Jesse Lipson
Founder & CEO
MarTech, SaaS
Raleigh, NC, USA
Listen to Jesse’s Podcast!
Jesse Lipson is the Founder and CEO of Levitate, a SaaS relationship marketing platform on a mission to help small businesses build authentic, human connections at scale. He previously founded ShareFile in 2005, bootstrapping it to over four million users and a $93 million acquisition by Citrix in 2011, where he later served as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Citrix Cloud Services.
A self-taught software developer, Jesse Lipson launched his first company at age 23 and earned a philosophy degree from Duke University. He co-founded Raleigh Founded, a coworking community for entrepreneurs, and started Levitate through his holding company Real Magic. In 2023, he led a successful Series C raise of approximately $14 million, scaling Levitate to more than 4,000 small business customers nationwide. In addition to his role at Levitate, Jesse Lipson serves as an independent director at Yext and is on the board of Green Places, reinforcing his leadership in both technology and community-driven ventures. He was also named Tech CEO of the Year at the 2023 NC TECH Awards, further solidifying his reputation in North Carolina’s tech ecosystem.
About Levitate:
Levitate is the leading happiness platform built to help relationship-focused businesses grow. With a unique Service-as-Software (SAS) model, Levitate combines intuitive marketing tools with an in-house content and strategy team to help small businesses build authentic connections with their clients or patients, donors, and volunteers. From email and social media to reviews, referrals, and beyond, Levitate delivers both the technology and human expertise needed to make marketing approachable and effective.
Jesse Lipson is also featured on our premiere Features Page, and you can read the Podcast Interview Transcript.
