Chris Barton was born and raised in the United States, and lives in California. His father, John P. Barton, was a professor in nuclear physics, and his mother, Claudia F. Barton, was a professor in the field of computer science.[5][6] His father is British and his mother is French, which he cites as giving him both the interest in living in the UK and the passport to do so;[7] his parents also set up a nuclear physics consultancy, which he credits as inspiration for his choice of an entrepreneurial career.[1]
Barton's career began as a strategy consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in London and the San Francisco Consulting Group, and it also included an internship at Microsoft in London.[9]
Shazam
In summer 1999 while on an internship in his MBA program, Barton conceived of the idea for Shazam as a service to enable consumers to find out what songs were playing where music could be heard, based on recording the song's audio and pattern-matching it to a database of songs.[4][6][10] After conceiving the idea for Shazam, Barton co-founded the company in 2000, along with co-founders Philip Inghelbrecht and Dhiraj Mukherjee, and later, Avery Wang as the fourth co-founder.[11][12][13][14] Barton located the company in London, based on the UK being the world-leading country (at the time) as measured by per-capita music purchases.[6]
During his early tenure with Shazam, as CEO, Barton raised angel funding for the company, buoyed by a summer 2000 technology breakthrough from technical co-founder Avery Wang which enabled him to demonstrate the music recognition technology at fundraising pitches.[15] As CEO, Barton raised $7.5 million in venture capital[16] and secured initial distribution partnerships with the four leading mobile operators in the UK, enabling Shazam to commercially launch in 2002. Barton left to join Google in early 2004 when Google was still a private company.[6] He continued to participate in Shazam's governance as Board Director until 2018, when Shazam was acquired by Apple.[9][17]
From 2004 until 2016, Barton held roles at Google and Dropbox, focusing on areas such as Android business development and establishing partnerships with mobile operators.[25] Barton was the first business development employee at Google to focus on mobile partnerships.[9][25][26][27] He joined Dropbox in late 2011, leading their partnerships with mobile operators.[7]
^ abcdNewnham, Danielle (2013-12-17). Mad Men of Mobile: Leading Entrepreneurs and Innovators Share Their Stories, from SIRI to SHAZAM. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1-4942-6656-1.
^Kane, Brendan (2023). Eine Million Follower: Wie man in nur 30 Tagen seine Social-Media-Präsenz massiv erhöht (1. Auflage ed.). München: REDLINE Verlag. ISBN9783962674854.
