Clarence Wooten

Current

• Founder & CEO at Groupsite.com
• Managing Member at Wooten Ventures

Past

• General Partner at Venturepreneur Partners
• Vice President at Network Solutions/VeriSign
• Co-founder & CEO at ImageCafe.com

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Education

• Johns Hopkins University

Recommended

11 people have recommended Clarence

Connections

360 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Company

Clarence Wooten’s Summary

Coined a serial entrepreneur by Entrepreneur Magazine in its February 2000 issue, Clarence has co-founded and operated numerous businesses that leverage technology-based platforms and tools for multimedia, computer-aided design, and the Internet. Articles about Clarence have appeared in Forbes ASAP, Entrepreneur, CNNfn, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company magazine. Clarence’s entrepreneurial experiences are also the subject of Babson College case study.

Since founding his first company, Envision Designs, while an undergraduate in college in 1991, Clarence has built a strong entrepreneurial track-record through his success in conceptualizing and building companies such as Metamorphosis Studios, a multimedia design firm (acquired by MediSolv, Inc. in 1998); ImageCafe.com, a leading e-commerce website (acquired for more then $20 million in 1999, just 7 months after launch by Network Solutions, Inc.); and now, Groupsite.com, the leading self-serve social collaboration platform.

Between building companies, Clarence has become an active angel investor in Washington-area technology companies.

Presently, Clarence's full-time efforts are focused on building his fifth startup, Groupsite.com (formerly CollectiveX) (http://www.groupsite.com), a company providing web-based software that enables groups to make things happen (social collaboration).

Clarence has a B.S. in Business Management from John Hopkins University and currently serves on the Deans Alumni Advisory Board for its Carey Business School. He is an avid supporter of the community and serves on many non-profit boards.

In his personal time, Clarence enjoys playing with his daughters, spending time with family and close friends, and attending Maryland Terps basketball games. In each of his entrepreneurial endeavors, Clarence has been focused on user experience design, which served as the catalyst behind the development of the Groupsite platform.

Clarence Wooten’s Specialties:

New Venture Creation, Business Development, Strategic Exit Planning, Product Development, Branding and Identity, Internet Applications, Marketing and PR, Deal Structuring, Process Development, Team Building, Social Networking, Collaboration

Clarence Wooten’s Experience

• Founder & CEO

  Groupsite.com

  (Internet industry)

  January 2006 — Present (3 years 11 months)

  Groupsite.com - How Groups Make Things Happen
  
  Groupsite.com (formerly CollectiveX) is a multi-purpose social collaboration platform, uncluttered with needless distractions, focused specifically on empowering groups of all types and sizes to make things happen. Groupsites bring together only the most useful features of listservs, collaboration software and social networks into a system (i.e., collaboration community) that empower groups to easily communicate, share and network.

• Managing Member

  Wooten Ventures

  (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  June 2001 — Present (8 years 6 months)

  Private holding company/venture catalyst focused on providing seed capital and entrepreneurial guidance for entrepreneurs with innovative business concepts. Wooten Ventures is currently focused on growing and realizing its existing investments and is not making any new investments at this time.

• General Partner

  Venturepreneur Partners

  (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  September 2004 — January 2006 (1 year 5 months)

  Venturepreneur Partners (http://www.vpfund.com) is an early-stage private-equity fund that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build high-growth, capital-efficient companies that leverage innovative business processes or applications of the Internet, enterprise software or communications technology to gain a competitive advantage within their industry.

• Vice President

  Network Solutions/VeriSign

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; VRSN; Computer & Network Security industry)

  November 1999 — June 2001 (1 year 8 months)

  After selling ImageCafe.com to Network Solutions in 1999, I remained on as vice president of Network Solutions and GM of the ImageCafé business unit, responsible for managing the P&L and an $8 million budget. Scaled the operation to 35 employees. Negotiated partnership deals with major companies, including AOL. Grew the unit to $12 million in revenues in 2000.
  
  Network Solutions was acquired by Verisign in 2000.

• Co-founder & CEO

  ImageCafe.com

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  February 1998 — November 1999 (1 year 10 months)

  Launched in April 1999, ImageCafe.com was an Internet Superstore of customizable websites for small businesses.

Clarence Wooten’s Education

• Johns Hopkins University

  B.S. , Business and Management

Additional Information

Clarence Wooten’s Websites:

• My Company

Clarence Wooten’s Interests:

entrepreneurship, new technology, branding, marketing, basketball, architecture, real estate development, venture capital, private equity

Clarence Wooten’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

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