Speaker Profile

Shaun co-founded Urban Us to fund & serve startups that make cities better. Urban Us currently works with 43 startups and a global network of more than 2,000 investors, cities, companies and thought leaders. Startups work on problems including low energy buildings, water management, personal mobility, parking systems, social services, e-waste, paperless government and resilient connectivity. Shaun also serves on the investment committee of URBAN-X, the Urban Us partnership with BMW/MINI for pre-seed startups.

Before Urban.Us Shaun was an active angel investor, investing in more than 20 firms between 2007 and 2013 including ZocDoc, Trialpay (acquired by Visa), Refinery29, Skycatch and Tonx (acq Blue Bottle Coffee). Early stage investing and advising was informed by his experiences building MediaSentry (acquired by SafeNet in 2005), Starmedia Network (acquired France Telecom), govWorks (subject of the documentary Startup.com 2001) and Oculus (MIT CADLab spin-out). He has written for organizations such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, The Huffington Post and CNNMoney and taught classes at Wharton, NYU and University of Chicago Booth School. Crowdstorm, his first book, is a guide to working with large online crowds to find and evaluate ideas.

The book is a result of his experiences running open innovation projects in the United States, European Union and Latin America for clients such as Starbucks, Omnicom Group, $300 House and Life Edited and features firms ranging from LEGO to GE. Shaun has an MSc from MIT where he focused on computer aided design, an MBA from Berlin School of Creative Leadership where he researched online collaboration and BSc from University of Cape Town. He is papai to Max and Oli and number one fan of his partner and artist Andrea Nhuch. When he is not at work or with his family, you will most likely find him swimming, Onewheeling or voiding a warranty.