Matthew Prince

Matthew Prince
Born	(1974-11-13) November 13, 1974 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, executive
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Co-founder, executive chairman, and CEO of Cloudflare

Matthew Browning Prince (born November 13, 1974) is a prominent American entrepreneur and billionaire executive. He serves as the co-founder, executive chairman, and CEO of Cloudflare, a leading technology firm. As of 2025, Prince's net worth is estimated at $5.5 billion, making him the richest individual in Utah.

Hailing from Salt Lake City and raised in Park City, Utah, Prince demonstrated an early passion for computer science. He completed his undergraduate studies at Trinity College in 1996, earned a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2000, and obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2009. His tenure as an instructor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law coincided with the enactment of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which motivated him to develop Unspam and Project Honey Pot—open-source software designed for data collection. In 2009, alongside Harvard Business School peer Michelle Zatlyn and Project Honey Pot co-creator Lee Holloway, he co-founded Cloudflare.

Early life and education

Matthew Prince was born on November 13, 1974, at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City and grew up in Park City. His father, John Browning Prince, transitioned from journalism to managing a stock brokerage firm and restaurant ownership; his mother operated multiple gift shops. The Prince family has longstanding ties to Park City, contributing to local landmarks such as Parleys Summit Ski Resort and Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley. Among his ancestors was Jonathan Browning, whose son John Browning designed iconic firearms including the Browning Auto-5 shotgun and M1911 pistol. Early exposure to technology came through receiving an Apple II Plus computer at age seven and attending university-level computer science courses with encouragement from his mother. He attended Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School during his youth and worked as a ski instructor assistant throughout high school.

Prince graduated from Trinity College in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English literature and minoring in computer science. During his college years, he was editor-in-chief of The Trinity Tripod newspaper and co-founded the digital publication The Trincoll Journal. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 2000 and completed his MBA at Harvard Business School in 2009, where he was recognized as a George F. Baker Scholar.

Early career

While pursuing his law degree at the University of Chicago, Prince gained experience working for Latham & Watkins before joining GroupWorks, an online insurance provider. In 2003, he served as a cyberlaw instructor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and co-authored research concerning the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Motivated by the establishment of the National Do Not Call Registry, he helped launch Unspam Technologies to create Unspam—an email spam-blocking solution—and supported Project Honey Pot, an open-source initiative tracking IP addresses involved in email-address harvesting.

Cloudflare

In 2008, after receiving inquiries from the Department of Homeland Security regarding Unspam Technologies' data assets, Prince co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 alongside Lee Holloway and Harvard Business School graduate Michelle Zatlyn. Their team secured Harvard Business School’s Dubilier Prize, earning $50,000 in startup capital.

In 2012, hacker collective UGNazi targeted Prince by exploiting his personal information to execute a DNS hijacking attack against 4chan. Using stolen credentials to circumvent two-factor authentication on Prince’s Gmail account, they redirected traffic from 4chan. Cloudflare promptly identified UGNazi members, who were also among its clients. Two years later, Prince’s residence was mistakenly subjected to a SWAT raid triggered by a fraudulent emergency call.

Cloudflare attracted attention for hosting services for Chechen news outlet Kavkaz Center. Prince defended this stance by underscoring the principle that "A website is speech. It is not a bomb." In 2013, he publicly opposed gag orders imposed by the National Security Agency. Nonetheless, he has taken measures against extremist content; notably, he personally terminated service for the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer after users falsely claimed Cloudflare support. He later clarified that suspending service exposes websites to increased risk of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. In September 2022, Cloudflare discontinued service for Kiwi Farms following harassment campaigns targeting Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti.

The Park Record

In March 2023, Prince and his spouse Tatiana purchased the newspaper The Park Record from Ogden Newspapers. They have since made digital content available without charge. Their future objective includes transforming the publication into either a non-profit entity or a public benefit corporation, as well as introducing Spanish-language reporting.

Personal life

Prince and Tatiana (maiden name Lingos-Webb) live in Park City, Utah with their daughter. As reported by Forbes, Prince's net worth stood at billion in 2023, ranking him as Utah’s second richest individual after Gail Miller. He holds the distinction of being a Technology Pioneer with the World Economic Forum and is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations.

In October 2022, Prince requested authorization from Park City planners to raze an existing main residence and guest house on King Road to construct a new mansion, guest quarters, swimming pool, and parking garage near Treasure Hill, a publicly acquired open space valued at million. This development plan was reviewed by the planning commission. Concurrently, language was incorporated into a Senate bill that would permit Prince to circumvent committee scrutiny for the demolition process; he also engaged lobbyist Lincoln Shurtz for this purpose. Ultimately, the proposed legislation did not pass in the House.