Anil Dash is a technologist, writer and activist recognized as a leading advocate for making innovative technology that is ethical and inclusive. A Webby Awards lifetime achievement honoree, he has been CEO or founder of several groundbreaking startups including Glitch, the beloved creative community for developers which was acquired by Fastly in 2022. Today, he is principal and cofounder of antitech, which helps organizations thrive by building good, thoughtful technology.
Dash is well-known as a leading voice in the tech industry, uniquely serving as both an analyst of cutting-edge innovations and a critical perspective on the risks and harms that can happen without accountability. As a writer, Dash was a monthly columnist and contributing editor for Wired, and has written for publications ranging from The Atlantic to Rolling Stone to Businessweek, while his venerable personal blog has been cited over the last 25 years by everyone from sitting U.S. Senators to hundreds of academic papers to TMZ.
Today, Dash also serves as a board member for vital social organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the indispensable nonprofit organization defending digital human rights and free expression, and is chair of the board of the Lower East Side Girls Club, which serves girls and families in need in New York City. Previously, Dash was a technology advisor to the Obama White House’s Office of Digital Strategy (and later the Obama Foundation), and served for a decade on the board of Stack Overflow, the world’s largest community for coders. Previously, he founded and led a MacArthur-backed research project conducting pioneering research on social media’s impact on public policy making. While CEO of Glitch, the company became the first tech startup ever to voluntarily recognize its workers’ union.
Described by The New Yorker as a “blogging pioneer”, and by the New York Times as a “Prince scholar”, he has had a varied career as an artist and creator, co-creating the earliest implementation of the technology later known as NFTs, having his work exhibited in the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and collaborating with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on a wildly popular Spotify playlist serving as an educational throwback mixtape. Back when Twitter was relevant, Time named @anildash one of the best accounts on Twitter. His account remains the only one ever retweeted by both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Prince, a succinct summarization of Dash’s wide-ranging interests. Dash has also been featured in a broad range of media and stages, ranging from the Aspen Ideas Festival to Desus and Mero’s late-night show, and has guested on a surprisingly broad swath of your favorite podcasts.
Dash lives in New York City with his wife Alaina Browne and their child and two dogs. Like most people, he has never played a round of golf, drank a cup of coffee, filed a patent, or graduated from college.
