Ben Parr Email & Phone Number

New York, Ny, Us

San Francisco, California, Us

Octane AI is the AI and zero-party data platform for ecommerce brands. Our mission is to democratize AI for all and empower entrepreneurs in the process. Shopify elected Octane AI as its Best Storefront App in 2021. Octane AI powers AI-enabled quizzes and surveys for thousands of merchants and brands, helps them personalize marketing channels like email, SMS and ads, and build deeper relationships with their customers using AI. Octane AI’s patented conversational technology enables thousands of merchants to collect zero-party data directly from customers and leverage it to build lasting relationships across owned marketing channels. Octane AI’s users experience an average increase in revenue by 20% and marketing opt-ins by 3-6x. Octane AI an all-remote company employing team members in over 12 countries. We've raised funding from top-tier investors including General Catalyst, Javelin Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital and Boost VC.

San Francisco, California, Us

Co-founded Octane AI in 2016 with my co-founders Matt and Leif. Our mission is to help brands and customers build real relationships through AI-enabled conversations. Our first product was the easiest platform to build Facebook Messenger chatbots, Since then, we have grown into the AI and zero-party data marketing platform for Shopify and ecommerce brands. My responsibilities as CMO/Chief Marketing Officer focused on growing Octane AI's brand presence, building partnerships, and supporting our CEO in executing the vision.We've raised over $14 million from General Catalyst, Bullpen Capital, Boost VC, Javelin Partners, and dozens amazing angels and firms.

Milwaukie, Oregon, Us

In 2020, the not-for-profit arm of Samasource renamed itself the Leila Janah Foundation, in honor of its late founder and visionary, Leila Janah. I serve as a Board Member of the Foundation to further her legacy of Giving Work.Leila believed that Giving Work was a far more powerful tool to eradicating poverty than giving aid, as it creates a permanent pathway toward economic security and financial independence. This foundation honors her vision of Giving Work, by focusing on non-profit programs that drive economic mobility for people living in underserved communities.

First check (with my partner Matt Schlicht) in a $3.1m pre-seed round, joined by Boost VC, Coinbase, Visa, Untapped and Spartan Group.Payman is a platform that lets AIs hire humans. Example: Imagine you had an AI that monitored your market for trends and then automatically hired someone to write a blog post.Soon, AI agents and humans will work together on projects. AIs will take care of the tedious work, and the AIs will use Payman to hire humans to do the things that AI cannot do. But for humans and AIs to collaborate, there has to be a payment layer and platform to facilitate it. Payman is that platform.

San Francisco, Us

Wordware (YC S24) is an IDE for building AI agents and apps using natural language. It allows you to build AI apps 20x faster than you normally could, and you don't even have to be technical to use it!When Matt Schlicht and I first tried Wordware and met founder Filip and Robert, it was clear that this company and product were DIFFERENT. Wordware is SO beautiful and it's so easy to use. There's nothing like it.If you are building AI applications or agents, you have to sign up at http://Wordware.ai.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Ca

Thrilled to be an investor with my co-founder Matt Schlicht!b Gumloop is making it easy for anyone to build powerful AI workflows -- no AI expertise or coding needed.Matt and I invested because Gumloop is hands down the easiest-to-use tool we've ever found for building AI automation and workflows. The founders are just as impressive.The round was led by First Round Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Max Mullen (Instacart), Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Andrew Ofstad (Airtable), Immad Akhund (Mercury), Kulveer Taggar (Zeus), Liquid2, WndrCo, Richard Aberman(WePay), JJ Fliegelman(Wayup), and Ludlow Ventures.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

A book on the science and psychology of attention; why we pay attention to certain people, products, companies and ideas; and how to capture, maintain, and grow attention. Analyzed over 1,000 research studies in psychology, neurology, communications, and economics, and interviewed dozens of thought leaders including Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Soderbergh, and David Copperfield to form the thesis of the book. Captivology has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Success Magazine, Forbes, Business Insider, USA Today, The Financial Times, and other publications. The book was named the best marketing book of 2015 by Strategy+Business Magazine.ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY: www.bit.ly/captivology

Ottawa, On, Ca

Named by Shopify as one of its first ten Developer Champions! We explain the virtues of building on top of the Shopify platform and spread the word about the MANY new innovations and features Shopify is launching. Shopify's Developer Champions include the creators/developers of some of Shopify's most popular apps.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Alexandria, Va, Us

I speak on artificial intelligence, silicon valley, the psychology of marketing and attention, and the future of entrepreneurship to audiences large and small. Expect fireworks and confetti (literally)! Direct booking: Bill Hart -- bhart@wwsg.comSpeaker profiles:www.benparr.com/speakinghttp://www.wwsg.com/speakers/ben-parr

The Internet, Us

A happy investor in Weekend Fund since Fund I. Led by Ryan Hoover and Vedika Jain. Investors in Deel, Intercom and Magic.

