ORIGIN STORY
Pixar’s co-founders Steve Jobs & Ed Catmull invented the $400 billion digital animation industry.
BLK SHP (Black Sheep) was hatched from Pixar in 2012 to harness a networked ecosystem of innovators and partners to make small bets and make the world a better place through building new ventures.
The Founders of Pixar & BLK SHP became senior advisors at Google[x].
They joined forces with leading investing and operational minds to form BLK SHP Ventures to invest in, and help scale solutions to the world’s most pressing problems in 2024.
OUR FOUNDING TEAM
J. TAYLOR CRANDALL
CHAIRMAN
J. Taylor Crandall is the Chairman Emeritus and a founding member of Oak Hill Capital. In addition to being an active investor, he is on the board of Stanford Children’s Hospital and numerous other for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
PETER SIMS
CEO
Peter Sims is the Founder of BLK SHP, Inc., was the co-founder of Summit Partners’ European Office in London, and was a senior advisor at Google[x].
ED CATMULL
PRESIDENT, SCALING & R&D
Ed Catmull is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. He is the former President of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, the 2019 Turing Award winner, and was at senior advisor at Google[x].
MIKE SOUSA
PRESIDENT, OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Mike Sousa began his career at Bain and Co. and was an investor with AEA Investors before founding two businesses. Most recently he led growth and operations for large-scale PE-backed companies.
CARL BASS
OPERATING PARTNER
Carl Bass is the former CEO of Autodesk, where he grew the company’s market value by roughly 10x during his tenure. Prior to Autodesk,he was a serial entrepreneur. Carl has served on the boards of Planet, Built Robotics, HP, and Box, and was a senior advisor at Google[x].
CORE PRINCIPLES
DO GOOD
We will do well by doing good, as we make the world more human, and do right by mother earth.
SUSTAINABILITY
We invest in and support an ecosystem of sustainability.
SUCCESS & SCALE
We measure our near-term success through the number of people who recognize and pay for the solutions we help scale as well as their impact on sustainability.
IMPACT
Our long term impact will be enjoyed by our investors and witnessed through the eyes of the generations who follow us.
INNOVATIONS AT SCALE
OUR APPROACH: VALUE CREATION PLANS (VCPs)
OUR APPROACH: LEVERAGING AI
NEW RENAISSANCE
BLK SHP Ventures allocates a large portion of its profits to the BLK SHP Foundation which supports artists, entrepreneurs, makers, inventors, social entrepreneurs and writers at the forefront of a New Renaissance of creativity in America and around the world.