Nick Brown

Nick Brown, known as Ynickbrowny, is a prominent African American placemaker, artist, entrepreneur, and go-to-market millennial strategy expert. Nick Brown’s central engine of success is his ability to blend creativity, entrepreneurship, and community building. His strengths lie in leveraging cross-industry networks and crafting experiences that resonate with diverse groups, from millennials to industry leaders. By combining art, technology, and strategic placemaking, he creates unique spaces and events that foster collaboration and innovation. His adaptability in engaging multiple sectors—art, tech, media, and culture—enables him to drive cultural impact while building vibrant brands and communities. His strong personal network, innovative mindset, and vision for blending art with tech-driven initiatives further fuel his success. He is the CEO of Glappit, a destination creation consultancy and the founder of Glappitnova, a storytelling platform showcasing thousands of cross-industry millennial executives, founders, influencers, and local leaders since in 2013. With over 13 years in building unique go-to-market strategies increasing sales, awareness, and cross channel stakeholder by in for people, places, and products that target millennials, his work has been featured on Fox News, The Chicago Tribune, and Crain’s Chicago Business attracting clients like Google, Uber, BMW, Perrier, Nike, startups, cities, and more. Nick earned a Masters and Bachelors of Science in Architecture, was a 2-time All-American, Big Ten Runner-up, USA Jr. National Champion, and Earl Prize Design Nominee from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Nick’s philosophy of empowering and connecting millennials started with a viral Facebook group he created in 2007 called Young and Powerful. In 2009, Nick pushed the boundaries of the built environment as a placemaking opportunity by implementing digital mapping on walls and connecting spaces through live-streaming while in graduate Architecture school. This project earned a nomination for an Earl Prize design excellence award. In 2011, Nick launched Glappit, a private social network, with his colleague Michael Webb, which ultimately failed. However, it served as a foundation for Nick’s successful launch of Glappit in 2013 and the storytelling platform Glappitnova, which spans multiple cities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nick completed Stanford University’s intro to computer science unaccredited program and began sharing his abstract art, combining art with technology. He created a python algorithm that generates art with a financial value attached based on user input. Before founding Glappit and Glappitnova, Nick worked in a range of creative demand generation solutions, construction management, run of show production, operations specialist, and Olympic event programming. He is a guest speaker, mentor, and judge for various organizations and has been featured in campaigns for Bacardi, Adobe, Hall Madden, and tv production on NBC’s Chicago Fire and NBC’s The Playboy Club. Nick is heavily involved in various startups, influencers, technology, and creative communities.