Sf Bay Area / Nyc / Remote, Us

Investor in Superlayer, a crypto-focused studio and fund backed by Marc Andreessen, Paris Hilton, Chris Dixon, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Clavier, Siqi Chen, Joe Montana and more.

New York, Us

I have been advising Aug X Labs, an incredible A.I. product and technology that transforms prompts (including audio) into beautiful, amazing videos using A.I. to build the whole thing. Think of it like Jasper.ai for video. Led by former WarnerMedia VP of Product Jeremy Toeman, Aug X just came out of stealth and announced their oversubscribed pre-seed round!I'm thrilled to work with Jeremy and his team and to advise them on fundraising, marketing and operations!

World Chef is a next-generation culinary streaming platform for foodies, where you can cook alongside the world's top chefs and get deliveries of the ingredients for their most famous dishes so you can prepare meals with them! World Chef connects Celebrity Chefs with their fans through content, commerce and a community of food lovers. I've known the founders (Mike, Tim and Mark) for years. Mike and Tim won an Emmy for their award-winning Amazon show "Eat the World" with Chef Emeril Lagasse and are PASSIONATE about food and using their talents to transform the food world.I'm honored to be an advisor, helping them achieve their vision!

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Samasource specializes in providing data solutions like artificial intelligence annotation, data verification and content moderation. We harness the power of the digital economy to lift people out of poverty by providing work that pays a living wage in places with high rates of unemployment in Kenya, Uganda, and other regions of the world. We call that Impact Sourcing.As a member of the board, I was partially responsible for governance, strategic direction, management evaluation, and moving the vision forward.

New York, New York, Us

I write about business, technology, media, and entrepreneurship. Check out my column at http://inc.com/author/ben-parr.

New York, Us

The Ascent Fellowship, led by former World Economic Forum and Spencer Stuart COO Kevin Steinberg and founded by former WEF executives, is a cohort-based program that brings together carefully-selected executive peers for a nine month engagement focused on understanding how industry, technology and societal disruptions will affect them and their organizations. Each Fellowship includes three 3-to 4-day modules over the course of nine months, The residential modules focus on particular leadership needs and are tailored to each cohort. Developed in collaboration with global partners, each module delivers forward-thinking and diverse perspectives on critical curriculum topics.

Frankfurt Am Main, Germany, De

I advise Europe's largest airline on growth, marketing and startups as a member of Lufthansa's innovation advisory board and innovation hub.

San Francisco, California, Us

Advised LeadIQ (raised at a $200m valuation in October 2021) on marketing, PR and fundraising.

I advised Ustream and its CEO on marketing and media strategy. Acquired in 2016 by IBM.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Started a column at CNET calledThe Social Analyst. Analyzed the key companies, trends and players powering the tech and social media universe, from the smallest startups to tech giants.

New York, Ny, Us

Opened Mashable's Silicon Valley office, co-managed Mashable's editorial team, and helped grow the company from 5 million to 50 million page views and from <10 to 50+ employees.Wrote more than 2,400 articles, interviewed everyone from Ashton Kutcher to Mark Zuckerberg, and built extensive networks in technology, entertainment, and media.

New York, Ny, Us

Oversaw and developed west coast and Silicon Valley editorial.

New York, Ny, Us

Brought everything social media, web, and startup-related to the masses.

New York, Ny, Us

Wrote analysis articles on social media, Internet trends, and entrepreneurship.

Deerfield, Il, Us

I oversaw Veritas Health's doctor-written health content, its web growth strategy, and helped implement new features. I was part product manager, part project manager, part designer and part engineer.

Evanston, Il, Us

Assisted freshmen residents of university housing as a mentor, disciplinary, advisor, and friend.

Washington, Dc, Us

Intern for retired Congressman Jerry Weller. Conducted legislative research, constituent management and service, giving tours, administrative duties, and learning from the D.C. culture.

Santa Barbara, Ca, Us

Joined UCSB's Research Mentorship Program between my sophomore and junior year of high school. Assisted in the development of a musical artificial intelligence that could compose harmonic music automatically.Cool fact: If you search the UCSB library, you will find the thesis paper I wrote on the project.