Adam Braun

Adam Braun (born October 31, 1983, New York City) is an American entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist. He is COO of WeGrow by WeWork and founder of Pencils of Promise, a non-profit organization that builds schools and increases access to education for children in the developing world. He was CEO and co-founder of MissionU, a debt-free higher education program, acquired by WeWork in May 2018.

Braun worked at Bain & Company from 2007 to 2010.

Braun founded Pencils of Promise as he turned 25 years old in October 2008 with $25 of his own money, focusing instead on raising funds from other people through grassroots events and social media. Within four years, Pencils of Promise founded over one hundred schools. As of 2018, the organization has founded more than 500 schools and served more than 70,000 children throughout the developing world.

The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change debuted at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller list after being released on March 18, 2014 by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The narrative-driven memoir is broken into thirty short chapters, each titled with a mantra, which purport to collectively provide the guiding steps to a life of success and significance. After selling out on Amazon within five days of release, the book became an Amazon #1 Bestseller and was listed on LinkedIn as one of the "5 Books Every 20-Something Needs to Read". In July 2014, it was recognized as the #1 bestselling book in the country under "What Corporate America is Reading".