Chris Messina

In 2007, Chris invented a little thing called the hashtag, galvanizing popular social revolutions & forever changing the world. He’s been living on the edge of social technology for over a decade, designing products & experiences for Google & Uber, co-founding a conversational social AI company (YC’18).

Chris created movements both online & offline & acted as a catalyst for change in large & small organizations. In 2004, he helped organize the grassroots movement that propelled Mozilla Firefox to its first 100 million downloads. In 2005, he co-organized the first BarCamp & then popularized the unconference event model to over 350 cities around the world. In 2006, he opened the first coworking spaces in the world, giving rise to a global movement. He spent a year as a digital nomad, travelling & speaking all around the world and now finds himself back in the Bay Area, focused on coaching makers and founders on how to nail their launches on Product Hunt.