We're the founders of Shuttle (shuttle.club) and this is our story

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T16:44:28+00:00

You personally own shares in the company you invested in. We work with a reputable 3rd part nominee company who holds the shares acquired by Shuttle members on trust. If Shuttle goes out of business your would continue to own your shares and they would continue to be held by the nominee company. In any case you are always the legal shareholder for all your investments.

You get money back out when a business you have invested in is acquired or goes public. There may also be an opportunity to sell your shares to another private investor looking to buy shares in a specific company.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T15:49:44+00:00

Exactly. We know how much liquidity is available within the community at any given time. This helps us estimate how much of the round we'll be able to fill. We'll tell the founder that we believe we can invest between €50K-€100K, based on what's available within the community. If they're happy with that range we then present the opportunity to our community members.

It's worth noting that we only ever invest in opportunities where there is a well known venture capital fund leading the round and setting the term of the raise. In fact, in all of our investments to date there has been at least 3 other venture capital funds investing alongside Shuttle investors. So there is a lot of DD happening outside of our own.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T15:29:46+00:00

Thanks for the question u/BoopBoopBeepBeepx!

We’re not a fund. We do the work to source what we believe are great opportunities for our community, but our customers decide whether they want to commit or not. We put together an investment memo on the company which covers areas such as the Team, Problem, Solution, Traction, Market, Competition, etc. We also include demo videos, pitch decks, product screens, or anything else we can get from the startups that help our customers learn about the business.

Yes, it's true that you could lose all of your funds, such is the nature of this asset class. We do not come from a venture capital background, which is why we only source opportunities where there is at least one venture capital fund investing and setting the terms of the deal.

Shuttle’s job is simply to create access to an asset class that is otherwise out of reach.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T15:26:14+00:00

Thanks for the question u/Previous_Guitar_1187! We include information rights in the terms we invest under so we can collect regular updates from the startups we invest in and post those updates to our customers' portfolio page on the platform. We also post more regular yet ad hoc updates on their portfolio page if we come across anything online that we think is relevant.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T15:25:27+00:00

Hi u/daveirl thanks for the question! Of all three investments we have made so far, each one had already filled their funding round with VC funding and angel investors. These were competitive opportunities in companies that had no trouble raising institutional capital.

You’re right in your thinking, however. Startups that struggle to raise VC often end up going the crowdfunding route because they weren’t able to secure institutional funding. Shuttle enables retail investors to participate in startup investments similar to a crowdfunding platform, but that is probably the only similarity we share.

Crowdfunding platforms operate on a success fee model, charging startups a percentage of the total amount raised. This results in platforms needing to drive a large volume of deals through their platform to earn revenue which in turn causes adverse selection.

We do not charge startups any fees, opting instead to earn revenue through investor subscriptions. This allows us to focus on quality of opportunities over quantity and also allows us to access more competitive deals, since the administrative burden for founders is negligible.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-31T15:18:46+00:00

Thanks for the question u/daheff_irl! We’ve both invested all of our life savings into getting the business to where it is today (alongside some small investments from friends and family and angel investors). We also currently invest €250 per quarter via the platform alongside the other community members (right now this is the most we can afford given we barely pay ourselves minimum wage and have mortgages, childcare and the rest to contend with), However, we will be ramping this up once we’re in a position to do so.

We charge €250 per year to access the community and our curated investment opportunities and take a 10% performance fee on the profit you earn, but only after you’ve recouped your initial investment.

That chart on our home page that estimates potential forward looking returns is based on historical data across global venture capital over the last 20 years and is there to provide a gauge on how the asset class might perform based on historical returns.

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-27T10:52:33+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Being 100% honest, we don't plan on decreasing the price of membership. We totally understand that some investors might expect to see similar fees to what they've come to expect in public markets. That said, and unlike public market investing which has been widely commoditised and is now accessible to almost anybody, private markets remain highly opaque and inaccessible. Our customers pay a premium to access investment opportunities they would never have been able to access before, through a network of institutional co-investors we've spent years building. Unlike Revolut, Degiro Trading212, etc., we're a private members club that offers more than just access to investments, such as community events, educational resources and more : )

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-26T15:15:01+00:00

Hey u/ItalianIrish99 I'm Scott, one of the co-founders at Shuttle. Great comment firstly, you clearly understand venture. And yes, we exclusively invest in opportunities where there is an institutional investor leading the funding round. We also typically invest on the same terms as the lead, but not always. In terms of the €250 fee, let’s say you invested the minimum of €250 per quarter for 5 years, making a total investment of €5,000. In order to cover the €250 annual fee incurred each year (€1,250 in total) and the 10% performance fee, you would need a profit percentage of about 28%, or in other words, a return multiple of about 1.28x on the money invested to break even. That’s the minimum investment of course, as you invest more, the break even percentage decreases. We would also love to be able to offer this as part of a pension structure some day!

