We believe in small businesses; in fact, we were one prior to joining the Citrix team. To show our support for small teams accomplishing big things, we are on a national tour to thank these companies for their hard work. We’re teaming up with Silver Lining Limited, an organization dedicated to helping small businesses flourish, and coming to a city near you.

We’re hosting FREE events for small business owners across the US in February and March. Find your nearest city and register via the links below.

We’re delighted to be a part of the Triangle Business Journal Fast 50 Awards list of the 50 fastest-growing private companies, for the second year in a row. Although the rankings will not be revealed until the Fast 50 Awards dinner next Tuesday, we are honored to be among the top 50 companies, given the economic state. This award is based on a formula that counts revenue growth and profitability in the preceding three years (2008-2010).

As you may know, this award recognizes the fastest-growing private companies. After nearly six years of operating profitably as a privately-held company with no outside funding, we recently completed a transaction to be acquired by Citrix Systems. We are looking forward to some exciting integrations with Citrix in the coming months.

TBJ asked Jesse Lipson (ShareFile CEO- now VP and GM of Data Sharing at Citrix) what’s been fueling our growth over the past few years and he replied back with a simple answer- Our company culture and our customer-centric focus. Our growth strategy flows from focusing on our customers’ needs and providing a valuable service based on data-driven decisions.

We are excited to be on the Inc. 500 list for the second consecutive year! Inc. magazine ranked ShareFile #241 on its 30th annual Inc. 500 and #24 in the software industry.

Our 3-year sales growth rate is 1322% and our employee growth is 41. Last year at this time, we had 29 employees, so there are a lot of new faces here in the office! As a result of our growth, we have expanded our office facilities to accommodate new employees. We’ve been doing a lot of growing over the past year!

The Inc. 500 list is an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

The 2011 list is available in Inc’s September issue- get yours from newsstands today through November 15- and also available on Inc.com.

Here is a link to our Inc. profile for more information: http://www.inc.com/inc5000/profile/sharefile.

I was born in Raleigh and have lived here my whole life (something that is hard to find these days due to the large number of new immigrants). In fact, the net migration rate to Raleigh was the second highest in the U.S. over the past five years- a surprising statistic to some.

According to Forbes, Raleigh ranked number two in the “Next Big Boom Towns” list in the U.S. Raleigh has experienced the second-highest overall population increase and the third-highest job growth rate over the past two decades. Raleigh is a “magnet for technology companies fleeing the more expensive, congested and highly regulated northeastern corridor.”

I read an article this morning that really sparked my interest. This article, published in AdAgeDigital, revealed that of the Fortune 50 companies, only THREE of the 50 had phone numbers listed on their homepage. Seems kind of ironic that these companies spend millions on marketing and advertising, yet they don’t focus efforts around customer service. Nothing is more frustrating to me than when I visit a company’s website in search of a phone number to contact a live human being, only to find no number. I don’t get it. They don’t want to hear from their customers? Or better yet, they don’t want a potential sale?

It seems in today’s business world, this is a regular occurrence. I thumbed through the Fortune 50 companies myself and to my surprise, AT&T and Verizon (which I am a customer of) are both phone companies, yet no phone numbers listed on their homepages! Seriously? I ventured to the “Contact Us” page of AT&T’s website and was prompted through a series of dropdown menus. Once complete, I was then prompted to a page to “Get help in three steps- 1, 2, 3” by clicking the type of support I was in search for. The problem is what if the question I have doesn’t fall into the bucket of topics listed? I just want a phone number! The funny thing is, 82% of Americans say they have stopped doing business with companies due to poor customer service. Customer service DOES make a difference.

ShareFile was selected to participate in the Demo Room at CED’s All Things Tech Venture Conference on April 27-28, 2011 at the Raleigh Convention Center. The Demo Room features more than 70 of the region’s most promising start-up technology companies. As a Demo Room participant, ShareFile will get the opportunity to take part in a “Lightening Round,” where our very own Nate Spilker, VP of Client Services, will present a two minute overview of our company.

The majority of the presenting companies at the Venture conference are seeking funding from VCs. Instead, our unique pitch will present a quick company overview and invite attendees to visit our booth and check out a product demonstration. We want to uphold our core value of being customer centric and we will remain committed to our customers by not seeking any funding. In fact, we have adopted a corporate slogan, “Funded By Our Customers,” which has resulted in a tremendous customer adoption rate, with a recent cross over 15,000 corporate customers and two million users.

Working at ShareFile for the past three years, I have had the opportunity to meet some fascinating people and learn about great businesses. Speaking with people about how they plan to use the product and helping to meet (and hopefully exceed) their needs is truly rewarding both personally and professionally. Now that our company has reached the remarkable milestone of reaching 2 million users worldwide, I’ve also had the chance to look back to touch base with one of our clients who started it all by taking the leap of faith to give ShareFile a try.

The Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network recently conducted an interview with ShareFile founder and CEO, Jesse Lipson. Jesse shares a number of insights on how to start a successful bootstrapped company successfully.

“I think that the concept of uniqueness is highly overrated when it comes to business ideas. Many aspiring entrepreneurs, especially students, feel they need to come up with a totally unique idea and if they later find someone already doing it, they give up. There is no need to be afraid of competitors as long as you have a clear path for acquiring customers and generating revenue. What you should really be afraid of is coming up with a totally new idea that no one actually wants to buy/use.”

He also believes that the time to start a business is when you are young and do not have some of the constraints that come with getting older.

“I would say that the least risky time to start a business is while you’re in school. As a student you can work on a business without needing to make a big salary, so the downside to starting a business in college is very small. In the worst case your business will fail, but you’ll still have some great experience that will help you get a job after graduation.”