Shawn O'Neill
Engineer, entrepreneur, and builder based in Vancouver. I start companies, lead engineering teams, and ship products people use. Most recently founded SpeedSense, acquired in 2025.
Available
Advisory
Since 2012 I've advised companies at various stages — from early-stage startups to established brands — on engineering, ecommerce, product strategy, team structure, and delivery process.
I take on a small number of paid advisory engagements. If you're working through a hard problem and want a seasoned operator in the room, let's talk.
Projects
Things I'm building
Kind Words
Shawn is a very analytical thinker, yet very pragmatic in his approach. He has a keen ability to sift signal from noise and present recommendations that match business objectives. — Steve Krueger, Founder, Compass Commerce
His expert leadership, diligence and quiet enthusiasm fueled projects ahead quickly and successfully. The rare combination of patient and driven, while being incredibly resourceful and solution-oriented. — Marie Zahradnik, Senior Product Designer, Remitly
A pragmatic and reliable developer who can be trusted to achieve results as well as understand and contribute to the overall goals of the organization. He contributes innovative ideas and has proven to be adaptable to changes in technology and processes. — Ryan Green, Senior Software Engineer, LanceDB
His efforts go far beyond what was expected for his role and have transformed and improved the company in almost every aspect, leading to significant and measurable increases in sales and activity. — Zane Ouimet, Senior Frontend Engineer, AWS
Work
SpeedSense
Bootstrapped a consultancy and SaaS platform (SensAI) helping enterprise brands connect site performance to revenue. Built a team of fractional consultants and a monitoring stack. Acquired by Yottaa.
Yottaa
VP, Performance Consulting. Integrated the SpeedSense practice into the acquiring company.
New District
Director of Engineering. Replaced outsourced dev with an internal team, cut burn by 50%, grew ecommerce conversion over 10×.
MEC
Led the responsive rebuild of mec.ca for 4M+ members. Grew the front-end team from 1 to 6.
Common Ground
Co-founded Newfoundland's first coworking space.
Funl
Co-founded a mobile-first web app for personal goal-setting and habit building. A glorious failure.
Verafin
Joined as employee ~50 at a St. John's startup building SaaS tools to help banks detect fraud and money laundering. Later acquired by Nasdaq for $2.75B.
Contact
Say hello
Open to advisory roles, speaking, and interesting problems.
Thanks — I'll be in touch.