Tony Fadell (born March 22, 1969) is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Nest Labs, a home automation company that was acquired by Google in 2014 for $3.2 billion. Prior to Nest, he was one of the lead developers of the Apple iPod and iPhone at Apple Inc., where he worked from 2001 to 2010.
Fadell has been referred to as “the father of the iPod” for his role in developing it while at Apple Inc. In 2010 Time Magazine named him one of its 100 most influential people in the world for his work on consumer electronics design like the iPod and iPhone as well as Nest’s mission to make homes more energy efficient with their thermostat product line.
In 2013 Tony Fadell founded Future Shape LLC, which provides consulting services related to venture capital funding, technology development and product design among other topics related to startups or companies looking for guidance on how best to bring new products or services into markets successfully. He also serves as a special advisor at Index Ventures since 2015 providing advice on investments across consumer hardware and software sectors including augmented reality/virtual reality, robotics & artificial intelligence, automotive technologies & autonomous systems, internet infrastructure & security products, mobile applications & services among others areas within technology investing space
Fadell more recently turned his attention towards cryptocurrency projects such as Bitcoin Suisse AG which he joined as a board member in 2018 after becoming interested when seeing how blockchain could be used revolutionize multiple industries ranging from financial services all way through different types of industrial production processes – making them faster cheaper via trustless decentralized models enabled by distributed ledger technologies like blockchain protocols Ethereum based networks etc..
He has become increasingly involved with crypto investments over past few years both personally through direct investment but also advising multiple companies regarding their own strategies leading up launch ICOs or just general counsel strategic planning around these emerging digital asset classes . As part this effort he launched 3K Venture Capital Fund back 2017 dedicated investing early stage opportunities build out global network innovators entrepreneurs creating solutions using cryptocurrencies / tokens .
