Operator ยท Investor
Shayne Fitz-Coy buys companies, builds people and teaches the craft behind both.
Shayne Fitz-Coy is an operator-investor who buys companies and builds people.
Co-founder and Co-CEO of Sabot Family Companies. CEO of Rustic Pathways.
Palo Alto ยท Seoul
What Shayne Fitz-Coy does
Find a company where the people and the trust are the real asset, and reinvest in what compounds.
CEO of Rustic Pathways, running what Sabot Family Companies acquires with the Sabot Business Operating System to develop people and compound the business for the long-term.
Teaches Introduction to Private Equity at Seoul National University and writes as the Teaching CEO.
Who is Shayne Fitz-Coy?
Shayne Fitz-Coy is an operator-investor who buys companies and builds people.
Co-founder and Co-CEO of Sabot Family Companies, the long-term holding company co-founded with Arar Han in 2016. CEO of Rustic Pathways since 2020.
Instructor in Introduction to Private Equity at Seoul National University. Holds a B.A. in psychology from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Based in Palo Alto, California and Seoul, South Korea.
Read the full biography or see the companies he has built and run.
“I’ve never stopped being a teacher. I just have a bigger classroom now.”Shayne Fitz-Coy
Shayne’s operating philosophy
Patient capital and an engaged workforce, building companies that last.
Capitalism with Love is the claim that companies that keep their people and treat them well will outperform companies that burn through them. Continuity compounds. Trust multiplies value.
Things lose value over time. People gain it. We choose to invest in people.
The proof is operational. Shayne Fitz-Coy acquired a stake in ResponseLink in 2013, when it was losing $500,000 a month, and ran it for twelve years. The turnaround returned $45 million to investors before the 2025 sale, with zero new equity invested. It remains the firm’s only exit.
The method is simple to state and hard to execute. Buy the company where people and earned trust are the real asset. Then reinvest only in what compounds.
Writing
Selected Shayne Fitz-Coy writing
Browse all 28 published articles
- Most Entrepreneurs Start Companies. The Smart Ones Buy Them.Entrepreneur
- How I Turned a ‘Dying’ Business Losing $500,000 a Month Into a $45 Million Cash MachineEntrepreneur
- 5 Quiet Questions to Help Strategic Investors Decide Quickly and WellForbes
- I Built a Company That Broke People. Now I’m Choosing Capitalism with Love.Fast Company
- Rustic Pathways is Playing for ForeverRustic Pathways
- The Psychology of Travel for TeensRustic Pathways