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.
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.
