1. Ben Parr was born on February 12,1985 and is an American journalist, author, venture capitalist and entrepreneur.
33 Facts About Ben Parr
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Ben Parr is the author of Captivology: The Science of Capturing People's Attention, a book on the science and psychology of attention and how to capture the attention of others.
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Ben Parr is the President and co-founder of Octane AI, a marketing automation and conversational marketing company for e-commerce, and a co-founder of artificial intelligence venture capital fund Theory Forge Ventures.
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Ben Parr was previously a venture capitalist, the co-editor and editor-at-large of Mashable, and a columnist and commentator for CNET.
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Ben Parr quit the football team to become a drum major.
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Ben Parr earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 2002 and graduated as valedictorian from Princeton High School in 2004.
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Ben Parr was awarded the Kapnick Prize for his work in promoting entrepreneurship on campus.
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Ben Parr worked as a Community Assistant at Elder Hall and was elected president of InNUvation, Northwestern's entrepreneurship club, as an undergraduate.
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Ben Parr joined Mashable as a writer in August 2008, but was promoted to Associate Editor in March 2009, Co-Editor in September 2009 and Editor-at-Large in May 2011.
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Ben Parr was fired from the company in November 2011 after a disagreement over compensation.
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In February 2012, Ben Parr announced that he was joining the technology news website CNET as a commentator and columnist.
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In February 2012, Ben Parr started a company, The Peep Project, the firm attempted to change the way people interact with information.
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In 2012, Ben Parr started a seed-stage venture capital fund, DominateFund, with partners Matt Schlicht and Mazy Kazerooni.
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On February 4,2014, Ben Parr announced that he was in the process of writing his first book, Captivology: The Science of Capturing People's Attention, released by HarperCollins in March 2015.
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Ben Parr's book focuses on understanding the psychology of attention and how that scientific knowledge can be applied to capture the attention of others.
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Ben Parr's book includes interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Soderbergh, Jeff Weiner, Grant Imahara, Brian Stelter, David Copperfield, Daniel Pink, Shigeru Miyamoto, Alan Baddeley, Susan Cain, Michael Posner, Adrian Grenier and others.
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In September 2014, Ben Parr launched a new column with Inc Magazine, focused on business and entrepreneurship.
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On November 2,2016, Ben Parr announced Octane AI, a chatbot creation platform for Facebook Messenger.
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Ben Parr's company has raised $1.5 million in funding led by Evernote founder Phil Libin at General Catalyst.
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Ben Parr announced the hiring of former DigitalOcean and Shutterstock executive Heather Adams as vice president of marketing.
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In 2024, The Information reported that Ben Parr had started an artificial intelligence venture capital fund, Theory Forge Ventures, with his Octane AI co-founder Matt Schlicht.
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Ben Parr is a frequent public speaker and makes regular television appearances.
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Ben Parr has been a technology commentator for CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC's Press:here.
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Ben Parr has made cameo appearances on Fox's Gotham and USA's Leap Year.
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In 2015, Ben Parr joined the innovation advisory board of Lufthansa.
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In March 2017, Ben Parr was elected to the board of directors of Samasource, a non-profit business with the mission to reduce global poverty by connecting unemployed people in the United States and impoverished countries to digital work.
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Ben Parr is signed by Worldwide Speakers Group for speaking engagements and public appearances.
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In 2011, Ben Parr was named one of the top 10 tech journalists in the world by Say Media.
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Ben Parr was named San Francisco's coolest social media geek by SF Weekly.
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In 2012, Ben Parr was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30, along with DominateFund co-founders Matt Schlicht and Mazy Kazerooni.
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In 2013, Ben Parr was designated as a fellow of the Tribeca Film Festival's Disruption foundation.
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In 2015, Ben Parr was named one of the top 10 Internet of Things experts by Inc Magazine alongside Tony Fadell, Chris Sacca and others.
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Ben Parr was named by Huffington Post as one of 10 people to know in Silicon Valley.