Shaun Maguire
- Seed/Early
My whole life I've sought out people that I think are really talented but a little bit off the radar.
Backstory
Growing up, I had a cousin who studied computer science at UCLA, who made a huge impact on me. When I was 7 years old, he helped me build my first computer. From the time I was 9, I’ve been obsessed with space. For months, when I was 13, I couldn’t sleep at night because there was a thought experiment I couldn’t understand. (It turns out space is curved.) I did horribly in high school. Bored out of my mind. I didn’t even go to class most of the time—1.8 GPA in 10th grade and an F in algebra II. I was doing projects on the computer, hanging out in hacker forums for 10 hours a day in IRC.
I’ve started five companies. The first one was a failure, three of them have been successful, and one is too early to call. I started the second company with two friends and I got to know a lot of VCs raising money for it. I pitched everyone—except Sequoia, because they had a conflict. Fast forward a few years, and Google Ventures offered me a job that gave me the flexibility to stay in LA and finish my Ph.D. in quantum gravity. This wasn’t necessarily what I thought I would do long term. Then another fund that was trying to recruit me did a reference call with my friend Patrick Collison. Patrick called Sequoia and told them they should hire me instead.
On the lookout for
I like high-IQ founders. But even more important to me is someone that’s just irrationally motivated. For whatever reason, it’s their life mission to try to revolutionize the industry they’re going after. And some of these founders don’t even understand where it comes from, or how deeply ingrained it is in them. I’ve got to believe that they work incredibly hard in part to make their families proud. In some cases, they were wildly misunderstood as kids and have chips on their shoulders. One of the ways to measure this is, what do people do on their weekends? The best founders are just so obsessed with what they’re doing that they cannot turn off.
Get in touch with ShaunPersonal Side
- Quantum gravity
- First-person shooters
- Marathoner
- 95 countries
- Dolphin Club alum
Press & Media
Companies
Current Companies
Company Name | Short Description | Current Stage | Founders | First Partnered | collapse |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMP Robotics | AMP Robotics is changing the face of recycling with high-speed guided robotics. | Growth |
| Early (2019) | Collapse |
Blockaid | Blockaid builds web3 security to protect users from fraud, phishing, and hacks. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
Bridge | Bridge is building critical infrastructure to support stablecoin payments. | Early |
| Early (2023) | Collapse |
Caldera | Caldera enables dynamic Web3 experiences by enabling developers to launch performant application-specific blockchains. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
Factory | Factory is bringing autonomy to software engineering with task-specific AI agents. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2023) | Collapse |
Foundry | Foundry is orchestrating the world’s compute capacity, making it universally accessible for AI workloads. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
Gather | Gather hosts virtual spaces for work and play. | Growth |
| Early (2021) | Collapse |
Harmonic | Harmonic is building a state-of-the-art mathematical reasoning engine in pursuit of mathematical superintelligence. | Early |
| Early (2024) | Collapse |
Iron Fish | Iron Fish is a Layer 1 blockchain that provides privacy guarantees on every single transaction. | Early |
| Early (2021) | Collapse |
Knowde | Knowde is the marketplace for chemicals, polymers and ingredients. | Growth |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
LayerZero | LayerZero is an omnichain interoperability protocol that enables trustless cross-chain dApp development. | Growth |
| Early (2022) | Collapse |
Mach Industries | Mach is solving hypersonic defense and revolutionizing defense technology. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2023) | Collapse |
Monad | Monad's platform unites security data silos and builds effective security and compliance workflows. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2020) | Collapse |
Neros | Neros develops and manufactures advanced unmanned drone systems for battlefield defense with a U.S. supply chain. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2023) | Collapse |
Physna | Physna codifies 3D models into detailed data for software applications. | Growth |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
Privy | Privy makes Simple APIs to manage user data off-chain. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2021) | Collapse |
Reflect Orbital | Reflect Orbital sells sunlight at night. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2024) | Collapse |
Robco | Robco rethinks how products are made, using modular robot systems. | Growth |
| Early (2022) | Collapse |
Semgrep | Semgrep is a code scanning platform for finding first and third-party security vulnerabilities in your code base. | Growth |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2017) | Collapse |
SpaceX | SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft. | Growth |
| Growth (2020) | Collapse |
The Boring Company | The Boring Company creates safe, fast-to-dig, and low-cost transportation, utility, and freight tunnels. | Growth |
| Growth (2022) | Collapse |
The Wire Digital | The Wire Digital is helping global businesses make smarter decisions. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2020) | Collapse |
TipLink | TipLink enables users to send crypto or NFTs with just a link. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
Vise | Vise is an AI-powered portfolio management platform. | Growth |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2019) | Collapse |
Watershed | Watershed is a software platform that helps companies get to zero carbon fast. | Growth |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
X | X (formerly Twitter) is what’s happening and what people are talking about right now. | Growth |
| Growth (2022) | Collapse |