it, let alone invest in it. It was this transition out of Galehead 6 months ago that gave me the opportunity to rethink my priorities and how I wanted to spend my time and I was very intentional about carving out a lot of space and time for oceans, and getting reacquainted with it. 

I took some initial steps 2 years ago. I was really intimidated, but also always fascinated with freediving. And I told my wife for my 43d birthday I found this camp where I can go get certified in freediving on the Big Island in Hawaii... and she let me do it! Freediving has been a really amazing reconnection with the ocean for me. 

Alissa: Aside from investing, are you engaging in other ways? 

Matt: Besides engaging with SeaAhead, a friend suggested that I would be a good candidate for the New England Aquarium Board Ambassadors, so I've started that process. And I'm doing a Graduate certificate program at URI in Ocean Policy and Science, which is awesome. I'm on my second course there, which has just been a ton of fun. I may spin it into a master's, I don't know. I am really enjoying being in learning mode again. I became a subject matter expert in energy, but it's fun to be a student again, and realize there's so much to learn. 

Alissa: The steep part of the learning curve's the best part. 

Matt: Exactly, yeah, it's like the fire hose part, and yet, you know, I think that there's a lot of analogies between my other professional interests and the ocean. In the Venn diagram, there's plenty of substance in the middle. 

Alissa: I thought the same thing when we started SeaAhead as well. Automotive and utilities aren't the obvious places to come into this space from, but you'd be surprised. 

Matt: Yeah, exactly, especially as you get into some of the tech, right? 

Alissa: When you're looking at bluetech, what areas are you are most excited about? What kinds of innovation or technology, you know, lights it up for you? 

Matt: Well, I'm still learning. I would say that the energy nexus is interesting to me, but it's probably not the first. Like, it's almost too comfortable, right? I've been a close observer of offshore wind for over 10 years. I mean, First Wind was a major investor in Deepwater Wind, which is the first Block Island wind farm.  

I think there's something about this feature of the ocean of just how little we actually know about it, that I think is really fascinating. We’ve got lots of people looking up in space, and it's like…we still haven't figured out a lot about what's right here in front of us. So, I am interested in continuing to build the body of knowledge and intelligence through software, along with the themes of exploration, discovery, carbon and resilience. I am learning about the range of activities out there, which is why groups like SeaAhead and the Blue Angels are really, really interesting. Because you're consolidating, vetting, and bringing the range of opportunities to the investor. 

Alissa: So we are coming to the close of 2025 – what do you see for yourself coming into this new year? 

Matt: Let's see. ETX will continue to be a major focus. Now with 6 months under our belts, we're starting to figure out what our strategic roadmap really looks like, so that's exciting. 

But I think, again, it's actually the ocean side that is one of the most interesting growth spaces – between the classes I'm taking and now some of these first investments into bluetech companies. Having time and space for that is one of my biggest priorities for 2026, along with some family adventures! 

Alissa: That's great. Well, we're excited to have you as a new part of our network and ecosystem, of startups and companies trying to do well and good through scale. We're excited to have you join us. 

Matt: I just genuinely appreciate the opportunity to engage. I think it was the perfect vehicle, right now, for what I was looking for, including all the great people that I've met so far – for my ocean reentry. So I really appreciate it, and look forward to continuing to be a part of the SeaAhead ecosystem.