Max ShawCo Founder

United States - New York, New York

I’m building Windmill to help companies understand and get the most out of their people in the AI era, starting with performance reviews.

Everyone wants to talk about AI replacing people. I think the more interesting question is the opposite: what happens when AI gives every person more leverage? My view is that people matter more, not less. And the companies that win will be the ones that understand, develop, and deploy their talent best.

The problem is that most companies are still managing people with systems built for a different era: stale reviews, disconnected feedback, scattered context, and a lot left to memory. There’s no real place where the context about your people lives: the work they did, the feedback they received, the expectations for their role, the decisions they shaped, and the moments that actually mattered.

That’s what we’re building at Windmill: the first context graph for your people.

Before Windmill, I spent 10 years at Yext, where I joined as an IC and eventually ran Product globally, leading a team of 50. The higher I went, the more I felt the leadership paradox firsthand: the job was supposed to be about helping people do their best work, but so much of it got consumed by coordination, documentation, meetings, and process.

Outside of work, I’m a husband and father of two. I spend as much time as possible outdoors, run in Central Park, golf when I can, and chase adventures with my family.

If you’re thinking about how AI should actually be used in management, or believe that understanding people will become one of the biggest advantages companies can have, I’d enjoy connecting.