# Dryden Brown **Dryden Brown** is an American entrepreneur, the co-founder (with Charlie Callinan) and chief executive of [[Praxis]], a company that recruits an online "digital nation" and promises to build it a city. He grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and started the company in 2019, at 23, under the name Bluebook Cities. ## The search for land Brown has pitched his city on three continents. Praxis first described a crypto-financed city somewhere in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 2024 Brown flew to Nuuk, met officials and business figures, and in November posted a thread that began "I went to Greenland to try to buy it." He later recast the idea as a partnership with Greenland's government to build on uninhabited land. Nothing came of it. In 2025 he described a plan for a city called Atlas on federal land at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. In September 2026 Praxis announced a site in Uruguay, inside a development called +Colonia, and Brown said he would move there. ## Backers Praxis is backed by investors from [[Peter Thiel]]'s circle. *The New Republic* has reported that its supporters also include funds backed by [[Marc Andreessen]], investor [[Joe Lonsdale]], the [[Winklevoss Twins]], and Apollo, the investment firm of [[Sam Altman]]. In 2024 Brown announced $525 million in financing that Praxis can draw only as it meets milestones. ## Greenland and Washington Brown's Greenland pitch arrived a few weeks before [[Donald Trump]] revived his own push to acquire the island and named [[Ken Howery]], a Thiel associate and PayPal co-founder, ambassador to Denmark. Praxis's social media account greeted the appointment with the words "According to plan." See [[Greenland]]. ## Why he's on the map Brown is the public face of the most heavily promoted [[Network State]] project, and his route from the Mediterranean to Greenland to California to Uruguay is a case study in how hard it is to turn an online following into territory. His project also shows how closely the exit projects track power: the Greenland and Vandenberg pitches both leaned on what the Trump administration might make possible. ## See Also - [[Praxis]] - [[Network State Experiments Roster]] - [[Freedom Cities]]