Ben Shaw

Startup founder and ex-Investment Banker, Ben worked in the M&A team of J.P. Morgan in their African office. He represented South Africa in the EMEA CFA Challenge in 2014 after completing his studies at the University of Cape Town and was a delegate of Investec/En-novate’s Hi-Tech Trip to Silicon Valley in 2016. He was also a delegate of Startup Safari’s trip to India earlier that year, and has spoken at eCommerce Africa, the SA Innovation Summit, SA Institute of Property Valuers and SA Property Investors Network over the past year.

Ben studied B.Bus.Sci majoring in Finance and Accounting, is an Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Fellow, ideator and compulsive learner. Prior to establishing HouseME, he had started a number of other ventures, including Varsity View – a student media platform – and Oracle Investments.

In a part-time role for the Association of Allan Gray Fellows his projects included the setup of an incubator for startups, and he has deep experience in management, company valuations and fundraising, trend-analysis and market research. Ben’s written work has been published by UCT’s Rands and Sense and The Verdict magazines. His trend work featured regularly on www.fluxtrends.co.za and as HouseME’s CEO has featured in South Africa’s FinWeek, Fast Company and IOL publications.

Specialties: Startups, management, valuations, company analysis, hiring, fund raising, trend analysis, board directorships and entrepreneurship.