Fred is currently a General Partner at TwentyTwo, investing in early stage technology companies. Previously, he held a key role as Kickstarter’s second employee and VP of Data for over six years, and worked at Y Combinator team as an engineer and admissions manager.

Fred is also the founder, engineer, and community support specialist of Breadwinner, an IoT device designed for sourdough baking enthusiasts. In 2009 he created Emoji Dick, an emoji translation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick which was acquired by the Library of Congress and was also the subject of a round of Who Wants to be a Millionare.

He studied philosophy and computer science in undergrad, and was influential in the students for free culture movement, a copyright reform organization. He’s written for The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Bookforum, WIRED and 2600 and is on the board of Rhizome.org.

Based in the East Village, NYC and occasionally Topanga, California Fred enjoys surfing, literature, playing piano and mycology.

📩 [email protected]
💬 @fredbenenson
📸 @fredbenenson
💾 @fredbenenson


AI Is Coming for Your Favorite Menial Tasks – The Atlantic – 2019
SUBMARINE Emoji Unicode Submission – Unicode – 2019
OYSTER Emoji Unicode Submission – Unicode – 2018
After the death of net neutrality, what will the internet look like? – Los Angeles Times – 2017
OYSTER WITH PEARL Emoji Unicode Submission – 2017
The Tetris Effect Book Review – Bookforum – 2016
Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam – 2016
Why Graphics Cards are Hacking the Future – 2016
Humanity UX – 2016
On the next 2,271 days – 2016
Websafe 2k16 – 2016
This is the story of analytics at Kickstarter Kickstarter – 2016
Lunch Roulette Kickstarter – 2014
Blockbuster Effects Kickstarter – 2012
Shortening the Maximum Project Length Kickstarter – 2011
Soul-Crushing Realism Is a Videogame Hit WIRED Magazine, 2011
Hidden Treasure: Lost Photos From the Set of American Graffiti WIRED Magazine, 2011


.notyetdef – 2019 – A Unicode GAN
SQL Styleguide – 2016
virgil.dog / source – 2015
Kumquat a reporting tool for rendering RMarkdown files inside Rails – 2015
Lunch Roulette is a command line tool for generating diverse lunch groups from a list of staff – 2014
@emojidreams – 2014
Cause Caller an empirical test of participatory democracy // ITP Thesis – 2008


How to Speak Emoji Ebury Press // Penguin Randomhouse UK – 2015
Emoji Dick – 2010


MoMA / PopRally – 1, 2, 3, 4
DFA Records – Hercules and Love Affair, LCD Soundsystem
TIME Magazine
Wikipedia – Aaron Swartz, Jonatham Lethem, Tonka Beans, more
Kill Screen Magazine


Pitch Deck – 2017
The Emoji Translation Project – 2015
SOPA shirt – 2011
Hackers Party – 2010
Emoji Dick – 2009


On turning an idea for a game into a game – The Creative Independent – 2018
a16z Podcast: The Meaning of Emoji – 2016
The Ringer Tech Podcast with Molly McHugh – 2016
Slack Variety Pack Episode 28 – 2016
How to Speak Emoji Chicago Humanities Festival – 2016
MoMA R&D Salon 11 Unfair/Fair – Copyrights and Us – 2014
I Have No Words: Emoji and the New Visual Vernacular Eyebeam – 2014
Skynet via the Darknet: How We’re Unwittingly Training the Next Gen of Strong AI Ignite – 2012
A Startup’s First Dataist DataGotham – 2012
Crowdsourcing: Innovation and/or Exploitation? SXSW – 2011
Can you Copyright a Tweet? SXSW – 2010


Emoji Dick and the Eponymous Whale, An Essay in Four Parts – Post45 – 2018
Pitch Deck Is What Happens When You Invest In Everything Ridiculous – Forbes – 2018
Reconsider the Oyster – 2017
Interview on “mathwashing” – 2016
Interview with Popular Science – 2015
Meet the guy trying to turn emoji into a legitimate, usable language – 2015
NPR Marketplace – 2015
WNYC – 2014
Interview with The Guardian – 2013
Emoji Translation of Moby-Dick Accepted Into Library of Congress TIME Magazine – 2013
The New Yorker’s ‘Eustace Tilley’ Made With iPhone Emoji Icons ABC News – 2012
Revenge of the Cyberpunks – 2010
Graduate Student and Halloween Enthusiast Gothamist – 2006
Code Warriors Village Voice – 2006


HBO Silicon Valley Consultant
Rhizome.org board member & Seven on Seven co-founder
Founder Students for Free Culture – 2004
HackNY Judge – 2011