Charlie Crystle

{{short description|American businessman}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}

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| known_for = Founder of Chili!Soft, GiftWorks

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Charlie Crystle is an entrepreneur from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He founded the software company Chili!Soft in 1996 and raised startup capital from venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetsen of Palo Alto, CA.[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19987902.html] {{dead link|date=July 2018}}

Chili!Soft was purchased by Cobalt Networks for when Crystle was 32 years old.{{Cite news| title = An Interview with Charlie Crystle| newspaper = PoliticsPA| url = http://www.politicspa.com/FEATURES/Interviews/interviewcrystle.htm| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20040402061428/http://www.politicspa.com/FEATURES/Interviews/interviewcrystle.htm| archivedate = 2004-04-02| url-status = dead}} He used the proceeds to fund several non-profit organizations and projects. The software was incorporated into Sun Microsystems's Sun Java System Web Server.{{Cite news | last = Gartner | first = John | title = Software Exec Eyes Senate Seat | newspaper = Wired | date = August 19, 2003 | url = https://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/08/60078|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022235522/http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/08/60078|archivedate=October 22, 2009}}{{Cite news|date=March 20, 2005|title=Charlie Crystle and the long climb back. The life of a software wunderkind: Seeing a niche, building the product. And then comes the hard part.|newspaper=Intelligencer Journal|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LC&p_theme=lc&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=108FBD25191927C1&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM}}

Crystle entered the 2004 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in an attempt to unseat Arlen Specter.{{Cite news|last=Neri|first=Al|author-link=Albert J. Neri|date=August 2003|title=District historically Republican|newspaper=The Insider|url=http://www.insiderpa.com/archive/insider8-2003b.htm|url-status=dead|access-date=2009-10-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013105059/http://www.insiderpa.com/archive/insider8-2003b.htm#|archive-date=2007-10-13}} Interest in his candidacy, the race was stoked when he told the Associated Press that he would consider spending $1 million of his own money on the race.{{Cite news|last=Neri|first=Al|author-link=Albert J. Neri|date=August 2003|title=Internet entrepreneur enters Democratic primary for U.S. Senate|newspaper=The Insider|url=http://www.insiderpa.com/archive/insider8-2003.htm|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012200851/http://www.insiderpa.com/archive/insider8-2003.htm|archivedate=2007-10-12}}