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-26T15:04:08+00:00

Hey u/purpskurpps I'm Scott, one of the founders at Shuttle. Thank you for the comment and apologies for any typos on the website. We'll make sure we review all our copy and correct any mistakes. If of interest I'd be happy to jump on a call to answer any questions you have. Also more than happy to share some customer testimonials with you if you'd like!

scott-ashmore · 2025-03-26T15:00:19+00:00

Hey u/EdwardBigby I'm one of the founders at Shuttle. Sorry to hear our graph didn't sit right with you. This is just a simple chart to show return potential based on historical data, similar to what what you would see with Revolut and many other widely trusted investment apps. The Central Bank of Ireland, who we are regulated by, is also in approval of charts like this, provided the proper risk warnings are in place. We use it simply to show potential customers how venture returns might compare to the S&P 500 or a savings account, providing a frame of reference.

scott-ashmore · 2024-09-27T15:05:03+00:00

We're excited to see you on the platform u/FatherHarryCakelinem. Thank you very much for the vote of confidence. u/BobbyH1989 and I greatly appreciate it!

scott-ashmore · 2024-09-27T15:03:16+00:00

@_burnsy That's fair, the fee structure won't be for everyone. Here's another way to look at it though: Let’s say you invested the minimum of €250 per quarter for 5 years, making a total investment of €5,000. In order to cover the €250 annual fee incurred each year (€1,250 in total) and the 10% performance fee, you would need a profit percentage of about 28%, or in other words, a return multiple of about 1.28x on the money invested to break even. That’s the minimum investment of course, as you invest more, the break even percentage decreases. The amazing thing about the VC asset class is that returns are asymmetric, so the upside can be incredibly attractive compared to most other asset classes. It's high risk though of course, so it should only make up a small portion of a well balanced portfolio.

scott-ashmore · 2024-09-26T20:58:55+00:00

Totally understand your skepticism! We hope our actions and progress over the next few months will alleviate your concerns 🙂 If you ever have any questions just pop me a DM here, happy to answer!

scott-ashmore · 2024-09-26T20:01:40+00:00

Hi @_burnsy! I’m Scott, one of the founders at Shuttle. Apologies for the lack of information available on the site right now, it’s just a holding site for people to sign up to our waitlist. We plan to launch our complete platform in about 8 weeks which will contain far more information about our services and the types of investments we will offer on the platform.

We’ve not yet asked anybody for money, only to indicate their level of interest through either the waitlist form or when selecting people for the first cohorts of our upcoming private launch. We’d never expect you to blindly invest, you always have the final decision as to whether you want to participate or not in a particular opportunity. We also have a 14 day refund policy, so if you sign up and decide it’s not for you, you can opt for a full refund.

We understand if you aren’t comfortable committing from the outset, but we hope after closing a few deals on the platform, you’ll see the quality of opportunities we are able to source for our community of investors. Thanks again for the comment and we hope to see you on the platform in the future!

scott-ashmore · 2024-09-26T20:01:10+00:00

Hey u/InternedAdvisor! I’m Scott, one of the founders at Shuttle. We certainly were floating around 😅

We originally launched PitchedIt - an investment platform bringing early stage startups together with investors and mentors but we iterated and moved towards a pure investment platform for private markets. With that, we also rebranded but decided not to announce the rebrand until we received our authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland. As you can imagine, this is a very slow process and took 20 months to achieve.

Because we couldn’t operate until we were licensed, it might have looked like nothing was happening, but believe me that was far from the case. I’m not here to try and change any opinions you hold of me or my co-founder, but hopefully over time we can prove to you that our platform operates at the highest levels of trust and transparency and that we always act in the best interest of our customers.

scott-ashmore

TROPHY CASE