Partner
Shawn Carolan
AIConsumerFintechRobotics + Hardware
As an early-stage investor, Shawn focuses on companies that serve the “utilitarian consumer”—the individual seeking better, faster, and cheaper ways to move through life. Because basic human needs are persistent, he looks at how people are spending their money and time to assess the value and utility of a product or service. This approach inspired Shawn to invest early in Roku, Uber, and Chime, long before they became household names.
Shawn’s technical background helps him appreciate new technologies that unlock innovation and become the foundation upon which categories are built, occasionally leading him beyond consumer into cutting-edge enterprise investments as well. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated with highest honors. He then joined Chicago startup Open Port Technology as a developer. After becoming a manager of software architecture, he wrote wire protocols in C++ and obtained a patent. He left to attend Stanford GSB, and joined Menlo in 2002 after receiving his MBA. In a career that has spanned investing, technology and management consulting, he’s learned many lessons. But it was in starting and running his own startup, Handle, that he had his own founder’s journey firsthand, giving him experience with the highs and lows that are impossible to fully comprehend from the boardroom.
For fun, Shawn enjoys hiking with his family, running with his wife, Jennifer (founder of Reach Capital), CrossFit, snowboarding, and motorcycling.
Supported by: Kelsey Shackelford, [email protected]
Investment Portfolio
Chime helps members avoid bank fees, save money automatically, and lead healthier financial lives.
Milestones
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2012 - Founded
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2018 - Partnered, Series C
Leadership
Chris Britt
Co-Founder & CEO
Ryan King
Co-Founder & CTO
Partners
JUMP is a dockless scooter and electric bike sharing system.
Milestones
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2010 - Founded
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2017 - Partnered, Series A
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2018 - Acquired by Uber
Partners
Monarch is a money management platform that helps users create a financial plan, budget, and track their goals.
Milestones
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2018 - Founded
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2021 - Partnered, Series A
Leadership
Val Agostino
Co-Founder & CEO
Jon Sutherland
Co-Founder & Head of Design
Ozzie Osman
Co-Founder & Head of Engineering
Partners
OpenSpace provides next-generation, 360º photo documentation for jobsites, powerful integrations, and the smartest analytics tools in the industry.
Milestones
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2017 - Founded
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2020 - Partnered, Series B
Partners
Roku pioneered streaming TV, connecting users to content they love, enabling content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and providing advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers.
Milestones
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2002 - Founded
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2008 - Partnered, Series C
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2017 - IPO; NASDAQ: ROKU
Partners
Siri was a voice recognition company spun out of the non-profit institute SRI International. It launched its Siri virtual personal assistant app in February 2010, two months before it was acquired by Apple.
Milestones
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2007 - Founded
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2008 - Partnered, Series A
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2010 - Acquired by Apple
Partners
ShipBob is a tech-enabled 3PL that offers simple, fast, and affordable e-commerce fulfillment for direct-to-consumer brands.
Milestones
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2014 - Founded
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2018 - Partnered, Series C
Leadership
Dhruv Saxena
Co-Founder & CEO
Divey Gulati
Co-Founder & COO
Partners
Uber innovates at the intersection of mobile technology, transportation, and logistics. Uber provides mobility-as-a-service with ride-sharing, food and package delivery, couriers, and freight transportation.
Milestones
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2009 - Founded
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2011 - Partnered, Series B
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2019 - IPO; NYSE: UBER
Partners
Alma
Alma is reimagining nutrition tracking by combining AI with an intuitive experience, transforming how people approach nutrition and healthy eating.
Anycart
Anycart delivers groceries and offers home cooks over 250 recipes with step-by-step cooking videos.
Acquired by Weee! Inc.
Arc
Arc is electrifying the world of boating, starting with high-performance watersport boats.
Chime
Chime helps members avoid bank fees, save money automatically, and lead healthier financial lives.
CinemaNow
CinemaNow was an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of on-demand, internet streaming media.
Acquired by Sonic Solutions
Epic!
Epic! is the leading digital library for kids 12 and under, where they can explore their interests and learn with instant, unlimited access to 40,000 high-quality ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes.
