Media Websites

Zach Seward is a journalist and media entrepreneur based in New York. He is the editorial director of artificial-intelligence initiatives at The New York Times. Previously, Zach co-founded the business news organization Quartz, where he served as CEO, editor in chief, and chief product officer for over a decade. He led a team at Quartz that won awards for journalism and product innovation. Prior to Quartz, Zach worked at The Wall Street Journal as a reporter and editor. He was also an associate editor of Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab. Zach attended Harvard College and lives in New York City with his wife, Kate Lee, and their two children.

Austin Rief is the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. He was born and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. His interest in the business world began during his junior year of high school. He graduated from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in 2013 and started college at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in 2014. In 2015, he joined Alex Lieberman to build Morning Brew, officially launching it as a daily email newsletter where he served as co-founder and COO. In 2021, he became CEO of Morning Brew and began making personal investments through Austin Rief Ventures. He transitioned to the role of Executive Chairman in 2025. He is also an investor in Oceans Talent.

Florian Waldmann, born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1984, is the owner of nupita.de. He studied computer science and media at a university in the Black Forest. Prior to that, he became the family IT expert after successfully re-assembling his first computer. He has worked as a bartender, event helper, waiter, and youth animator. After internships in Munich and Freiburg, he moved to Hamburg and worked in the mobile/browser games industry for five years. He also participated in a charity rally around the Baltic Sea on a 30-year-old motorcycle.