Future Shape

About

Future Shape is an investment and advisory firm founded by Tony Fadell, the co-creator of the iPod, co-inventor of the iPhone, and founder of Nest Labs ¹². Fadell launched the firm publicly in October 2017, approximately 15 months after departing Nest Labs, which he had co-founded in 2010 and sold to Google for $3.2 billion in 2014 ¹³. The firm was originally called Future Shape and has since rebranded to Build Collective, with futureshape.com redirecting to buildc.com ⁴⁵.

Future Shape operates without outside LPs, investing exclusively Fadell’s own capital ⁶⁷. This structure allows for fast decision-making and long time horizons without the pressure of fund lifecycle constraints ⁷. The firm writes checks ranging from $250,000 to $25 million ⁷. Fadell has stated the firm is currently coaching and investing in over 200 startups ⁷⁸.

The core team includes Tony Fadell (Founder & Principal), David Sloo (Product & UX), Anton Oenning (Marketing & Brand Strategy), Elise Houren (Media & PR), Michael Quillinan (Legal & Contracts), and Vicky Lu (Operations) ⁵. The firm emphasizes hands-on mentorship over passive capital deployment, describing itself as “mentors with money” ⁶⁹.

Future Shape is headquartered in Paris, France, with investments spanning the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East ²¹⁰.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what the firm says publicly about its investment focus. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Future Shape publicly describes its mission as investing “money and time to help engineers and scientists build a greener world, in which every person enjoys a longer, richer life” ⁴. Fadell has stated: “We only invest in things that will help the planet, help society or help health, personal health” ⁷.

The firm organizes its investment focus around four macro trends: the electrification of everything, the digital connection of everything, the rise of biomanufacturing, and the eradication of waste ⁶¹¹.

On its approach to portfolio companies, Fadell has described the firm as “deep tech investors, which means we look for fundamental technology changes at the basic level, like quantum computing or artificial intelligence” ⁸. He starts by “defining key trends that will change the way we live and major problems that need fixing in the next seven to 12 years” and then works backward to find companies addressing those problems ⁹.

On risk tolerance, Fadell has stated: “We don’t fund science projects. When you have more of an idea of the science and you have something that’s ready to be productized, then let’s talk” ⁷. He requires proven science and prototype productization along with a clear scaling plan ⁷.

The firm explicitly avoids investing in advertising, marketing, music, movies, gaming, traditional food and beverage, restaurant, retail, or real estate ¹⁰. Fadell has been particularly vocal about rejecting the metaverse: “The metaverse is a false choice. It is a diversion of resources. Either you are part of the problem or part of the solution. If you invest in the metaverse you are part of the problem” ⁶.

On its structural advantage, Fadell has noted that not having LPs gives the firm better access to companies than board seats would: “We don’t lead because we don’t have LPs” ⁷. The firm positions itself as a sounding board for founders rather than a governance-oriented investor ⁷.

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on 25 verified investments from press coverage, Crunchbase, firm disclosures, and news sources. Fadell claims 200+ companies in the portfolio ⁷¹⁰, meaning this table represents approximately 13% of known investments. The sample is too small for high-confidence percentages, so qualitative patterns are emphasized alongside counted data.

Sector concentration (based on 25 verified investments): - Climate tech / clean energy / sustainability: 9 of 25 (36%) — Advano, Turntide, Phononic, Sweep, Smartex, Aectual, Ambient Photonics, Impossible Foods, Diamond Foundry - Robotics / semiconductors / hardware: 5 of 25 (20%) — Simbe Robotics, Remedy Robotics, Menlo Micro, Rohinni, Nothing - Biotech / medical: 3 of 25 (12%) — Orionis Biosciences, Prenuvo, Nabla - Advanced manufacturing / industrial: 3 of 25 (12%) — Mantle, 3D Hubs, Carbice - Consumer / media: 2 of 25 (8%) — Hodinkee, mmhmm - Enterprise / fintech: 2 of 25 (8%) — Edda, Ledger - Agriculture / food tech: 1 of 25 (4%) — XpertSea

Key patterns:

• Atoms over bits. The dominant pattern is investment in companies manipulating physical materials, biological processes, or hardware — not pure software. Of 25 verified investments, at least 19 (76%) involve hardware, materials science, biotech, or industrial processes. This is consistent with Fadell’s stated conviction that “the first trillionaire is someone who’s going to fix climate change. It’s going to be about atoms” ¹².

• Strong European tilt. Unlike most Silicon Valley-origin investors, Fadell operates from Paris and has a significant European portfolio. Verified European investments include Smartex (Portugal), Sweep (France), Aectual (Netherlands), Aryballe (France), Edda (France), Nothing (UK), Orionis Biosciences (Belgium), Ledger (France), and Nabla (France). At least 9 of 25 verified investments (36%) are European, an unusually high concentration. Fadell has stated that Europe has “more progressive environmental regulation” driving climate tech adoption ⁶.

