Joe Parrish

Entrepreneur in Residence

Joe Parrish spent 15 years helping brands punch above their weight.

As co-founder of The Variable, he led creative and brand strategy for clients including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, NAPA Auto Parts, Tesla and Liquid Death. The agency won AdAge Small Agency of the Year five times and made Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators list three times. His philosophy: the future isn’t inevitable, because it’s inventable.

Joe has also built brands from scratch, founding Sunshine Beverages and the toy company 5mississippi, where he patented and sold the game, Hookum.

Today he runs upupdndn, an AI consultancy, because he got tired of watching smart companies fail at AI (through no fault of the technology). But his roots are in the work of figuring out what makes a place, a product, or an idea worth paying attention to. He’s a Wake Forest alum, an instrument-rated pilot, and a lifelong sucker for the next great idea.