Chris Barton (businessman)
Christopher Jacques Penrose Barton is an entrepreneur and motivational keynote speaker. He is the co-founder of the Shazam application and was the first CEO of the company.[1]
Early life
Barton was born to a French mother, a professor in Computer science, and a British father, nuclear scientist John P. Barton.[2]
Barton attended the University of Berkeley and later earned two master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and Cambridge University although he struggled with dyslexia. Prior to his work on Shazam, Barton worked as a strategy consultant.[3][4]
Shazam
In 1999 Barton had an idea which became Shazam Entertainment Limited. The company was formed in the UK in 2000, shortly after Barton and one of his co-founders, Philip Inghelbrecht, completed their MBA at Berkeley.
Barton, frustrated by the fact that he couldn’t ever recognise songs, decided that if they had partnerships with radio stations, advertising on air, they could identify the song and sell music to listeners.[1]
Barton formed a team which included friends Dhiraj Mukherjee and Inghelbrecht. They later recruited a fourth founder, Avery Wang.[4]
After acquiring multiple investors and backers, Shazam first made a profit in 2016, 17 years after launch.[1]
On September 24, 2018, the company was acquired by Apple for a reported $400 million. Shazam has now had over 2 billion downloads.[5]
After Shazam
Barton worked at Google and Dropbox, and later became a keynote speaker.[6]
He starred in a Super Bowl television advert in 2012 with Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Systrom.[7]
In 2021 Barton was deposed by the Department of Justice to discuss the pivotal partnerships he put in place on behalf of Google with leading mobile phone companies around the world.[8]
Barton has a new startup, Guard, that plans to use artificial intelligence to prevent drowning in swimming pools.[9]
He is the inventor of 12 patents.[6]
References
- ^ a b c Sheppard, Emma (December 7, 2016). "Shazam co-founder: 'We were growing a business in a collapsing market'". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
- ^ Ryan Foland Interview, World of Speakers Episode 108: Chris Barton, The Disruptive Thinking and Speaking
- ^ The Tony Robbins Podcast, The Power of Perseverance, Shazam Co-Founder Chris Barton on Making the Impossible Possible
- ^ a b Rahul Sampat, Snaps & claps: the story of Berkeley alums and Shazam’s $400M Apple, Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
- ^ https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/11/16761984/apple-shazam-acquisition.
- ^ a b Vashishtha, Yashica (August 23, 2019). "Chris Barton : The Founder of Shazam, A Product of Pure Innovation". yourtechstory.com.
- ^ The Washington Post February 6, 2012
- ^ Nylen, Leah (March 16, 2021). "The government's lawyers saw a Google monopoly coming. Their bosses refused to sue". POLITICO.
- ^ The Tony Robbins Podcast, The Power of Perseverance, Shazam Co-Founder Chris Barton on Making the Impossible Possible