I met Motz at the LA loft in 2015 - we took shots to celebrate his wedding and he organized an afternoon gaming tournament. He is always the coolest guy in the room.~ Emma White
One of my favorite Motzments was from my early Portal A days on the originals team, where Motz, Kai, and I worked with a concept artist for our show idea and we watched his first drafts go from simple line sketches to full-blown concept art. The whole period of art feedback was foundational in working with Motz, as he taught me a ton of about how to balance positive and negative notes as well as how to nurture those to further our own development on the story itself. Over the course of development, we had a blast learning about each others taste and spending off Wednesdays playing the Game of Thrones board game (I was always losing, but that has nothing to do with the concept art; I am simply still bitter and I want Motz to know this). It was some of the most creative fun I have had in my work. Happy 10 years, Motz!! ~ Mikayla Cowley
I remember him getting an obscene amount of Amazon deliveries to the office - clothes, books, adult legos. People would think it was an important delivery for a shoot or something. Nope. Just the Motz daily drop of curated, top of the line items ~ Sam Jackson
Jacob was one of the first people I worked with at Portal A - I knew I was in a good place when I entered the meeting and he was holding a baseball bat pacing around in his office with the GIVE A DAMN poster in the background. Jacob has taught me three valuable lessons in this lifetime (I hope to see him in the next, it is sure to be lit):
~ Ashley Czerniewski
When he visits LA, he never fails to ask who out of the PAI team has the best shoes when the only right answer is his ~KJ
My first meeting with Motz was when he was going to be our client on a new YouTube series we were producing. And he was the chillest damn client I'd ever met. I just remember feeling "this guy is fucking cool, I want to work with him". Still true to this day.~ Zach Blume
You've gotta respect a man who honors a handshake. One summer day in the LA office, Jacob Motz reached out his hand to seal a fateful agreement: if his Portal-A colleagues came together to cover the cost, he would get a spray tan at work. Of course, like they always do, the Portal-A team succeeded. We booked a mobile spray tanner for that afternoon, confirming 2 important facts:
~ Erin Schmalfeld
No one I know has more positive maker spirit than Jacob. You get into a room with him, and you just feel inspired to go make something cool. And the best part is, he's always down to jam. Nothing represents that more than the JACOB WHITEBOARD. Sure, there are people with better marker handwriting, better choice of colors even, but no one draws arrows and underlines like him. Spend an hour at a whiteboard with Jacob and you WILL crack it. Whatever it may be: a short, Rewind, or even an audio recording that he insists on calling a podcast. ~Kai Hasson
Years ago, we pooled money in the office to pay for Jacob to get a spray tan. So sure enough, someone showed up with a mobile spray tan booth, and in between his meetings, Jacob went from pale to orange (although not as orange as we'd hoped). Then to pay him, we froze the cash in a block of ice filled with glitter and perfume, and most of it was coins. It was a highlight of my time at Portal A with Jacob, and I imagine it was for him too. ~Jackson Adams
Congrats on 10 incredible years, Motz! I always tell people Portal A is the most fun, creative, and wild team I have ever worked with and when they ask what I mean I show them a video of you solving a million tiny scroll riddles in pursuit of your spray tan winnings, which was a roll of change frozen in a block of glittering ice. Thanks for showing 20-something me how good work can be when it is more than a job. Cheers to 10 more years of really, truly, committing to the bit.
~ Tess Hannel