• Climate tech as a throughline. Climate and sustainability themes permeate the portfolio across sectors: battery technology (Advano), digital motors (Turntide), solid-state cooling (Phononic), carbon accounting (Sweep), textile waste reduction (Smartex), 3D-printed recycled materials (Aectual), alternative proteins (Impossible Foods), low-light solar cells (Ambient Photonics), and synthetic diamonds (Diamond Foundry).

• Active mentorship model. The firm provides deep operational involvement rather than passive capital. Fadell personally designed the Ledger Stax hardware wallet before joining the board ¹³. He joined the Simbe Robotics board alongside a Series A investment ¹⁴. Smartex co-founder Gilberto Loureiro described talking to Fadell “almost every day” ¹⁵. The team includes dedicated product, marketing, PR, and legal support for portfolio companies ⁵.

• Wide stage range. Verified investments span from seed (Nothing $7M seed, 2020; mmhmm $4.5M seed, 2020) through Series A ($24.7M Smartex, 2022; $70M Prenuvo) to Series B ($73M Sweep, 2022; Nothing $70M Series B, 2022). The $250K-$25M check size range is unusually wide, suggesting the firm sizes investments based on conviction rather than a fixed allocation model.

• Board seats at select companies. Despite claiming board seats are not the default approach, Fadell holds board positions at Ledger, Orionis Biosciences, Simbe Robotics, and Hodinkee ^13161417. This suggests the firm takes governance roles in companies where Fadell has deep product expertise to contribute.

• Co-investor patterns. Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led with Build Collective in Smartex ¹⁸. Amazon Climate Pledge Fund co-invested in Ambient Photonics ¹⁹. Other co-investors across the portfolio include DCVC, Foundation Capital, GV, and Coatue. The portfolio shows a preference for co-investing with deep tech and climate-focused funds.

• Notable gap: pure SaaS and consumer internet. Despite the wide check size range, the portfolio contains almost no pure SaaS or consumer internet companies. This is consistent with Fadell’s explicit rejection of “digital bits” investments and advertising/marketing businesses.

Portfolio

This table represents 32 investment entries across 31 companies (Nothing appears twice for separate rounds). Fadell claims 200+ portfolio companies ⁷, meaning this list captures approximately 16% of the total portfolio.

In Their Own Words

“We call ourselves mentors with money, because founders want to know about failure, they want to know about weathering the storm, about tapping new markets and talking to the media.” — Tony Fadell, Sifted interview ⁹

“We only invest in things that will help the planet, help society or help health, personal health.” — Tony Fadell, MCJ Podcast, Episode 210 ⁷

“We are deep tech investors, which means we look for fundamental technology changes at the basic level, like quantum computing or artificial intelligence.” — Tony Fadell, Entrepreneur Middle East interview ⁸

“For me, it all starts with the pain. Where is the pain? Where is it obvious? Where is it hidden?” — Tony Fadell, Entrepreneur Middle East interview ⁸

“The metaverse is a false choice. It is a diversion of resources. Either you are part of the problem or part of the solution. If you invest in the metaverse you are part of the problem.” — Tony Fadell, Sifted interview, 2022 ⁶

“We don’t fund science projects. When you have more of an idea of the science and you have something that’s ready to be productized, then let’s talk.” — Tony Fadell, MCJ Podcast, Episode 210 ⁷

“We start with checks as small as 250,000. And we go all the way up to 25 million.” — Tony Fadell, MCJ Podcast, Episode 210 ⁷

“Every single thing on this planet that humans have built, every non-biological thing, we need to blow up and redo.” — Tony Fadell, Entrepreneur Middle East interview ⁸

“Mantle gives you the superpowers to make Apple-quality mechanical parts in days not months and lowers your cost by orders of magnitude.” — Tony Fadell, on Mantle investment, February 2021 ²²

“Things are worth making, when they shape the future in positive ways.” — Build Collective website ⁴

“The next generation of technology designers should commit to a kind of Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm.” — Build Collective website ⁴

What Founders Say

Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, stated: “Tony’s expertise helped Ledger transition from a tech-led company into a product-led company.” He added: “I wanted Tony to join the Ledger board so we can continue to call on his expertise in building incredible products that solve real user experience problems. This is what Tony does better than anyone else on the planet” ¹³.

Gilberto Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Smartex, described Fadell and his team as “world-class mentors and operators with a unique product and marketing approach” and said Fadell is one of his “big mentors” and that they “talk almost every day” ¹⁵.

Valérie Robitaille, founder of XpertSea, stated: “Getting money is great. Getting hard-won guidance is invaluable” — referring to her experience working with Future Shape ³⁰.

Randy Komisar, partner at Kleiner Perkins, said: “Future Shape arms their founders with decades of hard earned experience. I give Future Shape referrals top priority and welcome them into our portfolio knowing they’re getting coached by the best” ³⁰. (Note: Komisar is a co-investor, not a portfolio founder.)

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials were found beyond the examples above. Given the 200+ company portfolio, more founder perspectives would strengthen this section.

Sources