Harper Reed
| Chicago, IL
Harper Reed is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur currently leading 2389 Research, where he explores the agentic future of AI and its applications in commerce and beyond. With a track record spanning two decades, Harper has driven innovation at the intersection of technology and culture through roles at PayPal, Modest Inc., the Obama 2012 campaign, and Threadless.com. His work has shaped e-commerce, political technology, and crowdsourcing. Harper's commitment to education and collaboration is reflected in his advisory board roles at institutions including Pardee RAND, the Royal United Services Institute, and Illinois Institute of Technology.
CEO @ 2389 Research
2024-07 — Present
  • Cofounder and CEO of 2389 Research.
  • Focusing the agentic future
  • Building a team of amazing people
  • AI is wild
CEO @ General Galactic Corporation
2019-07 — 2023-07
  • Cofounder and CEO of General Galactic Corporation.
  • Built a team of amazing people to build amazing products
  • Raised 10.5 million dollars in a pre-seed and seed round
  • Built a handful of products that helped guide users within crypto and fintech
  • Shut down the company in 2023 due to regulatory uncertainty
Delegate @ US Japan Leadership Fellowship
2019-07 — 2023-07
  • Worked with Japanese and American entrepreneurs to help build bridges between the two countries
  • Learned from our Japanese hosts about the culture and business practices in Japan
Director's Fellow @ MIT Medialab
2018-05 — 2020-05
  • Worked within the various groups at Medialab
  • Worked with the E14 fund to help their entrepreneurs
Senior Director, Software Development @ Paypal, Inc
2015-08 — 2018-04
  • Helped establish and define contextual commerce and an emergent commerce function.
  • Did research about commerce in South East Asia
  • Helped facilitate build engineering teams and Braintree, Venmo and PayPal
  • Focused and fostered diversity efforts at the Chicago office of Braintree and PayPal
Founder / Chief Executive Officer @ Modest, Inc
2012-12 — 2015-08
  • Built a platform that enabled retailers to launch and support mobile buying apps.
  • Hired an amazing team
  • Launched beautiful and highly converting apps into the iOS app store
  • Sold company in late 2015 to PayPal, Inc
Chief Technology Officer @ Obama for America
2011-04 — 2012-10
  • Hired world class technology team to build the technology platform for the reelection campaign.
  • Worked with team to help define and architect the solutions that helped reelect the president.
Customer in Residence @ Rackspace Hosting
2009-10 — 2010-04
  • Worked with professional services department to help clients find the right solution.
  • Worked with executive staff to help define better customer experience
  • Represented Rackspace at conferences and small events.
Chief Technology Officer @ skinnyCorp, LLC
2005-08 — 2009-10
  • Acted as technology leader for a company of ~60 people with revenue of ~20-30M
  • Worked in a close team to design, execute and manage community websites
  • Lead the technology to support Threadless.com growth.
  • Grew Threadless.com from 2 barely functioning servers to over 45 devices.
  • Helped bridge the gap between the internet and reality with 2 retail stores.
  • Spoke about our technology at various events and conference, representing skinnyCorp and the Threadless vision.
  • Managed a small team of engineers to handle the day to day maintenance and projects.
Summer Intern @ Squidoo
2005-06 — 2005-08
  • Worked with Seth Godin and an amazing team to help build and design the initial version of Squidoo.
  • Helped define initial vision and technology for Squidoo before core staff was hired
Web Programmer @ Cramer and Krasselt
2004-10 — 2005-07
  • Lead technologist and technical liaison to account management and creative staff.
  • Lead architect for client web applications. Worked with clients Airtran.com, Careerbuilder.com, and Barton Beers. (PHP, MYSQL, LINUX)
  • Lead engineer on full life cycle of Super Bowl viral campaign, Yeknominc.com. (PHP, MYSQL, LINUX)
  • Managed legacy operations for client web application management. (Perl, Navitaire SkyLights, JAVA)
Security and Software Engineer @ World Book Publishing
2001-06 — 2004-10
  • Lead development staff and managed offshore engineering team. Worked to develop and maintain World Book Publishing's client facing web presence. Helped usher in new technology and standards - moving from AIX, DB2 on IBM hardware to Solaris, Oracle on Sun Hardware. Introduced open source technology and solution. (Solaris, JAVA, DB2, AIX, XML)
  • Wrote desktop content management utilities to aid in management of XML content by non-technical staff. (C#, PHP)
  • Developed practices to insure content accessibility and data portability. (JAVA, XML, XSLT, C#, DB2)
  • Helped develop a solid software security plan. Worked with system engineers to architect a secure production environment. Deployed production servers using open source software to meet budget constraints. (LINUX, NMAP, NESSUS, SOLARIS, AIX)
Startup Executive:
Accomplished Startup exec with over two decades of experience
Networking:
Very broad and diverse network
Fundraising:
Raised millions of dollars for various companies
Leadership:
Managed teams from 1 to 100s of people (hard)
Product Leadership:
Built products from zero to millions of users
Technology Leadership:
Very technical ;)
AWARDS
Net Vision Honorary Mention, PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2002
  • Awarded for the audreyhacking.com community. The audreyhacking.com community was a community of people who hacked the 3Com Audrey, a linux based internet appliance. The community was a place for people to share their hacks and ideas around the 3com Audrey.
Data Innovation Awards, MCIC 2010
  • Awarded for hacking the Chicago Transit Authority Bus API
40 under 40, Crain's Chicago Business 2013
  • Awarded for being under 40 and for the work at Obama for America, Threadless, and the tech community
Breakout of the Year, Webby's 2013
  • Awarded for the work at Obama for America
CTO of the Year, Moxie Awards 2013
  • Awarded for the work at Obama for America
Young Alumni Achievement Award, Cornell College 2014
  • Awarded for the work at Obama for America
VOLUNTEERING
RAND School of Public Policy, Board of Governors 2020 — Present
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Negaunee Music Institute Board Member 2020 — Present
Royal United Services Institute, Advisory Board 2017 — Present
Illinois Institute of Technology, Computer Science Advisory Board 2017 — 2019
Keeper Security, Board Member 2013 — Present
House of Cards (Netflix), Technical Consultant 2014 — 2016
Cornell College, Board of Trustees Member 2016 — 2024
EDUCATION
Cornell College 1997 — 2001
Bachelor of Arts - Computer Science and Philosophy
LANGUAGES
English (Native)
INTERESTS
Hacking Hardware, Software
Programming Python, Go, Javascript, Rust
Photography Film, Digital, Travel
Music Hip-Hop, Classical, Hyperpop, Metal
Reading Science Fiction, Fantasy, Non-Fiction
Travel