Shawn Michael O’Keefe.
Dad. Cyclist. Maker. Space cadet.
Innovation executive. Design & product leader. Startup coach & mentor.
I help people build things — turning ideas into successful products and viable businesses. For over twenty years, I’ve been leading creative and customer-centric initiatives to help companies grow. I often consult with entrepreneurs, as well as run startup accelerators and corporate innovation programs that specialize in Hardware/IoT, GovTech, FoodTech & Impact.
I'm the Head of Design & Innovation at CODE Éxitos, a product studio (and B Corp) that helps entrepreneurs and innovators design, build, and launch transformational digital products.
I co-produce Austin's monthly hardware happy hour, H³ ATX, and I make and share my own products via 0112 Machine Shop.
A bit about my journey...
After fourteen years as a producer and strategist for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, I relocated to Wellington in 2015 to head up the first hardware accelerator in New Zealand, Lightning Lab Manufacturing. After working with Creative HQ on innovation programs such as the R9 Accelerator, a unique GovTech initiative to solve real-world issues between business and government, I returned to Texas in early 2018.
Continuing my focus in Hardware + GovTech + Impact with groups such as the Army Applications Laboratory (part of Army Futures Command), I spent much of the pandemic consulting and helping to build the B Corp, CODE Éxitos before joining the Senseye executive team in early 2022.
I'm a co-founder of Litmus Health and the co-creator of Rock That Font.
While I didn't know it at the time, my journey into technology began with a guitar. I grew up performing and touring with various indie bands (the most well-known of which was American Analog Set, while the most recent endeavor was The Paper South). The process of creating music and promoting bands led me to fall in love with emerging digital technologies and design. After my tenure as a musician and audio engineer in the ’90s, I finished up my Radio-Television-Film degree at the University of Texas at Austin – focusing on convergent media in the innovative and unconventional Advanced Communications Technologies Laboratory (ACTLab) before joining the SXSW team in the year 2000. The years that followed are difficult to encapsulate, but this oral history of SXSW Interactive provides a nice overview.
I occasionally speak at business, tech and design events across the globe and have presented at The Austin Forum, C’n’B at c/o Pop, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Futur en Seine, Ignite Austin, MTO Summits, Myriad, TEDxBoulder, WebVisions, Wired Italy’s Smart People & Smart Cities and more.
When not working, I like to launch rockets with my two kids and race my bicycle around the block.