What Is hilarymason.com and Who Is Hilary Mason?

Updated

hilarymason.com is the personal site of Hilary Mason, co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door, a company working on machine-driven storytelling. The site is not a blog or product page in the usual sense: it is a single hub for three things she offers publicly — speaking, advisory work, and a long-running archive of writing. If you arrived looking for her professional profile, booking information, or her past writing, this page is the entry point for all three.

Who Hilary Mason is

The site identifies her as co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door in New York, with the stated focus of "teaching machines to tell stories." Her broader positioning is as a builder and advisor on AI products — specifically, as the page puts it, AI products "that survive contact with reality."

The page also lists recognition and press mentions: WIRED, Fortune 40 Under 40, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, Variety, TechCrunch, and The Verge. These are presented as credentials on the homepage rather than as articles to read there.

What the site actually offers

The homepage is organized around four labeled sections, each pointing to a different kind of engagement:

Section What it covers Where it leads
Speaking Recent and upcoming stages, including GDC 2026, QCon AI New York, dev/ai/nyc, and gamescom congress A talks page and a booking route
Advising A limited number of board and advisory roles for teams "thinking about technical transformation holistically" An explanation of how that works
Writing Twenty years of notes on data and machines, "restored and datestamped" The archive
About Earlier jobs, a hackerspace, and books The About page

The recurring theme across speaking and advising is applied AI: talks described as being about "AI products that actually ship," and advisory work aimed at organizations undergoing technical change rather than at individual learners.

How to use it, depending on what you need

  • If you want to book her to speak, start from the Speaking section and follow the "See talks & book me" link. The listed stages give a sense of the venues and topics before you inquire.
  • If you are evaluating her for a board or advisory role, the Advising section states the scope up front — a limited number of roles, focused on holistic technical transformation. Read "How that works" before reaching out.
  • If you want her writing, the archive is the destination. Note the framing: material dating back to 2006, restored and datestamped, so expect older posts presented with original dates rather than rewritten.
  • If you want biography and background, the About page holds the earlier career details, the hackerspace, and the books — none of which are expanded on the homepage.

What to keep in mind

The site is a personal hub, so it does not function as a company site for Hidden Door or as a general AI resource. Details such as fees, availability, or response times for speaking and advising are not stated on the homepage; those would come from the linked pages or from direct contact. The subscription-related terms that appear in the site's metadata are not explained on the homepage, so treat any sign-up option as something to read on its own terms rather than assume it is free or unrestricted.

For a quick orientation: one person, three offerings — talks, advice, and an archive — with the About page for the longer story.