about Shane

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND INVESTOR IN TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE & HOspitality.

Throughout my academic and professional career I’ve always focused on solving problems through software and technology. I was fascinated early on by the application of computers to biology and medicine which led me to pursue a degree in Computer Science and Pre-Med at New York University. Following a summer internship at the NASA biology labs at JFK Space Center, I enrolled at NYU Medical School. With the Internet boom of the late 90’s unfolding around me I couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon and working for an Internet startup. I left Medical school and took a position as lead developer of NYC-based Convey, one of the first blogging systems for publishers – long before the word “blog” even existed. 

Shortly thereafter I gathered a number of my close high school and college buddies to start our own Internet venture. Offyx was born and was a web portal designed to deliver applications through the cloud using Citrix technology. It was our attempt to leverage computing and eliminate the need for IT staff for SMBs. It would turn out that Offyx was too early to market, but the experience taught me what I needed to know to move forward with confidence to my next venture.

In a pre-Facebook, MySpace and EventBrite era I founded JoonBug: a suite of software solutions that married all aspects of the offline events world with the digital world. I spent the next eight years building the company to $25 million-plus in annual revenues and over 75 employees. 

We were first to market with technologies such as online photo purchasing and social sharing, exhaustive event databases, location-specific email newsletters, and e-ticketing systems. We also delved into large-scale event production, executing over 300 events annually, with over 100,000 total attendees. 

In 2006 as the efficacy of email marketing newsletters began to diminish I had the idea of reaching consumers through SMS on their mobile devices as a more potent alternative. This marked the birth of EZ Texting;  a web-based platform that I designed and built to enable businesses to affordably and easily market to consumers via SMS.

For the next two years I simultaneously headed JoonBug and EZ Texting until I sold JoonBug to a long-standing competitor and channeled all of my attention to EZ Texting.

By 2012 Ez Texting had amassed over 50,000 customers and annual revenues in the seven figures. In 2013 EZ Texting was acquired by CallFire - a cloud communications company - with the help of Morgan Stanley, Investor Growth Capital, and Multiplier Capital. 

Following the acquisition, I transitioned from CEO to Chief Product Officer where I oversaw both the EZ Texting and CallFire platforms. I later transitioned again to Director of Corporate Development where I spearheaded M&A initiatives. I initiated, sourced, and closed the successful acquisition of Fire Text UK by CallFire in November 2014.

I’m a prolific venture capitalist and backer of startups including Impossible Foods, Athletic Greens, SandboxAQ, Cirkul, Flexport, Convoy, Prose, Kraken, Obe, Deep Sentinel, Anvyl, Future, MapAnything, VinePair, Hyperice and Gupshup.

In addition to my many years as a technology entrepreneur and executive, I’ve also honed my expertise as a real estate investor and developer. I am an investor, developer, and manager of various types of properties ranging from commercial shopping and industrial centers to large residential buildings. Currently, I run a portfolio of over 20 properties in major metropolitan cities across the U.S.

Although a lifelong New Yorker at heart, after 38 years I moved to South Florida where I currently reside with my wife and kids.

For more about my work follow me on LinkedIn.