Groom Dinkneh

My name is Groom Dinkneh. I was born in Boston, MA and raised by loving Ethiopian parents. I grew up a product of strong New England education, attending Belmont Hill School, an independent boys school. I did undergraduate studies at Tufts University, studying Economics and ended up falling in love with the financial markets and entrepreneurship. This inspired my journey onto Wall Street, working with some of the most diverse and respected minds. Chris Williams was my first boss and his leadership style taught me the importance of relationships in business, and leading with a growth mindset. I branched out into startup land in 2014 with a college friend tackling bicycle parking in NYC. We called it Anchor Your Bike and for 2+ years we were early advocates for safer cycling (this was as CitiBike was growing it's network and before the scooter craze). I left the project, but proud to know it's continued as Oonee). What followed was joining GoLocker. Working on tackling last mile issues taught me so much about the challenges urban cities face, the importance of having robust supply chains and how we could support businesses in doing our work. Finding GoLocker's product market fit is, to date, the most meaningful and difficult work I've ever done. We built a network of carrier agnostic parcel lockers, pitched big brands like Macy's and Rent the Runway and even opened NYC's first fully autonomous retail store to receive and return parcels (this is a great example of the future of retail we aspired to build). I loved being hands on in every aspect of the building process. Some other incredible work I've done includes leading million dollar Amazon brands at Thrasio as employee #195. In the middle of the pandemic with Amazon sales at its peak, Thrasio grew sales at an electric rate; it was an incredible opportunity to watch a startup blitzscale and raise $3B+.

I am now the lead PM building a membership offering for the Institute for Experiential AI, an exciting way to work closely with companies and non-profits as they seek to responsibly and ethicly deploy AI solutions. I'll continue to consult brands looking to achieve operational success on Amazon and support startups and founders on their journeys as an angel investor; I invest in ideas solving challenges adjacent to the logistics, supply chain, fintech and retail/ecommerce disciplines. Most of my internet activity can be found on Twitter and Linkedin.