Craig Shapiro
@cshapiroCraig Shapiro is a founder and managing partner of Collaborative Fund.
One Trick Pony: Peanut butter that stands out in a crowd
by Craig Shapiro —Peanut butter is a deceptively simple product that most food companies get wrong.
Read moreInvest Like You Give A Damn
by Craig Shapiro —When launching Collaborative Fund in 2010, I wrote…
Read moreConsumer Brands and Essential Inputs
by Craig Shapiro —From our very first investment in Kickstarter back in 2010, backing consumer startups has been at the core of Collaborative…
Read morePhageLab
by Craig Shapiro & Luisa Sucre —As a kid, I loved going to my friend’s farm.
Read moreTeam Building
by Craig Shapiro —Winning is done by teams and I’m quite excited by the team at Collaborative Fund right now.
Read moreThe End of the Incandescent Light Bulb: A Failure of Technology and Markets
by Craig Shapiro —The Biden administration recently enforced a ban on the sale of traditional incandescent light bulbs, completing a years-long phase out…
Read moreQuick Thoughts on AI
by Craig Shapiro —My feed has recently been filled with lots of thoughts, predictions, jokes, and more about ChatGPT.
Read moreTeam Building
by Craig Shapiro —Last week we gathered as a team in Venice Beach California.
Read moreFive Questions for Charles Best
by Craig Shapiro —Charles Best is founder of DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that lets individuals donate directly to public school classrooms.
Read moreFirst Investments from Shared Future Fund
by Craig Shapiro —Fresh off the heels of announcing the Shared Future Fund, we are excited to share its first batch of investments…
Read moreRapid Funding for Climate Solutions
by Craig Shapiro —Rapid Funding for Climate Solutions.
Read moreDon’t Shine The Turd
by Craig Shapiro —Early on, when Collaborative Fund was just taking shape, I approached someone I respected and hoped would invest with us.
Read moreLong Live the Library
by Craig Shapiro —When you speak to folks with niche passions about how they got into their craft, their stories are often similar.
Read moreAn Impact Investing Infographic
by Craig Shapiro —Collaborative Fund was founded a decade ago with the mission to support and invest in the shared future.
Read moreAhead Of The Curve
by Craig Shapiro —A friend recently sent me a video of an interview with Tony Hawk.
Read morePerception
by Craig Shapiro —There are so many factors that can hold a person back in this life.
Read moreInvesting In Health Data
by Craig Shapiro —We have harnessed technology to enable an incredible amount of information sharing around business and finance over the last two…
Read moreClimate Change, Cow Burps, and ZELP
by Craig Shapiro —Last month the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest report which made clear that temperatures today…
Read moreSocial Fabric - Part Two
by Craig Shapiro —Religion was once the primary communal force in society.
Read moreQuaise
by Craig Shapiro —The decarbonization of our energy sector is inevitable.
Read moreWork From Anywhere
by Craig Shapiro —Working from home predates the coronavirus crisis: the proportion of the US labor force working from home rose from nearly…
Read moreSome Things We Are Doing About Coronavirus
by Craig Shapiro —With everything going on related to coronavirus, we’re doing a few things that we wanted to share with our community.
Read moreFounders, VCs and Values – Thoughts on a Critical Moment
by Craig Shapiro —What happens when a founder’s interests are not aligned with those of the company and its shareholders…
Read moreQ&A With Kimbal Musk, Cofounder of Square Roots & Board Director at Tesla, Space X, and Chipotle
by Craig Shapiro —Kimbal Musk started his career at Scotiabank.
Read moreQ&A With Beyond Meat’s Executive Chairman, Seth Goldman
by Craig Shapiro —Seth Goldman is the Executive Chairman at Beyond Meat.
Read moreMagic Spoon
by Craig Shapiro —Cereal is a thing. It is a big thing.
Read moreStop Giving Investment Advice
by Craig Shapiro —A fight broke out on Twitter recently.
Read moreNotes From Collaborative’s 2019 Summit
by Craig Shapiro —Last week we held our eighth annual Founders Summit.
Read moreA Day in the Life of Collaborative Fund
by Craig Shapiro —Time flies.
Read moreInvesting In Spyce
by Craig Shapiro —Collaborative Fund has backed several new retail concepts over the last five years, including, Blue Bottle Coffee, Sweetgreen, and byChloe.
Read moreBig Opportunity (Sorting Data)
by Craig Shapiro —“The average person today receives more information on a daily basis, than the average person received in a lifetime in…
Read moreCollaborative’s Future: More money, more solutions
by Craig Shapiro —Eight years ago we started with a thesis — the market was moving toward a sharing-based economy, consumers were looking…
Read moreTeam Collaborative
by Craig Shapiro —We are excited to welcome some new faces to the Collaborative team.
Read moreCollaborative Fund’s 2018 Summit
by Craig Shapiro —Last week we held our seventh annual Collaborative Fund summit in San Francisco.
Read moreNegotiating
by Craig Shapiro —What’s the goal of a negotiation? It’s to get what you want in a situation where the other side wants…
Read moreNew York’s Venture Ecosystem Just Leveled Up
by Craig Shapiro —A consistent question I’ve received since starting Collaborative Fund in 2010 is why I founded the firm in New York…
Read moreKnowing Your Audience
by Craig Shapiro —Every business is about solving other people’s problems.
