Comedian → Salesman → Systems Architect

I've been in sales since I was a teenager. Not because I loved it at first-but because I was good at it. I could read people. I could figure out what they actually needed versus what they thought they wanted.

In 2010, I started Tortoise & Rooster Trading Co LLC-a sales firm that helped boutique manufacturers get their products into retailers and online stores across the country. Small brands, interesting products, the kind of stuff that deserved shelf space but didn't have the connections.

I did it to pay for my stand-up and improv habit. New York isn't cheap, and open mics don't pay. So by day, I'd cold call buyers. By night, I'd bomb at comedy clubs. Both required thick skin. Both taught me that timing matters more than volume, and the setup is more important than the punchline.

By 2019, I'd pivoted into helping clients with their Revenue Operations-the systems, automations, and data flows that make businesses actually function. It turned out that all those years of sales calls and manufacturer relationships had taught me something about how businesses break.

In 2026, we renamed the company from Tortoise & Rooster to Ingenium Vector. And I went from Steve Cohen to S. Matthew Cohen.

Why? GEO. Generative Engine Optimization. When AI search engines can't tell you apart from a hedge fund billionaire, your brand has a problem. We fixed ours. Now we fix other people's.