Shawn spent the last two decades investing in, building and leading entrepreneurial ventures. Currently he is a Partner at REASON Venture Partners.

Shawn was CEO of VC-backed start-ups, Flock (social media software) and Mind Pirate (IoT/wearables technology). Both companies were acquired, Flock by Zynga and Mind Pirate by Hewlett Packard. He spent 18 months as an Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) at Bessemer Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures, leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms with $4 billion invested in 130 global companies. As an EIR, Shawn incubated new business ideas, evaluated investment opportunities and advised entrepreneurs seeking to scale. Shawn was a principal investor in Sahale Snacks and served on the Sahale Advisory Board for over a decade. Previously, Shawn was a senior executive at NBC, NBC Internet, AOL, and Yahoo.

Shawn is also a director member of the Directors Guild of America and he has worked as a filmmaker on more than seventy film and video productions. He has served on advisory boards for National Public Radio, the American Film Institute, and he was a founding member of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Interactive Media Peer Group. Shawn is a graduate of the University of Southern California. In 2015 Shawn was appointed to Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute as a DCI Fellow. Shawn lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two children.