Charlie Crystle

Current

• CEO at Crystle Startup Advisors

Past

• CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder at Mission Research, INC
• CEO at Mission Research, INC
• Advisor at Zapspot

• Board member at Mercury2
• Founder, CEO at ChiliSoft
• Co-Founder, President at Versicom, Inc

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3 more...

Education

• University of Delaware
• J.P. McCaskey

Recommended

8 people have recommended Charlie

Connections

188 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Charlie Crystle’s Summary

I'm a serial entrepreneur and seasoned CEO with a set of solid successes with three companies over the past 15 years, including a $70 million exit to Cobalt/Sun Microsystems in 2000 on $6 million invested, starting and growing Mission Research to over 7,000 nonprofit customers, and advising about a dozen other founders and startups along the way. I've run teams from 3 to 73 people, and can bootstrap or invest aggressively depending on what's needed.

I have a passion for catalyzing big opportunities that have transformational potential. I'm also a big believer in sustainability and socially responsible business practices.

I'm writing a book on startups, and sharing my experiences with other startup leaders through workshops. I consult to startups about all aspects of building startups including raising capital, strategic direction, sales and marketing, governance issues, and a host of other startup issues.

I will consider leadership roles at innovative companies that need experienced, thoughtful, entrepreneurial leadership tempered.

OTHER HISTORY
--Advised and invested in ZapSpot (founded by Victor Cho, CEO of a Kodak subsidiary, and Dan Frumin, formerly of Microsoft)
--Advised and invested in Mercury2 (led by Christine Herron, First Round Capital).
--Advised MediaBistro and helped shape its early site.
--Advised Cimbrian
--Advised John J Jeffries Organic Restaurant
--Advised Red Rose Cycling

Charlie Crystle’s Experience

• CEO

  Crystle Startup Advisors

  (Management Consulting industry)

  January 2009 — Present (11 months)

• CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder

  Mission Research, INC

  (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

  February 2002 — December 2008 (6 years 11 months)

  I started Mission Research to help nonprofits focus more of their resources on their core missions and less on technology with GiftWorks Fundraising Software. GiftWork has over 8,000 customers. Last year I started the R&D/small business division and developed and launched CircleDog, the first uncomplicated customer relationship management software.

• CEO

  Mission Research, INC

  (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

  February 2002 — December 2008 (6 years 11 months)

  (duplicate for some reason; also, LinkedIn keeps forcing "Mission Research Corporation", which is not the company)

• Advisor

  Zapspot

  (Computer Games industry)

  January 2000 — January 2002 (2 years 1 month)

  Zapspot.com made small, addictive, downloadable games for the PC. Founded by Victor Cho (Intuit VP, KodakGallery CEO) and Dan Frumin (Microsoft, Adaptive), the company was ahead of its time and ran out of cash in 2001 during the dotcom bust.

• Board member

  Mercury2

  (Computer Software industry)

  January 2000 — January 2002 (2 years 1 month)

  Mercury 2 was a startup in San Francisco led by Christine Herron, now of First Round Capital. The company automated the international shipping process, including the complicated customs processes at both the departure and arrival countries. It was a valiant effort launched at exactly the wrong time--right when venture capital dried up after the dotcom bust. Since then, both Fedex and UPS have adopted similar approaches toward automating their international businesses.

• Founder, CEO

  ChiliSoft

  (Computer Software industry)

  November 1996 — November 1999 (3 years 1 month)

  I started ChiliSoft in 1996, and we sold it in 2000 to Sun Microsystems (Cobalt NetWorks) for $70 million. Along the way, Ied strategic direction for the company, raised over $6 million, built and developed a management team and a company of 70 employees, created a suite of integrated web applications to run at ISPs like ATT and PSI, and inked significant deals with Microsoft, IBM, Netscape, and ATT. Served as CTO and VP of Apps at different times.
  
  Our products were ChiliSoft ASP and ChiliSoft Reports, both of which were ahead of the software industry for their respective product categories (application servers and web-based reporting).

• Co-Founder, President

  Versicom, Inc

  (Computer Hardware industry)

  November 1994 — November 1996 (2 years 1 month)

  Veriscom was a PC manufacturer, then a software and network services company serving small businesses in the Lancaster, PA area. We made maybe 500 computers, sold hardware, taught Windows, Dos, Word, and Excel classes, provided network services, did some programming, led to ChiliSoft. It was a good first experience with a lot of customer contact.

Additional Information

Charlie Crystle’s Interests:

music, recording, gadgets, fishing, politics, healthcare, education, startups, civil liberties

Charlie Crystle’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch