The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 70, No. 45 - November 11, 2021
The City of Inglewood’s Turkey Giveaway
Will Take Place on November 23
Thanks to Pepsi and Snoop Dogg over 2000 Inglewood families received a Free Thanksgiving Turkey and trimmings for their holiday meals last year. The City of Inglewood Turkey Giveaway Presented By Pepsi will host its annual Free Thanksgiving Drive-Thru Giveaway
with Snoop Dogg on November 23, 2021 at Hollywood Park CA . To register to receive a turkey, visit https://bit.ly/3jX4mI8 Photo courtesy City of Inglewood.
Matt Knox from front page
with six-foot-four defensemen.
Knox said he and his band haunted the
Sunset Strip from 1988-93, but then Nirvana
and their distinctive brand of grunge music
overwhelmed the music industry, which, Knox
said, “was the end of an era, and wiped-out the
rock and roll hair band era.” He and his mates,
Knox said, had played all the venues that were
“packed and happening” at the time on the
Sunset Strip, including the Whisky A Go Go,
the Roxy, and the Troubadour. But once it
became apparent that he was not going to
make his big-time mark in the music industry,
he pivoted his career aspirations.
He then bounced around the South Bay for
a while. He had, in that period, connected
with the current mayor of El Segundo, Drew
Boyles. Knox said that Boyles is also big-time
into music, and the association was made as
Knox pondered his next steps.
Welcome to Mayberry.
“El Segundo is an unbelievably businessfriendly
city,” Knox said, as well as being
welcoming to the creative industry. Knox noted
the availability of business space in the Smoky
Hollow part of town, and how certain of the
industrial units available were very enticing
for tech company entrepreneurs and businesses
who were not looking to cage their employees
in old-school drab cubicles but featured “open
space that we could make our own.”
But there was a slight detour.
Since the music and hockey aspirations petered
out, “I wanted to make some money,” Knox
said of his work time before starting Wonderful
Collective. “I knew people in financial services,
so it was an easy introduction,” he said as
he joined the 9-to-5 working class. He said
he enjoyed his time in the financial industry,
working on the life insurance side, learning
about how businesses work. He said that he
“had an affinity for financial products, and I
love selling, so it was a natural fit.”
But while working in the financial services
field, Knox realized that he still was not toiling
in the area where he wanted to make his living.
So, he sought a new avenue of employment.
The financial services field was “understandably,
highly regulated, a bit suffocating,” he
said, relating how the tension and differences
between the relative freedom of the rockand
roll field and the financial world led him
to explore diving into the tech sector, which
he termed “an open field for creativity.” He
soon embraced the world of tech, “the most
“rock-and-roll thing in business that I could
think of,” he said.
And so, his new career took shape.
Wonderful Collective has partnered with
companies like EA Sports, GoDaddy, and
Lexus, as well as designing digital platforms
for the National Hockey League, the National
Football League, and the PGA golf tour. They
have also designed the “Bingie” app, which
allows avid content streamers to “list whatever
you want to watch, on every single (platform),”
Knox said. “Our goal with Bingie,” Knox said,
“is that you will never have to guess what you
want to watch across all streaming platforms.”
Knox still hits the ice, saying that playing
hockey is “my meditation time. It reminds me
that “everything is going to be fine. You get out
there, run into a few guys, and they run into
you, and you feel better about life.” He lives
locally with his wife Skaie, who he said is a
“fantastic singer and songwriter,” which Knox
said “keeps the music going on in my house.”
Knox touts the business-friendly environ-
ment of El Segundo. “They have done such an
excellent job of attracting businesses,” he said,
mentioning that one of his favorite relaxation
destinations is Rock &-Brews, which, he said,
has “captured the backstage feeling of a rock
and roll show” while also showing sports on
their multiple screens.
The hockey guy Knox noted that he could
view the Stanley Cup at Rock & Brews after
one of the two LA. Kings triumphant seasons
in the last decade.
As for partnering with his brother Johnnie,
Knox calls the relationship “Awesome and
seamless. We have worked together for 15
years. We are both good at different things.”
For his part, brother Johnnie Munger, who
is currently working remotely from Tucson,
thinks the brother partnership is a great fit.
Munger is 14 years younger than his brother
and did mention that when he was interviewed.
Munger played tennis growing up, dabbled
in the music industry, and when Matt broached
getting into the digital field, Munger said he
was all in. He said that when he was making
music, he knew that the bands he played with
had to have a digital marketing presence. But
when the musical dreams waned, he and his
brother “woke up and realized that there was
value in (website and app designs), so why
not do it professionally?”
Munger said he is “pretty much in charge of
all creative output that comes out of Wonderful.”
Matt, Munger said, is the front-man of
the company, “and I am good standing behind
him,” noting that Matt is the character guy in
the company, always looking at the bigger
picture to move Wonderful forward.”
Added Munger, somewhat facetiously, about
his older brother: “Try to make him look really
old in the article,” softening that later, saying
“make him look ‘cool ancient,’ and adding that
Matt “is the face of the company, and people
trust him for a good reason.”
He said his tight relationship with his brother
is “the reason that we do well. We complement
each other. Where I fail, he succeeds,
and vice-a-versa,” noting that, as brothers, they
both have similar values.
What is on the upcoming agenda for Wonderful
Collective? Knox was asked? “We are
going to become our own biggest clients,”
he said, “teaming up with local businesses to
launch new products,” as well as increasing
the footprint of Wonderful Collective, both
regionally and nationally.
Hockey guy, rock and roller, entrepreneur:
Matt Knox, chasing the digital dream. •
Wonderful
Collective’s Matt Knox. Photo provided by Wonderful
Collective.