Born Rome, NY · 1960 — Mathematician, entrepreneur, nomad, builder
Fred Krueger was born in 1960 in Rome, NY. His childhood was peripatetic — Michigan, Madison, Chicago, London, and then Paris for nearly a decade. He earned his BA in Mathematics from Cornell and went on to build companies across advertising technology, gaming, social media, and crypto. He has lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles, owns a château in France, and remains an active voice in Bitcoin and technology.
Fred was born in Rome, NY in 1960. His father was in the military, and the family relocated frequently — Michigan, Madison (where his father was in grad school), and Chicago. At age 7 the family moved to London, and by age 8 Fred was enrolled in the American School of Paris.
He spent nearly a decade in Paris, attending ASP, Jean de la Fontaine, and ultimately the prestigious Lycée de Sèvres, where he completed his Baccalauréat in 1977. His parents separated when he was 10; his father later married Gita (originally from Cologne) in 1974. Those Paris years included ski trips to Lech and Serre Chevalier, and adventures to Ladakh, Greece, and Egypt — an early taste of a life defined by travel.
Fred enrolled at Cornell in 1978, earning a BA in Mathematics. He then attended Stanford (1981–1982), based in Palo Alto — a period that coincided with his mother marrying Dave and the death of Mimi in 1983.
By 1985 he was in San Francisco working at Bechtel, where he married Louise. The following year he moved to Salomon Brothers as his brother Richard married Joy. In 1987 the family relocated to New York; Fred and Louise moved to Greenwich in 1989. The early 90s saw extended time in Paris and ambitious travel — Kenya, Tanzania, Indonesia, India (Rajasthan).
Fred's entrepreneurial career began in 1992 with the founding of Fauve in North Carolina, which he released and sold in 1993 — the same year his marriage to Louise ended in divorce.
He moved to San Francisco in 1995 after selling to MM, then launched Random Noise in 1996. After a formative trip to Nepal and India in 1998, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1999 to start iWin.
The 2000s were prolific: he married Anouk in 2001, founded SMNI (2002), Adconion (2004), and Tagworld (2005). In 2004 he also bought the Château in France. He started TLDH in 2008, sold Tagworld in 2011, divorced Anouk in 2013, and sold TLDH in 2014.
Fred married Magda in 2016. A ski accident in 2017 marked a difficult year. Through 2018–2019 he was deeply engaged in crypto — attending D10e in Seoul, Hedera events in Dallas, and traveling widely across Asia, the Gulf, and the Americas.
2020 brought COVID and the sale of Lynx. In 2021 he exited Proton and made an early pilgrimage to El Salvador as Bitcoin became legal tender. A lawsuit from Marshall (2022) was dismissed in 2023.
2026 began with a wrist accident in Chamonix and the anticipated new gTLD round on the horizon. The Château in the Loire Valley remains a constant — and a recurring anchor in an otherwise restless life.
Approximate years lived in each city
| Company | Founded | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Fauve | 1992 | Released/sold 1993 |
| Random Noise | 1996 | — |
| iWin | 1999 | — |
| SMNI | 2002 | — |
| Adconion | 2004 | — |
| Tagworld | 2005 | Sold 2011 |
| TLDH | 2008 | Sold 2014 |
| Lynx | — | Sold 2020 |
| Proton | — | Exit 2021 |
Companies founded or led