About
We started this because
founders deserve better.
Founding Engine exists because we saw too many founders get sold beautiful websites that don't rank, vague retainers that don't deliver, and "SEO strategies" that are just blog posts and hope.
Matt Hyder
Founder & CEO
Matt built his first website at 14 and has been obsessed with how search engines work ever since. Before Founding Engine, he built Recoup Fitness from the ground up into an INC 5000 fastest-growing company — learning firsthand what it takes to scale organic traffic into real revenue.
Named to the Success 30 Under 30 list, Matt brings an engineering-first approach to SEO: build the infrastructure, measure everything, iterate fast. He's personally driven $30M+ in organic revenue for brands across DTC, home services, and B2B.
After years watching agencies consistently fail founders with vague retainers and blog-post-and-pray strategies, he started Founding Engine to do it differently — focused 30-day cycles, infrastructure first, measurable outcomes every time.
The Story
Why we built Founding Engine
I've been on both sides of the agency table. I've hired agencies that charged $5K/month for "SEO" and delivered keyword reports and blog posts. I've watched founders pour money into beautiful redesigns that tanked their organic traffic because nobody thought about redirects. When I was scaling Recoup Fitness to the INC 5000 list, I learned the hard way what works and what doesn't.
The pattern was always the same: agencies sold the visible parts of SEO (content, links, reports) while ignoring the invisible parts that actually matter (technical architecture, site structure, crawlability, schema). It's like hiring a contractor who paints the walls but doesn't check if the foundation is cracking.
So I built Founding Engine around a simple idea: fix the foundation first, then build on top of it. No 12-month contracts. No vague deliverables. Just focused 30-day cycles with clear outcomes.
I called it "Founding Engine" because I work with founders who are building something real — and I build the engine that drives their organic growth. It's not glamorous work. It's infrastructure work. But it's the work that actually moves the needle.
Values
What we believe
Foundation First
We don't build on broken foundations. Every engagement starts with the technical infrastructure — because nothing else matters if the base doesn't hold.
Founder to Founder
We're founders too. We understand the pressure of limited budgets, the need for real ROI, and the frustration of agencies that overpromise and underdeliver.
30-Day Cycles
No 12-month contracts. Every 30 days: clear deliverables, measurable outcomes, your call to continue. We earn your business every single month.
Built to Hold
Algorithm updates shouldn't destroy your business. We build SEO infrastructure that's resilient because it's built on fundamentals, not tricks.
Want to work with us?
We're selective about who we work with — and we think that's a good thing. Let's talk and see if it's a fit.
Start the Conversation