Brian Sheth Teams Up with the Cicero Institute to Launch Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

By Staff Reporter - 16 Jun '22 14:36PM

(Photo : Brian Sheth)

Austin, Texas, needs a new approach to solve its homelessness crisis. Innovative technology leaders like Brian Sheth and Joe Lonsdale are devoting their time and financial resources into solving this challenge. They're collaborating with the Cicero Institute and its Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, which is looking for a mission-driven entrepreneur to help develop a new nonprofit organization to lead this effort.

"We're committed to the long-term support of our neighbors, many of whom aren't supported by traditional means," Sheth says.

Overview

The Cicero Institute's Entrepreneur-in-Residence program seeks to create partnerships among top business leaders. "The Cicero Institute applies the innovative energy of America's leading technologists and entrepreneurs to broken systems in the public sector to advance liberty and opportunity for all Americans," says its website.

This approach is similar to existing programs instituted by organizations like Haven for Hope and Community First. By studying these programs and extracting their most useful aspects, the Cicero Institute plans to create an organization in Austin that will be the first of its kind.

The Cicero Institute will work closely with Sheth and Lonsdale, who already have extensive experience with starting companies, creating jobs, and managing large funds. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence program will have three major objectives. The first is to develop and implement a strategy - based on business principles - for addressing people without housing, which will require collaboration with existing activist groups and government officials from Austin and in the greater state of Texas. The program will also conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess the impact of existing groups on people without housing in Austin, along with accompanying issues like mental health and substance abuse. In addition, it will work with documentary filmmakers to help the public better understand the problems of housing and their proposed solutions.

Background

Austin has built nearly 2,000 supportive housing beds during the last decade. The city council has also approved a plan to create more, at a cost of more than $500 million. Despite these efforts, the population of homeless people in Austin increased by 45% in 2020, while their mortality rate has tripled.

In a controversial May 2021 ruling, voters reinstated a ban on public camping in Austin by a large bipartisan majority. While critics of the ban note it will push the homeless population into community-based shelters instead of building more permanent housing, supporters say the strategy will also include more treatment for mental health issues and rehabilitation for substance abuse.

Leadership

‍Sheth and Lonsdale have both made significant commitments to Austin's charity groups for homeless people. They believe the Entrepreneur in Residence program will assist these groups in improving the lives of people without homes.

Brian Sheth is a business leader, philanthropist, and conservationist in Austin. His career spans almost 25 years, during which he has primarily dealt with investments in high-tech businesses. Sheth's experience includes direct involvement with investments and dispositions worth well over $100 billion, often by serving as board chairman and by mentoring executives. The types of investments Sheth has worked with include structured equity, minority growth equity, and control buyouts. His focus on investments is to identify the best companies to invest in and position them for improved market position and growth.

Sheth founded his family office, Haveli Investments in 2021, which invests growth capital primarily in leading technology and gaming enterprises. A company's environmental sustainability is a primary factor in whether Haveli invests in it. Furthermore, Sheth has committed half of his profits in the company toward supporting conservation.

Conservationist superstar Jane Goodall said of Sheth, "In all my years as a conservationist, I have never met a supremely successful businessman who devotes more time and is as passionate as Brian about saving our planet."

Joe Lonsdale began his career at Clarium Capital, which he helped develop into the global hedge fund it is today. He is currently a founding partner at the venture capital firm 8VC, which manages over $5 billion in capital. Lonsdale has also been an institutional investor for many companies, including Anduril, Guardant Health, Illumio, Oculus, Oscar, and Wish. Most recently, Lonsdale co-founded a series of mission-driven technology companies such as Affinity, Esper, Epirus, Resilience Bio, and Swiftscale Bio. He continues to build these companies with his team at 8VC.