Press Contact
For press inquiries, contact press@harperreed.com
You can always email Harper directly at harper@modest.com or you can also hit him up on twitter at @harper (DMs are open).
Below is commonly requested information about Harper.
Biography
Short
Harper Reed is a technologist that predicts the future for a living. He spends most of his life building big things, hacking things, and talking about doing both of those things. As CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, Harper was the first to bring the tech mentality to a political level. He believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Harper also believes his incredible luck has led him to achieve wonderful things like pioneering crowdsourcing at Threadless.com, founding Modest Inc, and guiding the software team at PayPal. Since 2020, he has been the CEO of General Galactic Corporation. Galactic is a web3 company building rational crypto offramps for crypto workers. You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi and their beautiful and bizarre poodle, Lulu.Long
Harper Reed is a technologist that predicts the future for a living. He spends his life traveling around the world showing people the possibilities of tech and sharing his experiences to propel the greater good, all while raising the level of fun in the room.
Harper knows his incredible luck has led him to achieve many wonderful things. At PayPal, his roles as Head of Commerce and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence allowed him to guide teams into the thrilling future of e-commerce. The technology he developed as co-founder at startup Modest Inc. had initially garnered the attention of PayPal, which led them to acquire Modest only a few years after launch.
Harper also believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and he uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Previously, Harper was CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, where he was the first to bring the mentality and connective capabilities of tech to the political stage. He was also the CTO of Threadless.com, where he pioneered crowdsourcing and grew the company from a 12 person startup to a multi-million dollar enterprise. Harper is an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, sits on the advisory boards for IIT Computer Science and the Royal United Service Institute, and is on the Cornell College Board of Trustees.
Harper is currently the CEO of General Galactic Corporation where he leads an amazing team. Galactic is a web3 company building software for the new internet. Galactic focuses on building rational crypto offramps for crypto workers, and others who earn crypto.
You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi and their beautiful and bizarre poodle, Lulu.
High Resolution Photos
A selection of high-resolution photos of Harper. Please contact the linked rights holder for usage.
Photo by Diane Levine in 2018
Photo by Diane Levine in 2018
Photo by Diane Levine in 2018
Photo by Dan Taylor in 2016
Photo by Sputniktilt in 2015
Photo by Webstock in 2015
Photo by Ivan Indrautama in 2014
Photo by Sara Mays in 2012
Past Press
Here are some of the past pieces about Harper and his work
What Harper Reed Thinks: A Conversation With Obama’s Former CTO
Obama CTO says 'Big Data is BS' in keynote to hoteliers and vendors at HEDNA 2018
PayPal next-gen commerce chief: Don't lose the empathy in our tech
Election hacking shouldn't surprise you, Obama's former tech chief says
Obama’s former tech chief saw the hacked elections coming. He just expected more people to care.
A Hacker Trolled a Bunch of Canadians Who Confused Him for Stephen Harper on Twitter
Harper Reed, el ingeniero que ayudó a ganar sus segundas elecciones a Obama
From t-shirts to President Obama: How Harper Reed harnessed the power of the internet
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FORMER CTO HARPER REED ON SURVIVING STRESS IN A HIGH PRESSURE ENVIRONMENT
PayPal Commerce aims to bring 'buy button' ubiquity to the web
PayPal Commerce Matches Stripe With PayPal’s Own Native Shopping Toolkit For Apps
'The man who poached Google and Twitter staff for Obama shares tip for hiring
'Don't eat the pizza': Obama's tech guru shares his best advice on surviving a high-pressure job
Obama's tech guru on hackers: 'These kids are very intelligent, they're just misdirected'
PayPal acquires mobile commerce platform Modest, run by Obama’s former campaign CTO
PayPal makes its first acquisition after splitting from eBay
PayPal Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys E-commerce Startup Led By Former Obama Campaign CTO
PayPal acquires Harper Reed's mobile-commerce startup, Modest
PayPal acquires Harper Reed's Modest just months after emerging from stealth
PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) Acquires Modest As Its First Acquisition Since Split
Obama’s former CTO is headed to PayPal, it’s acquired his retail startup Modest
Life after Obama: Why the president’s 2012 campaign CTO left politics
Modest CEO Harper Reed: Bitcoin Is the Future, But It's Not Ready Yet
Modest Advice: Life Lessons from Harper Reed and Inside His New Startup
Harper Reed Launches Modest to Revolutionize Mobile Commerce
Obama for America’s tech team sets sights on making mobile retail easier
Former Obama Campaign, Threadless CTO Eyes Mobile Commerce With New Startup Modest
Friend Fracker Tests Your Facebook Friendships by Randomly Deleting Them
Greeley's Harper Reed the technology mastermind behind Obama's win
Harper Reed Goes A Week Without Internet: Obama Campaign Tech Guru Shares What He Learned
Chicago offers Obama’s tech team future as entrepreneurs, execs
Its job complete, Obama re-election tech team ventures forward
AWS in Action - Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Campaign
Obama’s Re-Election Path May Be Written in Will St. Clair’s Code
Chicago technologist Harper Reed joins President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign
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Photo by Make Walsh.