The Team Behind Protocol Media Labs

When I was approached last year about joining what became Protocol Media Labs, I recognized it as both a mission and an opportunity: fix the news, help society, and hopefully demonstrate that the news media can be a profitable business on its own terms.  However, for every big idea, you need a great team.

From the beginning, we built Protocol around a team. We wanted the right skills on board so we had all the angles covered as we started building this complex project: media, markets, tech, security, and capital, with a high trust and high confidence group.  We’re in this with a team designed to run a game-changing business for the next 10 years.  We have friendships in our founding team older than some of the founders currently raising, and our team has experience doing hard things that you can’t fake with a nice headshot and pitch deck.

Team First, Mission Always

Before we wrote a line of code or a page of token design, we asked one question: Who needs to be in the room if we want to change how the news media actually works?

Our answer:

• People who’ve fought information wars and know how narratives really move.

• Engineers who have built serious financial and blockchain infrastructure.

• Product and design leaders who can turn complex systems into intuitive experiences.

• A finance lead who’s managed billions and built markets, not just spreadsheets.

• Advisors who’ve run newsrooms and navigated regulators at the highest levels.

We didn’t want a “traditional” crypto founding team. We wanted an experienced, tested, committed, proven, trusted group of people who’ve already done hard things in the real world and are willing to do it again, this time in public, and with more personal skin in the game.

We’ve been bootstrapping for almost a year – juggling calls around kids’ bedtimes; balancing day jobs and consulting gigs, design sprints; mortgages and college savings on one side of the spreadsheet, virtual data room charges and legal fees on the other. We’re doing this because we know we can succeed with Protocol; we’ve all done difficult things that mattered before.

Why We’re Organized Differently Than Most Crypto Projects

A lot of crypto projects still look like this: one or two technical founders, a Telegram group, and “community” as the strategy. Sometimes it works. But that’s not how you build or execute a strategy in our view, especially when you’re trying to rebuild something as complex as the business of news on a novel, groundbreaking tech stack.

Protocol has to be built differently:

• We’re building a real media brand and newsroom, not just a content feed.

Advisors Who Extend the Team’s Reach

We knew from the beginning that we needed experts with additional experience and perspectives to cover some gaps. That’s why we brought on:

• John Naulty, Technology Advisor – A security and infrastructure leader from top-tier crypto companies, helping ensure our architecture is the state of the art from day one.

• Terence Samuel, Media Advisor – A newsroom leader who has run major national outlets, keeping us honest about what real journalism needs and ensuring we approach journalism with the right quality and ethical standards.

• Chris Massey, Growth Advisor – A veteran of high-growth tech, venture capital and government relations, helping us navigate regulators, policymakers, and go-to-market strategy.

They’re “advisors” on paper, but in practice they’re part of the extended team making sure we’ve covered any gaps in tech, media, or policy.

The People Carrying Protocol Every Day

Matt Tavares – Founder & CEO

Matt has spent 15 years at the intersection of information operations, intelligence, and public affairs in and around the Department of Defense, including advising the Secretary of Defense on information policy toward authoritarian regimes. He’s worked on how to detect, counter, and out-maneuver disinformation from some very capable adversaries. Matt is the connector on this team; the guy who fought in Iraq with Dan, was my first friend in the Pentagon 15 years ago and pulled together people he trusted to build something that would actually move the needle.

Jeff Bennett – Co-Founder, COO & Chief Strategy Officer

‍I’ve spent my career turning messy information environments into data and advice that leaders can actually use; from combat deployments as an Army reconnaissance officer to building and leading a multimillion-dollar open-source and media analytics business serving national security and commercial clients. My job at Protocol is to turn the big vision into an operating reality: aligning technology, incentives, and newsroom workflows so the platform works for journalists and investors alike.

Dan Driscoll – Co-Founder, Chief of Engineering

Dan is the engineer you want when failure has real-world costs. A West Point and Carnegie Mellon-trained technologist, he’s previously led engineering at both web2 and web3 companies and is a Founder (and Y Combinator alum) with Elodin. He’s built secure, resilient financial and crypto infrastructure before, and at Protocol he’s designing the backbone that lets markets, incentives, and content interact without breaking when things get busy. Or adversarial.

Tom Gurka – Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer

Tom is a veteran product and design leader who’s shipped everything from banking APIs to orbital software and immersive consumer experiences. He and Dan have worked together for years as engineering and design colleagues. Tom’s led design at companies like Spatial, Token, Zuli, and M10, and brings a background in motion design with Emmy-level recognition. At Protocol, Tom’s role is making sure the platform doesn’t feel like “a crypto thing” you must endure to get to the news, and it just feels like a great news product that happens to be powered by smart, invisible infrastructure.

Grant Bartlett – Chief Financial Officer

‍Grant is our capital markets and risk grown-up. A CFA® with more than two decades in investment management, he has managed multi-billion-dollar portfolios and advised high-net-worth clients across traditional and alternative asset classes. At Protocol, he’s responsible for financial architecture: how we allocate capital, design tokenomics, and manage cash flow. Grant and I have been friends since I coached our kids’ soccer and T-ball teams almost a decade ago.