Our mission is to build companies that shape the world.
Learn MoreWe build companies that solve data fragmentation challenges.
Shaper, the family office of Travis May, partners with exceptional founders to create companies that solve data fragmentation challenges across industries.
The Shaper
Model
We obsess over talent.
We believe that the single biggest determinant of a company's success is the quality of its team – and we are relentless in attracting and developing the best Shapers in the world. From founders to early engineers to senior executives, we aim to make Shaper companies the best place for incredible talent to maximize their odds of success, personal growth, and ability to shape the world.
We stack the deck for success.
Instead of being a passive investor, Shaper is an active co-founder and hands-on partner to the CEOs we work with. By focusing narrowly on data fragmentation, we build companies in industries that we understand and focus on business models that we're uniquely good at. We relentlessly partner with CEOs to help them build their early team and solve key puzzles throughout their startup journeys, applying our playbook from past successes. The odds are stacked against startups. We change those odds and increase the probability of home-run success.
We create win-win-wins.
We believe there is a virtuous cycle in startups: great founders build great teams, develop great products, foster great customer relationships, have a great impact on the world, and create great financial rewards for investors – and these are all mutually reinforcing. We are playing the long game across each of these stakeholders and believe in finding the win-wins for every stakeholder that we touch.
We prioritize velocity.
We're not a fund. We have a CEO and operate at the pace of a business, not a committee. Funds need to spend effort focused on investor relations with LPs, and too many decisions are based on optics and short-termism. We use personal capital, eliminating investor dynamics to focus solely on long-term, impactful results.
See Our Thoughts on Company-Building
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Our companies
Companies Powered by Shaper
Shaper companies are built, not bet on. We co-found alongside exceptional CEOs, then work shoulder-to-shoulder to make the first hires, win the first customers, and solve the hardest early problems. The odds are stacked against every startup; our job is to help change them.
Come Shape the Future
We believe the single biggest determinant of a company's success is the quality of its team; so we are relentless about building the best teams in the world. Shapers are smart, nice, get things done, and love to win.