Matt Marshall started VentureBeat in 2006 and serves as its editor and CEO. From 2001 to 2006, he handled Mercury News' venture capital and startup beat. During that period, Marshall greatly extended the newspaper's coverage of venture capital and startups, first with daily stories and a weekly column called the VC Insider, and later with his blog SiliconBeat, which he launched in 2004. Marshall received the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists' Journalist of the Year award in 2002, as well as the James Madison Freedom of Information Award in 2003.