Acquired by BYJU's
IMVU
IMVU is an online metaverse and social network where users can create 3D avatars and connect and chat with other people around the world.
JUMP
JUMP is a dockless scooter and electric bike sharing system.
Acquired by Uber
Kabata
Kabata creates haptic, AI-powered smart dumbbells that allow exercisers to have an optimized strength training workout.
Kinetic
Kinetic is ushering in the next generation of mobility (EVs, AVs) with a network of highly automated service centers.
Monarch
Monarch is a money management platform that helps users create a financial plan, budget, and track their goals.
OpenSpace
OpenSpace provides next-generation, 360º photo documentation for jobsites, powerful integrations, and the smartest analytics tools in the industry.
Orro
Orro is an easy-to-use smart lighting system for the home.
PlaySpan
PlaySpan's payments platform handled transactions for digital goods in online games, digital media, and social networks around the world.
Acquired by Visa
Roku
Roku pioneered streaming TV, connecting users to content they love, enabling content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and providing advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers.
NASDAQ: ROKU
Scan
Scan is an AR experience that senses, enhances, and transforms the physical world, merging entertainment, information, and utility.
Acquired by Snap, Inc.
ShipBob
ShipBob is a tech-enabled 3PL that offers simple, fast, and affordable e-commerce fulfillment for direct-to-consumer brands.
Siri
Siri was a voice recognition company spun out of the non-profit institute SRI International. It launched its Siri virtual personal assistant app in February 2010, two months before it was acquired by Apple.
Acquired by Apple
TeleNav
Telenav is a provider of consumer location-based services (LBS), enterprise LBS and automotive LBS. Telenav’s solutions provide consumers, wireless service providers, enterprises and automakers with location-specific, real-time, personalized services.
NASDAQ: TNAV
Uber
Uber innovates at the intersection of mobile technology, transportation, and logistics. Uber provides mobility-as-a-service with ride-sharing, food and package delivery, couriers, and freight transportation.
NYSE: UBER
Unagi
The Unagi is the world's first luxury electric scooter for adults. It's lightweight, foldable, and just beautiful.
Whisper Aero
Whisper Aero makes next-generation components for drones and aircrafts, allowing them to operate more cleanly, efficiently, and quietly than ever before.
YuMe
YuMe was a leading independent provider of digital video brand advertising solutions.
NYSE: YUME
q&a
Investment Approach
From a friend who joined VC a year before me: “If two people always have the same opinion, one is unnecessary.” I love the simple truth. Being a good investor and partner is about becoming unique and deep in an area at the intersection of passion and economic opportunity. It’s how I found my way to “utilitarian consumer” companies that provide better, faster, cheaper ways to meet consumer needs using technology.
Our run with Anthony Wood, the founder of Roku, was an especially gratifying one. It came on the heels of a losing investment in CinemaNow (very early movie streaming service). Anthony and team had built the first robust video streaming product for $99, the “Netflix player by Roku”—just one channel! We led the first VC round when hardware was out of favor, but saw Anthony and team’s brilliant execution and strategy and shared the dream to become the streaming platform, while participating in the services revenue stream. Ten years after investing, I cried on the day of the IPO—it was so heartening to see all of their hard work and dreaming rewarded.
We are clear: Founders and the team run the company and we are there to support them. If the VC knows more than the team, they are both in trouble! We help in areas where the team has gaps by executing in the trenches, like finding and helping hire great people or sharing insights gleaned from considering over 1,000 investment opportunities a year and a portfolio of more than 100 high-performing companies.
Find an investor you want to bring bad news to because they will become part of the solution and not part of the problem. Running a startup is hard enough without having an investor that “chased heat” to find you and will get upset if things go wrong. The boardroom should be a place where you can expose your thorniest issues and find support. Something is always going wrong at startups.
I’m an engineer and product lover at heart, and have found throughout my career that my heroes are all entrepreneurs vs. other great investors. No matter how early you invest or how many ways you help, as an investor, it’s still someone else’s baby. I miss being on the hook for building something that makes the lives of customers better.
