In the Spotlight: Matthew Sunday

In the latest episode of the Middle Tech Spotlight Series, we sat down with Matthew Sunday, the founder and Chief Engineer of The Corps. The Corps specializes in bringing ideas and concepts to reality for the Department of Defense and other high stakes organizations where lives are quite literally on the line. Our conversation covered various aspects of Matthew’s journey, starting with enlisting in the Marines out of high school, earning a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, serving 30 years in the fire and police services, and then finally starting The Corps.

Matthew’s story is one of gaining first hand experience of the problems that individuals in high-stakes organizations face in their day to day responsibilities, and applying his engineering background and network to provide solutions for a variety of problems those individuals encountered. As I joked on the podcast, Matt plays a similar role to “Q” in the James Bond movies, albeit providing more realistic products than tricked out Aston Martins and laser beam shooting Rolexes.

Key Takeaways

1. The Value of Experiencing Problems Firsthand - It’s no secret that the best companies are started by entrepreneurs who have direct experience in dealing with the problems their companies set out to solve. The Corps is one of the clearest examples of that principle and it’s importance.

2. A Case of a “Broad Niche” - While The Corps specializes in providing solutions to high-stakes problems, there’s typically not much consistency in the types of solutions they provide. It’s an interesting case of finding a niche that allows for a broad scope of problem solving.

3. How The Corps Leveraged KY’s Grant Resources - A large part of The Corps story involves successfully navigating and utilizing the various grant opportunities provided by the state of Kentucky and the SBIR grant program. Matthew shares his experience and his advice to other entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of those resources.

For more information about The Corps, you can visit their website at the-corps.com

ICYMI

Some of our favorite segments from recent Middle Tech episodes:

• Middle Tech Live: A Panel Discussion on the State of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in KY, recorded at the SOAR Summit

• Akhil Nair of Xena Intelligence on AI-Driven Ecommerce Success

• The $15 million Distillery Coming to Georgetown, KY

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