Jesse Lipson

Jesse Lipson is an American entrepreneur. He founded the enterprise file sharing service ShareFile, which he sold to Citrix Systems in 2011. He was the corporate vice president and general manager of Citrix Cloud Services until 2017. He is now working on a new project, Levitate, through his holding company RealMagic.

Jesse Lipson
Born
Iowa City
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Citrix Cloud Services
Known forFounder of ShareFile

Early life and education

Lipson was born in Iowa City, Iowa in 1977.[1] He grew up in Maryland and began a business selling card tricks to magic stores when he was 14.[2][3]

He attended Duke University where he majored in philosophy.[1] During college, he started several more ventures, including EasyCentral, a password and form manager.[4] Following his graduation from Duke in 2000, Lipson worked for an internet start-up called FullSeven that developed branding for company e-mails during the first dot com boom.[2][5] He acquired web design skills in the position, which he then parlayed into his own web development business called novelProjects. The company eventually split into three businesses.[6][7]

In 2001, Lipson inherited his father's pharmaceutical market research company, Rapidata.net. Within two years he helped grow the company's revenue by 500%. The company was sold to Greenfield Online in 2005 and Lipson used the profits to help fund ShareFile.[6][8]

ShareFile

Lipson built and launched ShareFile in November 2005 in Raleigh, North Carolina.[9][10] The idea stemmed from requests by several of his website design clients to provide a password-protected area for file exchange. Lipson aimed to update traditional FTP methods with ShareFile.[11]

He bootstrapped ShareFile and focused immediately on procuring only business customers. By 2011, Lipson had grown the company to 4 million users with no outside capital.[11]

In 2011, ShareFile was acquired by Citrix Systems. Lipson became vice president and general manager of Citrix Systems' newly formed data sharing product group, including ShareFile.[12] He helped inspire and oversee the expansion of a major Citrix office in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District, which opened in 2014.[1][10][13] As of 2016, Lipson is the corporate vice president and general manager of Citrix Cloud Services.[9]

On February 21, 2017 Lipson announced he would be leaving his position as corporate vice president and general manager of the Cloud Services Business Unit at Citrix in March 2017.

Other roles

Lipson is a founding partner of the Raleigh-based HQ Raleigh, a shared workspace.[1]

He has served on the board of directors of Yext, a startup that maintains web listings for businesses, since 2012.[14] In 2013, he started ThinkHouse, a coliving space and accelerator, for entrepreneurs.[15]

Lipson, along with his wife, spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention about entrepreneurship.[9][16]

Personal life

Lipson lives in Raleigh, NC and is married to entrepreneur Brooks Bell.[1][10]

References
  1. Lauren K. Ohnesorge (April 22, 2016). "CEO Awards: Jesse Lipson". Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  2. Sara Engram (January 31, 2006). "Jesse Lipson '00 and Brooks Bell '02". Duke Magazine. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  3. "Entrepreneurs Speak Up". Inc. November 1, 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  4. Howie Rhee (February 7, 2011). "Interview with Jesse Lipson '00, Founder and CEO of ShareFile". Duke Gen. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  5. "FullSeven Technologies Names Vice President of Technology" (Press release). Business Wire. January 16, 2001. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  6. Andrew Warner (14 July 2011). "ShareFile: The Giant Bootstrapper You Never Heard Of". Mixery. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  7. David Ranii (January 3, 2015). "Triangle's part-time entrepreneurs work full time to fulfill dream". The News & Observer. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  8. "Executive Profile: Jesse D Lipson". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  9. Bryan Anderson (22 July 2016). "Raleigh couple prepares for speeches at Democratic convention". The News & Observer. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  10. David Ranii and Paula A. Sprecht (December 31, 2015). "New generation steps up to lead the Triangle". The News & Observer. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  11. Timothy Prickett Morgan (October 13, 2011). "Citrix buys cloudy storage biz ShareFile". The Register. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  12. Andrew R Hickey (October 13, 2011). "Citrix Scoops Up ShareFile In Personal Cloud Push". CRN Magazine. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  13. Liza Roberts (October 31, 2014). "Talent magnet: The new Citrix building". Walter Magazine. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  14. Alyson Shontell (20 August 2012). "Felix, The Profitable Arm Of Yext, Has Been Acquired By IAC For ~ $30 Million". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  15. Lauren K. Ohnesorge (9 July 2015). "Two Raleigh entrepreneurship initiatives get ready to innovate". Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  16. Ellen McGirt. ""Nothing Scares Away Investment Like Hate": A DNC Speech You Need To Watch)". Fortune. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
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