Matt Widdoes’s journey from entrepreneurial parents and professional poker to leading growth teams and founding MAVAN is connected by a consistent pursuit of learning. He describes choosing career opportunities based on what they would teach him, building a business around trusted relationships, and using poker’s lessons to make decisions with incomplete information.

He joined OPM after a recommendation from his mentor Chris Yeh. Having completed Unit 1, he found some of his most valuable lessons in the subject he already knew best: go-to-market strategy. The experience reinforced the importance of trust, customer focus, and managing the business as an interconnected whole. It also prompted a concrete change: protecting time each week to think deliberately about different areas of his company.

His advice to his younger self captures a central theme of the conversation: even highly successful people are navigating uncertainty. You don’t reach a point where everything is figured out. You develop judgment by committing, acting, reflecting, and adjusting.