Frederick Hutson is the CEO of Pigeonly, a platform that identifies and organizes data on the incarcerated. He launched and sold his first business at the age of 19 while on active duty in the Air Force. He left the military (with an honorable discharge) to build his second business which he also sold for a profit. The serial black entrepreneur’s love for business continued when, at 21, he saw his friends’ St. Petersburg FL-based businesses struggling and thought of a solution — a more efficient way to traffic marijuana. Not the best idea, at the time.
During a four-year federal prison sentence a new idea surface, one that would give him an opportunity to affect the lives of people no one else was paying attention to – inmates, Pigeonly was born. The platform uses algorithms to collect and organize data on the nation’s incarcerated, transforming it into usable information that benefits inmates and society.
Its sub-brands, Fotopigeon and Telepigeon, products that help inmates stay connected to the outside world by fulfilling printed photos from the mobile phones of their loved ones and providing cost-effective VoIP phone calls. Hutson leads a team of 10 from their Las Vegas headquarters and recently secured a $2 million dollar seed round of funding from investors including Erik Moore (Base VC), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Kesha Cash (Jalia Ventures).
