MIT Sloan Executive Education
Certificate Holder Profile
Damien Patton
Founder/CEO
Banjo
USA
Executive Certificate(s):
Damien Patton is a four-time entrepreneur who has built his career on making ideas a reality. The idea for his current company “Banjo” actually came to be after he was leaving one of the classes at MIT Sloan. He was at the Boston Logan airport waiting for his flight. A Navy buddy he hadn’t seen in years was just two gates over. They both made a social post but on different networks. It wasn’t until they got home, they discovered they were literally steps away and missed seeing each other.
When he realized the hurdles that were preventing millions of people from embracing the power of social and local through a mobile phone, he really had no choice but to tackle it. A powerhouse of energy and innovation, Damien has spent the last several months building Banjo.
Banjo provides a real-time integrated view of what’s happening across the most popular social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram. The free app, for iOS and Android, alerts members when friends are nearby and shows them what’s happening right now, anywhere across the globe. Banjo was awarded the 2011 Ruby Innovator Award by “Matz” (the creator of the Ruby language) and also featured as a Heroku success story for Banjo's work in Ruby on Rails and MongoDB.
When asked about his experience at MIT, Patton said, “It’s no coincidence I ended up building Banjo after my time at MIT. I took 4 courses, Fundamentals of Finance for the Technical Executive, Strategic Marketing for the Technical Executive, Reinventing Your Business Strategy and Managing Technical Professionals and Organizations. Each of these courses provided invaluable insight and applicable models to Banjo. I run a company in the technical capital of the world and being able to apply the strategies learned through MIT has helped me take Banjo to 1 Million users faster than some of the most popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Path, and Foursquare. I would highly recommend MIT Sloan for anyone who is looking to take his or her business to the next level. You will learn from some of the best and be surrounded by like-minded people from all over the world.”
Damien can often be found speaking at conferences on subjects ranging from social media and location based technology to privacy. Damien’s diverse past includes working as a NASCAR Chief Mechanic, Desert Storm veteran and crime scene investigator (no joke). He cruises the Bay Area on his Harley, loves Boston and never misses a chance to see The Dropkick Murphys.
