Fifteen months from leaving Nest Labs, a maker of digital thermostats and smoke detectors that Fadell cofounded and sold to Google for $3.2 billion in 2014, Fadell is taking the wraps off a new investment and advisory firm that’s working with engineers and scientists referred to as Future shape.
The firm’s site, that seems to have gone live very recently, explains that Future shape isn’t relying on outside investors for its capital. It also states that the concept is to provide “seed funding, and sometimes A” to companies no matter wherever they’re.
In fact, it says its portfolio is already based mainly in Europe, as well because the U.S., and that it has some “great companies in Asia and also the Mideast, too.”
Fadell, who lives at least part time in Paris, has already funded more than 100 companies over the years, including Rohinni, is a four-year-old, Idaho-based startup that makes led Lighting products and reportedly pitched Fadell while he was still managing Nest. Others of his investments include CashShield, a nine-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based online fraud risk management company, and Turvo, a three-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based logistics management startup.
Still, Future shape appears to be a way for Fadell to create more structure around these bets. (We’ve reached out to a spokesperson for additional data.)
In addition to Fadell, Future shape lists as its team members David Sloo, a former experience architect at Nest who is also living in Paris; Anton Oenning a former marketing director at Nest who remains within the Bay Area; and Vicky lu, who spent 3 years as Fadell’s executive assistant and who lists herself as an executive assistant at Future shape on LinkedIn.
Fadell’s profile began to rise at Apple, where he led the engineering team that created the iPod and worked on the 1st 3 versions of the iPhone. In 2010, he founded Nest with Apple engineer Matt Rogers.
Last year, Fadell left Nest after a six-year run that ended in controversy over his leadership style. Rogers remains at Nest, where he serves as chief product officer. He, too, has created an outfit that invests in seed and Series A-stage companies; it’s called Incite Ventures.
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source:techcrunch.com
