As ShareFile Marketing Specialist Jennifer Smith wrote recently, ShareFile has big plans for expansion into a new space. While we celebrate our growth, it’s still easy to forget that ShareFile grew from a one-person company to a team of 185 in only a few years. I recently spoke with Nate Spilker, Director of Client Services and one of the first ShareFile employees, about the original ShareFile office and what it’s like to be part of a growing technology company.

Sarah: Can you tell me about your role at ShareFile and how it has changed with the company’s growth?

Nate: I joined ShareFile in fall of 2007 as Vice President of Operations. At the time, we were a company of four employees, so I was responsible for a variety of things, from office management to database design and maintenance. Every employee fielded customer phone calls, and over time we built dedicated teams for account management and customer support. Today, I oversee these teams.

Sarah: Did you have expectations for where the company would be in 2012?

Nate: In my first conversations with Jesse (Lipson, ShareFile founder), he expected to grow the company to seven to nine employees over three to five years. I thought that was pretty conservative, and I expected we could reach twenty employees in that time, which I guess was pretty conservative, too. At almost five years out, we now have 185 employees.

Sarah: How has that growth affected the company’s culture?

Nate: Maintaining consistent company culture has been critical to our success. Our team has a more diverse skill set now, but we still have a culture that’s fun and also very professional. We have always been a customer-centric company, and the needs of our customers continue to shape our development priorities.

Even our start-up background has helped us transition to part of a larger company. As a boot-strapped company, we focused on efficiency. With the resources that we have now, we can bring our service to more companies while maintaining the same lean, results-driven process.

Sarah: What are some of the challenges that you have encountered as a result of ShareFile’s rapid growth?

Nate: It becomes much more difficult to know everyone on the team as we continue to grow. In the early days, we would all walk to a restaurant together and get lunch during staff meetings. Today, all-hands meetings are shared over GoToMeeting, because the company does not fit into one room. I encourage everyone to make an effort to get to know as many coworkers as possible – at least get to know their names.  It’s a small thing, but I think it makes a big difference.

Thanks, Nate! The ShareFile team is thrilled to be able to bring new talent to our team and the ShareFile service to more companies worldwide as we grow. Check out news coverage of Citrix plans for growth in Raleigh.

See below for a ShareFile timeline and picture of the future home of Citrix Raleigh.