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Nick Durham

Senior Associate at Shadow Ventures

GTM Operator turned VC.

Shadow Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in seed-stage technology companies in the $40 trillion real estate and construction markets.

Featured Speaker on Entrepreneurship: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, iHeart radio (The Mandy Connell Show), Miami University, National Association of Home Builders (Kentucky Chapter), SHIELD entrepreneur program (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), among others.

Highlights

Jul 8 · linkedin

Our latest Shadow Ventures letter reflects on the most closely held advice inside the startup network state: to always be building.

What’s noticeably absent from these sacrosanct words is any semblance of deep thinking at the idea stage, of planning your course to win a market. From my seat, directionless building without sound strategy is a serial killer of startups.

How do you build a great strategy?

I lay out my thoughts here. This is the framework I use to evaluate startups we meet.

(Thanks to Sean Devine for being my sparring partner on this piece)

Apr 1 · linkedin

Pumped to welcome Okibo to the Shadow Ventures portfolio.

Okibo is a Tel Aviv based construction robotics company that has built a fully autonomous “finishing” robot in construction – focused on painting, drywalling, and plastering walls.

Why did we invest?

Much ink has been spilled over the current labor shortage in construction, but to distill the challenge to a few overwhelming data points:

  • We need to fill 500,000 job openings in 2024 alone to match project demand
  • As a result of this supply / demand gap, labor costs are up 25%
  • Even after increases in pay rates, 60% of projects still experience delays because of labor constraints

Unacceptable. Robotics can save the trades.

May 7 · PRNewswire
Shadow Ventures Taps Former BuiltWorlds Leader Nick Durham for Senior Chicago Post - PRNewswire
May 7 · PR Newswire
Shadow Ventures Taps Former BuiltWorlds Leader Nick Durham for Senior Chicago Post - PR Newswire
Shadow Ventures Taps Former BuiltWorlds Leader Nick Durham for Senior Chicago Post - PR Newswire

Related Questions

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Experience

Senior Associate at Shadow Ventures
Board Observer at Local Logic

Education

BSBA, Finance, Real Estate, University of Florida

Location

Chicago, Illinois, United States