Ben Parr

Current

Associate Editor at Mashable

Past

Writer/Contributor at Mashable
Interactive Content Manager at Spine-health
Project Management & Promotion at Free Lunch Inc

Community Assistant at Northwestern University
Co-Founder at Aphon Inc.
Paid Intern at United States House of Representatives, Congressman Jerry Weller

see less...

3 more...

Education

Northwestern University

Recommended

1 person has recommended Ben

Connections

211 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Ben Parr’s Summary

I'm a technology entrepreneur, blogger, sci-fi writer, and aspiring world changer.

I'm a do-it-all type of person who has been gathering skills and focus as I go. I'm focused on tech and Internet, but mostly I just love to build things and making things more effective.

I finished my first novel, "The Eternal Sphere", on Jan. 24th. And now I'm in the editing process.

Ben Parr’s Specialties:

A shortlist:
- Business development (including financial models, accounting, sales and support, customer acquisition, etc.)
- Anything involving problem solving (i.e. deriving conclusions from website analytics, debugging, strategy)
- Some coding (PHP, C, HTML, CSS)
- Writing and blogging (two completely different writing styles)
- Most everything I'm called on to do.

Ben Parr’s Experience

Associate Editor

Mashable

(Privately Held; Online Media industry)

March 2009 — Present (5 months)

Bringing everything social media, web, and startup-related to the Internet.
Writer/Contributor

Mashable

(Privately Held; Online Media industry)

August 2008 — March 2009 (8 months)

I write analysis articles on social media, Internet trends, and entrepreneurship.
Interactive Content Manager

Spine-health

(Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)

June 2008 — March 2009 (10 months)

I oversaw Spine-health's doctor-written health content, its web growth strategy, and help implement new features. I did everything from redesign the entire website (it's much faster and user-friendly now) to revamping the navigation structure of the website (using analytics to understand how users use our navigation).
Project Management & Promotion

Free Lunch Inc

(Internet industry)

April 2008 — June 2008 (3 months)

I tried to turn Free Lunch's FriendQuilts Facebook application into a major hit in every way I possibly could. Acquiring new users, viral advertising, creating content and tutorials, using data to fix the application's flaws.
Community Assistant

Northwestern University

(Education Management industry)

September 2006 — March 2008 (1 year 7 months)

I assisted freshmen residents of university housing as a mentor, disciplinary, advisor, and friend.
Co-Founder

Aphon Inc.

(Internet industry)

April 2007 — September 2007 (6 months)

We were building a website that would help aspiring actors and directors get recognition through video competitions, but we couldn't bring it all together.

My first true taste of entrepreneurship, a real lesson in failure.
Paid Intern

United States House of Representatives, Congressman Jerry Weller

(Government Administration industry)

June 2005 — August 2005 (3 months)

Legislative research, constituent management and service, giving tours, administrative duties, taking in the D.C. culture.

Ben Parr’s Education

Northwestern University

B.A. , Science in Human Culture, Political Science, Business Institutions Program (Minor) , 2004 — 2008

Activities and Societies:

- Co-President, InNUvation (Entrepreneurship Organization)
- Senator and Election Commissioner, Associated Student Government
- Chair and Organizer, Entrepreneurship Advisory Panel
- Board Member and Conciliator, University Hearings and Appeals Board
- Academics and Admissions Committee
- Senior Class Gift Committee