Matt Cisneros

What we talked about

An Austin gathering place, carried forward

Matt Cisneros remembers Cisco’s through the presence of his grandfather: a familiar face in a chair that seemed larger than life. In this Making Names conversation with Aidan Evans, he describes the restaurant as a place where people with different backgrounds and views could sit together. That sense of inclusion matters to him as someone who now helps operate the family business. It also offers a starting point for understanding his approach to entrepreneurship. Whether he is welcoming restaurant patrons or working with a creator, he wants people to feel that they matter.

A focused business across different channels

At Backyard Ventures, Cisneros built around relationships, media sales and partnerships rather than a single audience demographic. His earlier experience at a male-millennial-focused media company showed him the limits of having only one kind of audience to offer advertisers. Backyard began with podcast partnerships, then expanded into YouTube, newsletters and social media. He describes testing an opportunity before hiring someone to lead it. The channels differ, but the purpose stays consistent: connect creators with premium brand partnerships that fit their content and personal brand.

Making a creator a name, not a number

Cisneros sees personal attention as something a company must support with systems, not simply promise during a sales conversation. He wants creators to feel known as the roster grows, without losing the continuity that drew them to the business. That requires a team willing to ask for help when capacity gets tight. His approach to hiring starts with a real need, rather than adding positions for appearance. For advertisers, the same service mindset means clear contacts, dependable responses and an effort to deliver before a requested deadline.

Build the team around what you cannot do alone

Cisneros is direct about his own limitations. When he made his first hire, he explained that training was not his strongest skill and invited questions and close observation of his work. He sees that honesty as more useful than pretending to be good at everything. Finding people whose strengths fill the gaps allows a founder to keep developing the business without controlling every task. He also makes a distinction between choosing work that suits you and ignoring unfamiliar responsibilities: you still need enough understanding of areas such as accounting to ask questions and make informed decisions.

Personal effort opens the conversation

Aidan and Matt’s relationship began with a handwritten note. For Cisneros, the effort behind it stood apart from routine messages asking for his time. That story leads into his enthusiasm for helping younger entrepreneurs, informed by his own experience of building businesses and making mistakes. He does not present mentorship as having every answer. Instead, he describes using experience to make an uncertain decision feel less isolating. His closing advice is similarly practical: stay interested, ask follow-up questions and remember that the person across from you has a day and a perspective you may know nothing about.