Eric Lefkofsky

Eric Lefkofsky: Career Highlights

Lefkofsky's entrepreneurial journey began in 1993 when he co-founded Brandon Apparel, a clothing company, with his college friend Brad Keywell. In 1999, he created Starbelly, an Internet company specializing in promotional products. He sold Starbelly to Halo Industries in January 2000 and joined Halo as the chief operating officer. In the fall of 2001, he co-founded InnerWorkings, a print procurement services firm, which went public with an initial public offering in August 2006.

In February 2005, Lefkofsky co-founded Echo Global Logistics, a freight logistics company, which went public on the NASDAQ under the symbol 'ECHO' in June 2006. He also co-founded MediaBank, a technology provider for advertising buyers, in June 2006. MediaBank acquired Datatech, a media planning and procurement platform, in June 2007, and received investment from New Enterprise Associates in July 2007. In 2012, MediaBank merged with Donovan Data Systems to form Mediaocean, valued at $1.5 billion.

Lefkofsky played a crucial role in the success of Groupon. He provided $1 million in funding for ThePoint.com (later Groupon.com) in January 2007. Groupon went on to raise significant funding from investors and turned down a reported $6 billion offer from Google in December 2010. Lefkofsky became the CEO of Groupon in August 2013 but stepped down in November 2016, resuming the role of Chairman.

In July 2014, Lefkofsky made an early investment in Uptake, LLC, an analytics company.

He also founded Tempus, a technology company for personalized cancer care, in 2016 and serves as its CEO.