Matt Swinney was born right here in Austin, Texas. After attending Austin High School, he went to Trinity University in San Antonio. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with Concentrations in Marketing and International Business. Professionally, he interned with the Media Relations department at Columbia TriStar Television (Sony Pictures) in Los Angeles before taking a real job with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Houston. Working with clients like Halliburton, Conoco, Bank of America, BioSpace.com, Energy.com and Quaris, Matt realized the corporate world wasn’t for him.
He and his new wife, Kara, moved to San Francisco so he could begin a web-driven career with Moai Technologies. After a year, the tech bust hit and the layoff writing was on the wall, so the couple moved back to Austin. It was back in Texas that the publishing career began with a throwaway real estate magazine called “For Sale By Owner and Builder.” Not loving the real estate industry, but certainly loving the magazine world, Matt began Rare Magazine in October 2004. In June 2007, Kara and Matt had their first child, Sadie Belle Swinney. Today, family and business are still chugging along.