Read moreHow Graffiti Got Me Into Tech
by Craig Shapiro —Morgan Housel and I recently recorded a conversation about our early careers.
Read moreThe Power Law At Work
by Craig Shapiro —One of Collaborative’s portfolio companies was acquired earlier this year, generating a fantastic return on our investment.
Read moreCompanies We’re Excited About
by Craig Shapiro —We look at hundreds of companies as potential investments each month.
Read moreAn Open Call for Internet Access
by Craig Shapiro —Recent news that Alibaba and Tencent are investing $10B into China’s second largest mobile operator — China Unicom, got me…
Read moreThe Dam Breaks Toward Doing Good
by Craig Shapiro —This chart, from Morningstar, tells an amazing story…
Read moreDandelion
by Craig Shapiro —Collaborative Fund is excited to announce that we led Dandelion’s recent seed round.
Read morePassionate Goals
by Craig Shapiro —I recently watched a video of Brene Brown talking about the power of vulnerability.
Read moreBacking the Good Guys
by Craig Shapiro —More investors want to back companies doing good in the world.
Read moreThe Hardest Part Of Investing Is Saying Yes
by Craig Shapiro —Most companies fail. There are an infinite number of reasons why.
Read moreSharing A Wealth of Knowledge
by Craig Shapiro —People have been learning machines for millions of years.
Read moreAligning Interests Is The Most Important Investment Trend
by Craig Shapiro —Everything we do at the Collaborative Fund is based around the belief that the world is moving toward a place…
Read moreInvestors Don’t Like Opportunistic Investments Until They Do
by Craig Shapiro —“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Read moreIt’s Time to Shake Up the Legal Industry
by Craig Shapiro —Close your eyes and picture the dream industry waiting to be disrupted.
Read moreAn Update on Collab+Sesame
by Craig Shapiro —Necessity is the mother of invention, so some of the most powerful innovations come from entrepreneurs solving their own problems…
Read moreVoting With Your Dollars
by Craig Shapiro —Advertising used to be straightforward.
Read moreKids, Consumer, Health, Money, and Cities
by Craig Shapiro —Orit Gadiesh, the chairman of Bain & Company, once described an important trait of successful people: The ability to be…
Read moreBusinesses Need to Step Up!
by Craig Shapiro —I feel compelled to address this presidential election.
Read moreThe Collaborative Fund Turns Six: What I’ve Learned
by Craig Shapiro —Collaborative Fund is turning six years old.
Read moreCollaborative Fund and Sesame Workshop Launch Collab+Sesame
by Craig Shapiro —We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Sesame Workshop.
Read moreEight questions for Nicholas Negroponte
by Craig Shapiro —Nicholas Negroponte has been at the forefront of the digital revolution since the beginning.
Read moreThe Villain Test
by Craig Shapiro —At Collaborative Fund, the first question we ask ourselves when evaluating a new investment opportunity is: If this startup becomes…
Read moreCollaborative’s next step
by Craig Shapiro —Today is an exciting day at Collaborative Fund.
Read moreAiming higher
by Craig Shapiro —I saw this tweet from Donda and it got me thinking ….
Read moreSocial good practices for companies
by Craig Shapiro —Because of Collaborative’s focus on investing in companies that push the world forward, I often meet entrepreneurs who have a…
Read moreBuilding momentum vs. creating it
by Craig Shapiro —Venture capital is all about placing bets on the future.
Read moreSocial fabric
by Craig Shapiro —How do we find and connect with people with whom we share common values…
Read moreTackle the Impossible vs. Navigate the Impossible
by Craig Shapiro —The qualities that interest me the most in entrepreneurs are those in direct conflict with each other, like the tension…
Read moreOur food system needs to be reshaped
by Craig Shapiro —Recently at Collaborative, we have been thinking a lot about food.
Read moreHiring the best
by Craig Shapiro —The most common pain point amongst the companies we invest in is hiring great people.
Read moreWhat We Like
by Craig Shapiro —Collaborative Fund backs the shared future.
Read moreCollaborative Fund Progress
by Craig Shapiro —A little more than three years ago, we launched Collaborative Fund with the goal of “investing in startups focused on…
Read moreCelebrating Our Strong Roots: Chuck Templeton
by Craig Shapiro —I’ve started writing about how our Limited Partners (LPs) shape and influence us.
Read moreInvest In Your Employees For Better Returns
by Craig Shapiro —In a recent New York Times article, Adam Davidson talks about two very different trips he took to Ikea five…
Read moreOnly Good News … Is Actually Bad News
by Craig Shapiro —One of the best pieces of advice I ever received came from an investor in Collaborative Fund.
Read moreCelebrating Our Strong Roots: Chris Cerf
by Craig Shapiro —I recently wrote about the importance of having strong roots.
Read moreStrong Returns Come From Strong Roots
by Craig Shapiro —One of the most important things about a person or organization is its roots.
Read moreUnpacking Collaborative Fund’s Investment Thesis
by Craig Shapiro —Back in May of this year, we partnered with The Case Foundation to take the reins on Social Citizens…
Read more“Do Something Good, Feel Something Real”
by Craig Shapiro —That’s Ray Chambers describing what motivates him.
Read moreGreat Brands Scratch An Itch
by Craig Shapiro —Every person, every organization has itches.
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