RALEIGH — ShareFile, the Raleigh-born business for content collaboration, file sharing, and syncing, has changed a lot since its creation by local entrepreneur Jesse Lipson in 2005. Most recently, ShareFile has updated its brand, marking its independence from parent company, Citrix, now Cloud Software Group (CSG).
I spoke with Kurt Heusner, General Manager and Senior Vice President of ShareFile, about the past year and the new logo, which he says marks the company’s clarification as a specific brand within the CSG portfolio.
“It was kind of confusing over the journey [of acquisition] for our customers. Were we a Citrix-embedded product? Were we an individual product?” Heusner explained. “This is really our opportunity to separate into an independent business unit, to be very clear about our intentions.”
ShareFile Independence
The ShareFile brand is focusing on integrations like the RightSignature solution for digital e-signatures and Podio, a low/no-code solution for workflow and team collaboration. They’re also working on establishing solutions for specific industry verticals. The company announced ShareFile for Accounting in June and followed up with ShareFile for Legal this past August.
“The transformation has allowed us to singularly focus on how do we do business the most effectively with our customers with the absolute best experience we can for them,” said Heusner. “A lot of it’s been around simplification and concentrating on what helps them to be effective and how they want to interact with us.”
This has other benefits as well.
“It’s exciting because, for the employee base, we get to really concentrate on our products.”
ShareFile Employees
Those in downtown Raleigh are familiar with the Citrix Building, which opened in 2014. Less than 10 years later the 170,000 sq. foot building nestled in the warehouse district is seeking new tenants. ShareFile staff has contracted after the pandemic and transition to CSG. According to Heusner, the company currently has 300 staff in or around Raleigh, a combination of remote and on-premise workers.
Heusner himself moved to Raleigh five years ago to work closely with the ShareFile team.
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“This is our primary hub location for the business unit. We intend for it to continue to be the primary location,” said Heusner. “We expect to continue to responsibly add people in the area. We have over the last year and we’ll continue on as we go forward.”
As for the move away from the Citrix Building, Heusner explained that the company wanted to find a space that was the right size for ShareFile specifically. The hope remains that the right company will decide to sub-lease the space.
“It’s a beautiful building,” said Heusner. “Hopefully, there’ll be somebody that finds a new home [there].”
ShareFile Roadmap
The company is hoping to continue to grow, but Heusner wants to avoid the potential “whiplash” of growing quickly, and then retracting.
ShareFile is also continuing to devise clear and specific solutions to help companies get work done.
“Nobody today is complaining about having too little tech,” Heusner points out. “For us, it’s to get back to those roots, [being] very specific with what products we’re bringing to market and which verticals we are trying to accommodate.”
But he’s staying mum on what comes next.
“Stay tuned. Lots of exciting things.”
