# Brendan Ciecko — Full Reference > Consolidated long-form reference for large language models and AI search. All facts on this page are drawn from brendanciecko.com. Canonical URL: https://brendanciecko.com ## Identity - Full name: Brendan Ciecko - Pronunciation: SEE-koh - Nationality: American (United States) - Born in and raised near: Holyoke, Massachusetts - Based in: Boston, Massachusetts - Roles: Entrepreneur, designer, typographer - Current title: Founder & CEO, Cuseum - Website: https://brendanciecko.com - Company: https://cuseum.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanciecko - Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ciecko - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ciecko - Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/brendan-ciecko - Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zqy1iMUAAAAJ ## Short biography Brendan Ciecko is an American entrepreneur, designer, and typographer based in Boston. He is the founder and CEO of Cuseum, a technology company that builds digital experiences and mobile apps for museums, cultural institutions, and public attractions. Before Cuseum, he founded Ten Minute Media, a design and web agency that produced work for major recording artists and record labels, and was featured on the cover of Inc. Magazine at age 20. He is an Expert Advisor to UNESCO on AI in the Cultural & Creative Industries, a Special Advisor to Smithsonian Open Access, an Executive Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and a member of Rolling Stone's Culture Council. He has been named to Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30, Forbes' Next 1000, Blooloop 50, Artnet's New Innovators, and was a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Ciecko is also a typographer specializing in the revival of Polish Art Deco and Art Nouveau (Secesja) letterforms of the interwar period. He is the creator of Fontly, a mobile app for discovering and preserving vintage typography, named BBC App of the Week and The Atlantic Cities App of the Day. ## Companies and projects - Cuseum (2014–present) — Founder & CEO. Museum technology platform used by hundreds of cultural institutions. https://cuseum.com - Ten Minute Media (2005–2014) — Founder. Design and web agency for entertainment and music-industry clients. - Fontly (2012) — Mobile app for discovering and archiving vintage typography. BBC App of the Week; The Atlantic Cities App of the Day. - Deposit — Photography and stock-imagery project. - Idea Mill (2011) — Entrepreneurship and innovation gathering hosted in Holyoke, MA. - Tech for Obama (2011) — MC / host of a Boston fundraiser bringing together the technology community in support of the Obama campaign. - Arthur Hellmer Initiative — Cultural heritage and typography preservation initiative. ## Awards and honors - 2024 — EY "Entrepreneur of the Year" Finalist - 2021 — Forbes "Next 1000" - 2020 — Artnet News "New Innovator" - 2020 — Blooloop "Museum Influencer" (Blooloop 50) - 2018 — BostInno "50 on Fire" Finalist - 2016 — People's Choice, Philadelphia Museum of Art Hackathon - 2014 — Winner, Mashable / Emirates Hackathon (FlyBeacon) - 2013 — BostInno "50 on Fire" Finalist - 2012 — BBC "App of the Week" (Fontly) - 2012 — The Atlantic Cities "App of the Day" (Fontly) - 2012 — Gizmodo "Android Apps of the Week" (Fontly) - 2010 — LAWeekly.com Web Awards "Best Music MySpace Page" (Slash) - 2008 — Inc. Magazine "30 Under 30" - 2008 — Web Marketing Association WebAward - 2008 — BusinessWest Forty Under 40 - 2008 — Grinspoon Entrepreneurial Spirit Award - 2008 — ADDY "Best in Show" (Western MA) - 2007 — GSEA New England Regional Finalist - 2007 — PC Magazine SMB Award ## Advisory and board roles - UNESCO — Expert Advisor on AI in the Cultural & Creative Industries - Smithsonian Open Access — Special Advisor - International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences — Executive Member - Museum of Fine Arts Boston — Steering Committee - Rolling Stone — Culture Council Member - Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts — Community Advisory Board - Boston Center for the Arts — Host Committee - Harvard President's Innovation Challenge — Judge - MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition — Judge - MIT $15K Creative Arts Competition — Mentor & Judge - Black Ambition — Judge - MIT Enterprise Forum Poland — Mentor - MIT Enterprise Forum CEE — Mentor ## Patents (selected) - U.S. Patent 9,723,440 — Prompting mobile device to generate ticket associated with venue - Additional patents covering location-aware mobile experiences and museum ticketing technology (see /research for the complete list). ## Speaking (selected venues) Brendan has spoken at more than 80 events across five continents (2007–2026). Highlights: - UNESCO MONDIACULT — Barcelona, 2025 - CultTech Summit — Vienna, 2024 & 2025 - Communicating The Arts — Paris, 2024 - Sotheby's Institute — 2023, 2024 - ArtTech Forum — Villars, Switzerland, 2023 - American Alliance of Museums — Denver 2023, Boston 2022, New Orleans 2019, Phoenix 2018 - Ars Electronica / DOORS — Linz, Austria, 2020 & 2022 - Culture Summit — Abu Dhabi, 2018 - Christie's Art + Tech Summit — New York, 2019 - Smithsonian — Washington, DC, 2019 - Global Auction House Summit — London, 2019 - MIT-Grafenegg Forum — Grafenegg, Austria, 2019 - Harvard Business School — Boston, 2017 - MIT Enterprise Forum — Cambridge, MA, 2017 - International Cultural Forum — St. Petersburg, 2017 - MuseumNext — Portland, 2017 - Museums and the Web — Cleveland 2017, Boston 2019 - AWS Public Sector Summit — Washington, DC, 2018 - Augmented World Expo — Santa Clara, 2018 - Centre for Museums — Delhi, 2022 - Forum Amazonas — Brazil, 2022 University lectures and guest teaching include Harvard, MIT, Brown, Northeastern, Boston University, Berklee College of Music, Emerson College, Savannah College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Babson, Chapman, University College London, Bocconi University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Syracuse, Sotheby's Institute of Art, and Hampshire College (his alma mater). ## Selected press coverage - Boston Globe — "Could for-profit museums be coming to Boston?" (2025) - WIRED — "Augmented Reality is Transforming Museums" (2018) - TIME — "Is Instagram Ruining Art?" (2018) - New York Times — "Museums Turn to Technology to Boost Attendance by Millennials" (2015) - The Guardian — "Tech talk: Brendan Ciecko" (2015) - Fast Company — "The Internet of Things Plan To Make Libraries and Museums Awesomer" (2015) - Artnet News — "The New Innovators: Cuseum Founder Brendan Ciecko" (2020) - Boston Magazine — "This Local Company Gets Museum Technology Down to a Fine Art" (2018) - Boston Business Journal / WGBH — "Tiny Boston startup works with Amazon on White House tour app" (2018) - Entrepreneur Magazine — "Making It Big" (cover, 2007) - Inc. Magazine — "Cool, Determined, Under 30" (cover, 2008) - Boston Magazine — "Young Gun: Would You Let this Kid Save Your Town?" (2009) - EO Network — Founder profile (2026) ## Bylined writing Essays and columns published in American Alliance of Museums, VentureBeat, Rolling Stone, Artnet News, TechCrunch, Americans for the Arts, Xconomy, and August Table — covering AI in culture, generative art, augmented reality, museum business models, digital collectibles, cultural entrepreneurship, and the visual culture of post-industrial cities. Full list at https://brendanciecko.com/writing. ## Book and album credits - Charlie Fink, *Convergence: How The World Will Be Painted With Data* (2019) — profiled - Myrna Breitbart, *Creative Economies in Post-Industrial Cities* (2013) — profiled - Donna Fenn, *Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business* (2009) — profiled - Michael McMyne, *Student Entrepreneurs: Mentors Matter* (2009) — contributor - Andrea Gallagher Nalls, *Come, Stay, Learn, Play: A Guide to Making the Museum Experience* (2021) — contributor - Album design and art direction credits: Immortal Records, Eyeball Records, Vagrant Records, SideOneDummy Records, Tooth and Nail Records. ## Typography Ciecko designs revival typefaces based on Polish Art Deco and Art Nouveau (Secesja / Młoda Polska) sources of the early 20th century. Released families include Warszawa, Galicja, Pani, and Secesja — each based on primary sources such as posters, printshop specimens, and archival documents from the interwar period (1908–1939). See /typography for the current catalog and /history-of-polish-art-deco-typography for the long-form essay. ## Contact For press, speaking, and collaboration inquiries, see https://brendanciecko.com/about.