Daniel O'Shea - Based in Miami. Obsessed with AI. Wired to Ship Wow.
My journey with computers started in high school, when I joined a student web design team trained by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. We proudly launched our school’s first website—until we hit a wall trying to update it. Nobody could figure out why the updates kept failing. One day, the head of tech from the county came to take a look. I was watching curiously from the library and suggested, “Could it be a permission issue? Maybe the account used to upload the site initially was different?” He paused, checked, typed a few commands, and turned back to me with a smile: “What are you doing this summer?”
That was my first technical interview—and the beginning of my career in tech. I spent the next few years teaching teachers how to use technology, becoming a junior Unix system administrator, and writing my first software used by others. That experience also led me to major in Computer Engineering at UC San Diego.
Early Career & Startups
After college, I jumped into startups. My first was a friend’s idea to build online booking for doctor visits—in 2006. That venture didn’t pan out, but it led me to Sparkart, a digital agency working with global entertainment brands. I helped launch high-traffic websites for artists like Bon Jovi, whose team warned us about the “Bon Jovi Tsunami”—a traffic spike that had crashed every past vendor’s infrastructure. This was pre-AWS, so we signed leases, bought hardware, planned every detail, and survived the tsunami—becoming their first vendor to do so.
Later, I joined Humin, a people-discovery startup that was acquired by Tinder. After a live demo of our tech, Tinder’s CEO accused me of faking it. He sent someone out to buy a new phone and test it. It worked exactly as we claimed—and the deal was sealed.
Scaling Teams and Systems
After Humin, I became the second hire at BlueOwl. I helped build the engineering org, launched a behavioral auto insurance product, and played a key role in launching a fully regulated insurance carrier in just 18 months. My role quickly grew—from backend IC to VP of Engineering—leading teams across:
- iOS / Android / Frontend
- Backend Systems & Data Pipelines
- QA, Security, Privacy
- IT Ops, Platform & Reliability
From kernel patches to mobile apps, high-throughput APIs to privacy-first infrastructure, I’ve touched every layer of the stack. I’ve led teams, mentored leaders, and built systems in some of the most complex and regulated environments in the U.S.
Building the Future with AI
After BlueOwl, I joined Navable as CTO, where I led the design and rollout of intelligent systems for financial services and investment companies. That work planted the seeds for my current focus: helping companies apply AI to build better, faster, and smarter.
Today, I’m a Partner at Horizon 3 Venture Studio, where we build and launch AI-first companies, and founder of AOTP Ventures, a product studio focused on rapid AI prototyping and automation. Our work spans:
- Enterprise automation agents
- SaaS workflow orchestration
- AI developer tooling
- Multi-agent systems with memory and reasoning
My passion is turning bold ideas into reality - using AI to unlock real business value, and growing the kind of high-performance teams that make the impossible possible.