Why

Our purpose at SHUFL is simple. We invest in happiness.

We created SHUFL to partner with entrepreneurs who are passionate about the same things we are. Our belief is that human happiness is a naturally-occurring phenomenon that arises if four key foundations are in place – sustained good sleep, health self-confidence, fitness of body and mind, and spending as much time as we can doing things we really enjoy.

We see these foundations like a pyramid with sustained good sleep and great health at the base underpinning everything else. Sleep and health are deficiency needs and, without them, happiness is like sand through our fingers.

With sustained good sleep and a strong confidence in our health we can work on our mental and physical fitness, which itself empowers us to focus greater energy on our leisure time doing the things we love. We call this pyramid the Hierarchy of Happiness.

We believe that these foundations work in strong synergy with each other. A weakness in any of them undermines our chances of being happy. We have written this synergistic relationship between the foundations as a formula for measuring human happiness – the Human Happiness quotient.

Who



Simon Webster, Founder & Partner

Simon’s early career was spent in the UK financial services sector leading business change – delivering technology transformations and supporting M&A transactions. Since 2000 he has had the privilege of leading CPA Global on its 20 year journey from a £50m business to its recent public market entry at a value of £6.5bn. Simon has been investing in and working with founders of growth businesses in the SHUFL sectors since 2010.



Patrick Simpson, Co-founder & Partner

Before joining SHUFL, Patrick took his Innovation and Mechanical Engineering background to forge a career at CPA Global. Rising from graduate to executive, Patrick held several leadership positions including Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director of a business unit with P&L responsibility for over $0.5B in revenue and 500 people. This incredible journey is what lit Patrick’s passion for the positive impact innovation can have on the world. Patrick joined SHUFL in 2022 and is working with entrepreneurs to achieve success in the SHUFL sectors.



Richard Whitmore, Co-founder & Partner

Richard has over a decade of operating and investment experience. Early on in his career he built and led business strategy across EMEA and North America at CPA Global. During 5 years in Corporate Development he executed seven acquisitions (EV from £1m to >£600m), a disposal, and two sale processes including the exit to Clarivate in 2020. Since 2021, Richard has worked with Simon to build and run the SHUFL Fund Zero portfolio, where £6m has been deployed across 10 early stage business in Sleep, Health, Fitness and Leisure. He is passionate about working with top entrepreneurs to accelerate growth and strategic objectives.

Advisory Board

Suzy Webster, Director

Suzy’s career briefly started as a psychologist before charting a course through legal services, founding and running a social network for women, and developing an app in the personal training industry. Suzy has an outstanding sense of alternative perspective. In other words, she can see things from different angles and identify risks and opportunities that others can’t. Suzy has been assessing investments in the SHUFL sectors since 2008.

Kirsten Kilby, Advisory Board

Amongst many other senior roles, Kirsten is a former CEO of Berry Bros. & Rudd and Marketing Director at TAG Heuer. Kirsten brings her unique expertise and wealth of experience of marketing, branding, communications and community to the SHUFL portfolio.

Kirsty McGregor, Advisory Board

Kirsty has held senior financial management positions in manufacturing, transport service, and retail industries in both Jersey and the UK and now runs her own accounting and consultancy business in Jersey. Kirsty gives small businesses access to the kind of financial horsepower that normally goes with having a Finance Director, but without the very large overhead of permanently employing one. Kirsty partners with SHUFL portfolio companies to help them fine-tune and execute on their business plans.

Mark Best, Advisory Board

Mark is a Corporate Development professional and lead the M&A programme at CPA Global for 8 years which included the acquisition and sale of over 11 businesses. Prior to CPA he led strategy consulting engagements for McKinsey & Co, was a private equity investor at The Carlyle Group, and an investment banker at J.P. Morgan Cazenove. While his days as an international athlete are well behind him, Mark continues to enjoy playing and watching sport. Mark partners with SHUFL companies to help them with bolt-on acquisitions, investment rounds and exits.

Guided by a single value – Be True

We only have one cultural value at SHUFL and that is ‘be true’. Be true to your colleagues; be true to your customers and investors; be true to your founders and teams; and most of all be true to yourself.

If you are someone that is unashamedly authentic always, then you would find SHUFL a fantastic place to work.

Our founding team have all lived this value together in a previous, hugely successful shared enterprise for over 10 years. Over that period ‘being true’ powered them on to growing a business from 500 to 3500 people, growing revenue and profits by over 2.5x and creating over £5bn of value.

How

We provide financial and intellectual capital to help you grow your business.

It’s your business, we never forget that.

We won’t tell you how to do your job but we will help you to grow professionally as your business grows. We help clear the path; we help connect you to what you need; and we provide you with the growth capital to push on.

Investment Philosophy

Our investment philosophy is a triangulation of three evaluations: Character, Idea and Difference.

Character : We define character as “passion and resilience” and we prioritise the assessment of a team’s character over everything else.

Idea : Ideas change the world. We back ideas that are innovative and powerful enough to have the potential to impact everyone, everywhere.

Difference : We invest in business models that are or can be differentiated. Businesses where you have or can build a moat around your world-changing idea.

Investment Programmes

SHUFL ‘Fund Zero’

‘Fund Zero’ is our first investment vehicle and we’ve built a portfolio of ten exciting businesses who are all on a mission to improve human happiness. We’ve supported the entrepreneurs leading these businesses with either pre-seed or seed investment; as well as hands on support where it’s needed and the freedom and support to operate where it isn’t. This fund is now fully deployed.

SHUFL Happiness Fund 1

We are currently fundraising for Fund 1. With our Fund Zero experience we’ve further refined our thesis to focus on the exciting opportunities we see at the Seed stage within the UK. We’ll be building a portfolio of 10-15 companies who share our mission to make the world a happier and healthier place. If you share this mission as an investor or entrepreneur then we’d love to talk to you, please get in touch below: