George Arison (born "Irakly Areshidze" in 1977 in Tbilisi) is a Georgian-born American businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Shift, an online, peer-to-peer, marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Prior to Shift, in 2007, he co-founded Taxi Magic, today known as Curb (RideCharge, Inc.) A politics graduate from Middlebury College in Vermont, he retains a keen interest in politics and authored the book ‘’Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia’’ in 2007.
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Background
Arison was born Irakly Areshidze in Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia in 1977. He moved to the United States at the age of 14. He claims to be the “first student from the Soviet Union allowed to attend a private U.S. high school without a government sponsorship”. In 2000, he graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, having studied under political scientist Murray Dry. Arison is the author of the book ‘’Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia’’, published in 2007.
Arison retains a keen interest in politics, and spoke for the Clinton Global Initiative and has contributed to numerous publications, including the Christian Science Monitor.
Career
Arison worked as a product manager for Google, working on Helpouts and Fiber. He also worked briefly for Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In 2007, he co-founded Taxi Magic, today known as Curb (RideCharge, Inc.), which uses mobile technology to organize transportation, on demand.
In 2014, Arison founded Shift, an online, peer-to-peer, marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Shift acts as “an agent between used car buyers and sellers”. In 2014, Arison secured a $23.8 million investment, primarily from chief investors DFJ and Highland Capital Partners, and SV Angel and Great Oaks VC and individuals such Lars Rasmussen of Google Maps and Hans Robertson of, Meraki. In 2015, Arison made a deal with Goldman Sachs, which saw a new investment of $50 million in Shift. The investment allowed the company to expand beyond Silicon Valley and Los Angeles and compete with market leaders like Carmax and Craigslist. Arison said at the time: "We think that any city with 250,000 people or more could have an awesome Shift marketplace. We don’t want to make a lot of money on the car itself. Marketplaces win when they offer a better product for less money."
In May 2016, when Donald Trump was strongly criticized for his policies by businesspeople in Silicon Valley, Arison was one of the outspoken figures, commenting: "We all very strongly believe in immigration and bringing very skilled, awesome people to the U.S. and welcoming them. Google wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for (Russian-born) Sergey Brin and Tesla wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Elon Musk".