Home | Finbarr Taylor

Hello, I'm Finbarr Taylor, a Scottish software engineer, startup founder and angel investor based in Silicon Valley.

I co-founded Shogun and led the company to 8 figure ARR and $100m+ VC raised as CEO.

I also worked for Y Combinator and some other companies as a software engineer, and have invested in dozens of startups.

Currently, I'm focused on helping early stage founders. In my free time, I'm working towards my goal of visiting every US National Park, balancing my love of the indoors with my love of the outdoors.

Select Projects and Work History

Shogun (2014-2024) · Co-founder and CTO->CEO->CTO

Co-founded Shogun, an e-commerce storefront optimization startup that raised over $100 million in venture capital funding. Helped tens of thousands of merchants drive billions in sales annually. Led the company as CEO for ~8 years and CTO for ~2 years.

Y Combinator (2016-2017) · Software Engineer

Contributed to the development of Y Combinator's tools and platforms, supporting the growth of numerous startups, and YC's investing activities. Wrote a blog post about work on Investor Day. Built the first version of Startup School.

Pebble (2013, 2014) · Software Engineer (contract)

Built software to manage the launch of Pebble Time and Pebble Steel. Rebuilt entire order management system. Built a pre-order management system for the Pebble Time Smartwatch - a $20m Kickstarter campaign.

Giveit100 (2013-2014) · Co-founder and CTO

Co-founded Giveit100, a video site for inspirational progress videos. Attracted over 100,000 members with 40m+ combined video views. Innovated in video technology, implementing instant-play on hover and tackling performance challenges for hundreds of videos per page.

Exec (2012-2013) · Software Engineer

Developed core products including algorithms to schedule thousands of deliveries, errands, and house cleanings. Improved worker schedules and utilization, significantly increasing Exec's operating margin.