Justin Shimoon holds an inimitable passion for technology and creating solutions to improve the lives of others.
Raised in Ontario, Canada, Justin Shimoon attended Carleton University, where he majored in electrical engineering. Upon graduating, Justin didn’t waste any time getting involved in the tech scene in Canada. Combining his passion for technology with his education, Justin began his career at Nortel Networks as a network engineer. After spending one year in the workforce, Justin founded his first company, Sitebrand Inc., at 20 years old.
Sitebrand Inc. was an online marketing solution that helped companies personalize the internet experience for consumers, resulting in increased brand loyalty and conversion rates. During his time building and leading Sitebrand, Justin was able to raise an impressive $5 million in funding. During his stint as founder and CEO, Justin would develop the skills and experiences necessary for other businesses he would start later in life. Two years after going public, Sitebrand was acquired by Cactus Commerce in 2011 and Justin set out for his next business venture.
Following the sale of Sitebrand, Justin next recognized an unmet need in the marketplace. With online dating taking off, along with online consumer selling websites like Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, Shimoon realized that people were apprehensive to give out their personal cell phone number to complete strangers. At the time, the current solutions did not provide enough flexibility for consumers, and Justin wanted to create an easy to use platform that would allow people to create phone numbers for situations when they didn’t want to give out their personal number.
With Justin at the helm as CEO, AffinityClick quickly scaled and has amassed over seven million downloads while achieving a 4.5-star rating with nearly 10,000 reviews between the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Justin’s understanding of the current technology landscape has allowed him to create software and companies that solve a need and do it in a simple way.
Today, Justin continues to grow AffinityClick and its most renowned product, Hushed, serving over 65 countries and growing rapidly. While immersed in the day to day operations of running AffinityClick, Justin is also passionate about emerging trends like cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. It’s this curiosity in all things technology that led Justin to start his first company at a young age.
As a leader of his company and mentor to employees, Justin wants to develop those around him and encourage others to approach life with a desire to always learn new things and challenge themselves to take risks. Justin recognizes the need to stay sharp and work each day to improve themselves, their product, and their company culture.