International Expansion
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Open Source
Product Metrics & Analytics
Prototypes
Quality Assurance (QA)
Software Development
Support Engineering
Technical Debt
Tools & Software

Don Shafer

Founder/Director/Technical Fellow/Serial Entrepreneur

About Don Shafer

Don Shafer is a founder/director/Technical Fellow and serial entrepreneur, a Senior Life IEEE member, and an investor and mentor at the entrepreneur’s Capital Factory. As the founding CTO at Athens Group, he developed multiple patents supporting semiconductor test, distributed sensor measurement, Chebyshev polynomials and ML applied to real time drilling control systems. A decades long volunteer for IEEE, he has held EIC, VP and board of Governors positions. At Capital Factory he mentors new entrepreneurs in feasible/appropriate technologies including NFTs, Blockchain, AI/ML and their attendant risk/rewards. He wrote his first real program in Algol in 1967 as an undergraduate at the United States Air Force Academy and built a MITS Altair to complete his graduate work at the University of Denver in 1976. He still writes code, when necessary.


  • Advanced Materials
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cloud Software & Infrastructure
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Cybersecurity Management
  • Data & Information
  • Database & Infrastructure
  • Defense
  • Energy / Natural Resources
  • Energy Management & Efficiency
  • Hydro & Renewables
  • Industrial Automation
  • Manufacturing
  • Mapping & Location Services
  • National Security
  • Naval & Maritime
  • Oil & Gas
  • Satellites
  • Utilities
  • International Expansion
  • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • Open Source
  • Product Metrics & Analytics
  • Prototypes
  • Quality Assurance (QA)
  • Software Development
  • Support Engineering
  • Technical Debt
  • Tools & Software
LinkedIn logo