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Fred Benenson

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Fred Benenson
Benenson in 2024
Alma materNew York University (BA)
New York University (MPS)
Occupation(s)Programmer, Entrepreneur, Writer
Notable workEmoji Dick
Talk Emoji to Me
Websitehttps://fredbenenson.com/

Fred Benenson is an American programmer, founder, entrepreneur, and writer. He was the second employee of Kickstarter and worked at Y Combinator.[1] His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, WIRED, and The Los Angeles Times, and in 2009, he created Emoji Dick, an emoji translation of Moby-Dick which was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2013.[2][3][4][5]

Benenson is currently a General Partner at Twenty Two Ventures, a venture capital firm, and serves on the board of Rhizome.[6][7]

Early life and education

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From 2001 to 2005, Benenson studied philosophy and computer science at New York University. As an undergraduate, he cofounded Free Culture @ NYU, a collegiate chapter of Students for Free Culture.[8] In 2008, he began his Masters of Professional Studies degree in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University's Tisch School.[9]

Career

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In 2008, as a master's student at New York University, Benenson began a role at Creative Commons.[10] He was also a research associate at Eyebeam.[11] One year later, in 2009, Benenson became the second hire at Kickstarter and went on to serve as its Vice President of Data.[12] From that year to 2010, Benenson served as an adjunct instructor in the Media, Culture, and Communication department at New York University.[13]

In 2011, Benenson wrote and published Emoji Dick, an emoji translation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick using Amazon Mechanical Turk, with support from a Kickstarter fundraiser, which was later acquired by the Library of Congress in 2013.[14] Asked about his motive for doing so, Benenson told Technically Media that he wanted to see "what it would be like to take a magnificent achievement of novel-writing and try to boil it down to this relatively new way of expressing ourselves."[5] In 2012, Benenson's emoji-based image of Eustace Tilley was showcased along with other submissions to The New Yorker's sixth annual Eustace Tilley contest.[15] Later, in 2015, Benenson released the book How to Speak Emoji.[16]

In 2016, Benenson joined Y Combinator.[17] The next year, in 2017, he and Alex Hague, whom he met at XOXO, released the game Pitch Deck, a card game in which players pitch startup ideas to one another.[18] The game was conceived by Benenson in 2015, and for the next two years, Benenson and Hague would develop it and eventually release it with support from a Kickstarter fundraiser.[19]

In 2018, Benenson left Y Combinator to return to Kickstarter as a Kickstarter Fellow in order to work on the platform's creator dashboard.[20] Two years later, in 2020, Benenson created and founded Breadwinner, a company specializing in an IoT device meant to track and monitor the growth and status of sourdough starter.[21]

In 2017, Benenson pitched the "Oyster with Pearl" emoji as a submission to the Unicode Consortium. It was rejected at first but eventually included in Unicode 12.0 in 2019.[22]

Benenson has also worked on several film projects. In 2019, he was an executive producer for The Emoji Story, and in 2024, he was an executive producer on Sasquatch Sunset and The Apprentice. During financial and contractual issues facing The Apprentice, Benenson and executive producer James Shani partially helped buy out, fund, and release the film ahead of the 2024 general election in lieu of studios declining to distribute it due to the controversy of its content.[23][24]

Currently, Benenson works at Twenty Two Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, as a General Partner.[25] He also serves on the board of Rhizome.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Origins: Alex Hague and Fred Benenson on turning an idea for a game into a game". thecreativeindependent.com. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  2. ^ Benenson, Fred (2019-09-08). "AI Is Coming for Your Favorite Menial Tasks". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  3. ^ Benenson, Fred. "Meet Bennett Foddy: The man behind QWOP and GIRP". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  4. ^ Benenson, Fred (2017-12-18). "Op-Ed: After the death of net neutrality, what will the internet look like?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  5. ^ a b Popovich, Nadja (2013-12-11). "Fred Benenson: the man who translated Moby Dick into Emoji". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  6. ^ "Twenty Two Ventures | Institution Profile | Private Equity International". www.privateequityinternational.com. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  7. ^ "Rhizome". Rhizome. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  8. ^ Fred (2008-09-08). "Free Culture @ NYU Moves On". Fred Benenson. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  9. ^ Oct 31, Jen ChungPublished; Mar 7, 2006Modified; 2008Share (2006-10-31). "Fred Benenson, Graduate Student and Halloween Enthusiast". Gothamist. Retrieved 2024-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ fbenenson (2009-11-09). "Moving on to Kickstarter". Creative Commons. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  11. ^ "Thursday @ EYEBEAM - Copyright & The Creator: Who Cares What's Fair?". Creative Commons. 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  12. ^ Woods, Tyler (2016-06-08). "'Mathwashing,' Facebook and the zeitgeist of data worship". Technical.ly. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  13. ^ "Creative Commons, Copyright on the Internet, and the Open Culture Movement". New York Law School Digital Commons. Retrieved October 19, 2024. {{cite web}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)
  14. ^ "Data Scientists From Tumblr, Kickstarter Confess One Big Goof". Observer. 2012-09-14. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  15. ^ Lopez, Christina. "The New Yorker's 'Eustace Tilley' Made With iPhone Emoji Icons". ABC News. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  16. ^ Draxler, Breanna (2015-10-02). "A Q&A With the Guy Who Wrote the Book on Emoji". Popular Science. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  17. ^ "Welcome Craig, Fred and Mark!". Y Combinator. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  18. ^ Wagenknecht, Addie. "Pitch Deck Is What Happens When You Invest In Everything Ridiculous". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  19. ^ "Origins: Alex Hague and Fred Benenson on turning an idea for a game into a game". thecreativeindependent.com. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  20. ^ Woods, Tyler (2018-02-12). "Power Moves: Notation Capital adds venture fellow, Fred Benenson back at Kickstarter, more". Technical.ly. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  21. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (2021-03-19). "Breadwinner is the new smart sourdough starter tracker of my dreams". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  22. ^ "Reconsider the Oyster". Rhizome. 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  23. ^ Lee, Chris (2024-10-10). "How a Rape Scene Blew Up the Trump Movie". Vulture. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  24. ^ Sherman, Gabriel (2024-10-01). "Inside the Fight to Release 'The Apprentice'". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  25. ^ "Twenty Two Ventures | Institution Profile | Private Equity International". www.privateequityinternational.com. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
  26. ^ "Rhizome". Rhizome. Retrieved 2024-10-19.
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