Frank Denbow — Artist, Computer Scientist, & Entrepreneur from New Jersey
Frank Denbow is currently the lead strategist at Goated Guild, which helps startups gather insight from unbiased customer feedback to use in their product and marketing (see his 300+ company video teardowns of onboarding here).
Frank is also the founder of INK'A, a platform for selling top quality custom apparel for brands and influencers (video pitch here). Frank self-funded INK’A into millions in revenue, working with celebrities like 50 Cent, Lil Durk, and Candace Smith along with companies like Mixpanel, Postmates, and Google on their merchandise strategy. INK'A incubates its own brands including Paco's Nails, Art of Heartbreak, Goated Ones, Frank & Earnest, Emo Energy, RouteHero, Pickney, and Layzer.
Before that, he was at Microsoft for Startups as a Startup Advocate, helping lead Microsoft's engagement with the startup community in the United States and serving on Microsoft's COVID19 task force.
Born in Harlem, and raised by Jamaican & Guyanese parents in New Jersey, he caught the bug for entrepreneurship at an early age, selling pheromone cologne (really) on eBay, and began programming in middle school. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science program, Frank interned as a software developer at Apple (crossing paths with Steve Jobs) before building his own companies.
Art has always been a part of his life, as a dancer (reel) and paper artist (Joy With Paper). Coupling his artistic interests with his background as a technologist, he helped craft hip-hop inspired events like Tech & Culture SXSW and Masterclash. Now his artistic interests are mainly expressed through latin dance (salsa and bachata), paper pulp sculpture.
Frank has held leadership positions starting as a young teenager in community organizations such as First Presbyterian Church as the first youth deacon and at Habitat for Humanity in Bergen County as the first youth board member. He also has volunteered for the past decade on the Music Startup Meetup, Startup Weekend, Startup Digest, & Coalition for Queens, helping connect entrepreneurs with the resources they need. Out of this desire, he co-created INFLECTION, a conference for profitable companies, which was featured in the New York Times. Frank also taught the Introduction to NYC Startup Community course at General Assembly. His goal is to help 1000 entrepreneurs reach $10m+ in sales over the next 20 years
Frank has given feedback to 100s of entrepreneurs (some of their feedback here), personally and through mentoring at HF0, Entrepreneurs Roundtable, NY Fashion Tech Labs, Parallel18, HBCU.vc, and Ignite. If you're a startup and you want feedback on your onboarding / first time user experience or your investment deck, fill this out.
Frank has been an angel investor via Goated.vc in companies such as Secureframe, Roboflow, Rosebud.ai, EdLyft, and Upstream, and advisor to One Second Everyday , Hooper, and Black Women Talk Tech. Watch his daily startup analysis on youtube here.
With passions for spreading computer science education, affecting change in prison reform, and in impacting communities, Frank serves on the advisory board for Academy For Software Engineering (a Computer Science focused high school) & volunteers with organizations like Bowery Mission, Hustle 2.0, Defy Ventures, iMentor, Uncommon Law, and Experience Camps (grief camp for kids).
An (extremely) amateur model & actor, Frank has done campaigns for Under Armour, and Land Rover. That was a joke, Frank is not a model. Frank should not be taken seriously in this regard. Frank does not know why he wrote this in 3rd person, Frank knows that its weird.
Life does not always go up and to the right and Frank has gone through ups and downs in more ways than you can imagine. If you are struggling and need someone to talk to without judgement, even if you're not a close friend, he is here to listen.
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