McMaster Out to Defeat Android, iOS

What McMaster Brings to Cyanogen

Kirt McMaster hasn’t got home much since he left Nova Scotia a few decades ago – he’s been too busy with his various ventures in Silicon Valley. He talks regularly to his father Sheldon, but visits have been few and far between. 

After graduating from Riverview Rural High School in the early 1990s, he studied computer science at Dalhousie University. During this time, he co-founded one of North America's first Internet professional service firms. (After acquisitions and name changes, it has morphed into EQ Inc., which still clings to life on the TSX Venture exchange.)

He dropped out of Dal in 1997 and moved to the San Francisco area to join the dotcom boom.

“As any entrepreneur will tell you, I screwed around in university for a number of years and I wondered why I was there,” he said. “I didn’t need school to do what I wanted to do in tech.”

For 15 years, he’s held a series of positions, including as adviser to a venture capital fund, an exec with Sony, and a consultant. A few of the most notable posts include: founding Dimension X, bought by Microsoft in 1998; internet professional services company Spike, which listed in Australia; Internet solutions firm Rare Medium, which listed on Nasdaq, grew to a $9 billion market capitalization then flared out in the dotcom crash; Boost Mobile, acquired by Nextel; and most recently Syn, which was mainly focused on iOS TV and raised $1.2 million in funding.

Late in 2012, McMaster wound down Syn to focus on Cyanogen, with the  goal of developing a credible competitor for iOS and Android.