Harper Reed is an engineer who builds paradigm-shifting technology and leads others to do the same. 

Reed loves using the enormity of the Internet to bring people together. In 2011, he took the role of CTO for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. A central component of that work was Project Narwhal, a centralised database of electoral information. Reed helped build a team of developers from tech companies like Twitter, Google, Facebook, Craigslist, Quora, Orbitz and Threadless. This approach— hiring technology workers from the tech startups rather than the political realm— was novel. 

From 2005-09, Reed was the CTO of clothing company Threadless. He is currently the CEO of Modest Inc where he hopes to define the future of commerce at Paypal.

Besides his claims of technical accomplishments, Reed is known for his punk-rock hair-style. He has subtitled himself as "pretty awesome" and "pretty much one of the coolest guys ever".

Reed was born in Greeley, Colorado, where he was raised in a home without a television but with an Apple IIC. He graduated from Cornell College in 2001 with degrees in philosophy and computer science. His first job out of college was as an engineer for World Book Publishing.

He is an avid reader and currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Hiromi Nakazawa.