About Chip Griffin
Chip Griffin is a serial entrepreneur focused at the intersection of communications and technology. He advises PR and marketing agencies seeking to improve their businesses by increasing efficiency, integrating innovation, and improving operations.
In his fifth-grade classroom, Chip was shown a TRS-80 computer hooked up to a TV and told that if he could figure out how to use it — he could use it. Ever since that day in 1983, he has had an intense curiosity about technology and how it can improve daily life.
Fast forward to 1997 when the board chair of Townhall.com, a company that operated a policy-oriented web portal, approached Chip to ask him to take over the CEO role. At first, Chip assumed it was a joke — after all, what would a prominent website want with a 23-year-old as its leader? But these were the early boom days of the World Wide Web when inexperience was not an obstacle and youth was a distinct advantage.
After Chip left Townhall, he created his first company, Griffin Strategy Group, to help organizations navigate the world of new media by creating websites and online applications.
Seeing that his clients were struggling with getting reports on their own news coverage, Chip joined with another consultant to create CustomScoop, one of the earliest online news clipping services. Rather than relying on workers with razor knives cutting out actual newspaper clippings, Chip wrote a web application that automatically discovered news stories across the web.
Chip and his partners would later sell CustomScoop to CARMA in 2015, after which Chip joined that company and rose to become its Global COO, helping to lead a workforce of more than 500 employees in North America and EMEA.
Over the course of two decades of entrepreneurship, Chip has created and grown more than half a dozen different companies. Though he prefers those that succeed, he always says that he has learned just as much from his failures.
Chip has also served as an entrepreneur from within, becoming one of the first Chief Digital Officers for a major public relations agency when he joined DCI Group in 2009 to help them build a robust digital communications practice.
A sought-after speaker and commentator, Chip is a prolific content creator who launched his first blog in 1999 and has been podcasting since 2006. His writing has appeared in leading publications, including The New York Times and Washington Post. He has also served as a regular columnist for publications covering technology, communications, and public policy.
Chip serves in a variety of nonprofit and volunteer roles, including as Chair of the American University School of Public Affairs Advisory Council and Past President of the AU Alumni Association. In what passes for free time, he umpires baseball and referees basketball games at the high school level.