Ben Parr

Ben Parr is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, investor, and journalist. He is the author of the best-selling book Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention — named a top marketing book by Strategy+Business Magazine and Small Business Trends. He is Co-founder and COO of Octane AI, the CRM for Messenger marketing. He sits on the board of directors of Samasource, the global non-profit dedicated to impact sourcing and giving work and is a member of the advisory board of Lufthansa Airlines.

Previously, Parr was a General Partner at DominateFund, an early-stage venture capital fund where he led investments in Ubeam, Shots, Mingyian, and other startups. Before that, Parr was Co-Editor and Editor-at-Large of Mashable, where he wrote 2,446 articles on social media and technology, managed Mashable’s editorial team, and interviewed business leaders from Ashton Kutcher to Mark Zuckerberg. He also served as Columnist and Commentator for CNET.

For his work, Parr was named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30, one of the top ten tech journalists in the world by Say Media, one of the top 10 Internet of Things experts by Inc. Magazine, and a disruption fellow of the TriBeCa Film Festival. He has been featured in a variety of media, including ABC News, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, NPR, Fox News, USA Today, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and The New York Times. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, majoring in Science in Human Culture and Political Science. He is based in San Francisco, but remains a die-hard fan of the Chicago Bears.