Stars Align to Bring Shipshape to Birmingham

Ryan Dalton, Becket Linn, Dale Johnson, and Alexander Linn after their first Shipshape sales pilot.

Birmingham Bound is excited to announce that Shipshape is opening a hub in Birmingham to expand its team and southeastern customer base. Shipshape is an early-stage tech company on a mission to make smart homes intelligent by networking together all of the critical systems. They are the 18th Birmingham Bound partner company to say YES to Birmingham.

Shipshape was founded in Austin, TX by Ryan Dalton and brothers Alex and Beckett Linn, but they have deep ties to Birmingham as the Linn brothers grew up here.

Before the Shipshape team knew that Techstars was opening the Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator they had their eyes set on Birmingham as a place to build out a southeastern sales and customer service hub. There was a certain gravity pulling them here; the city was growing, they had valuable business connections, and they could spend more time with family all while building their business. 

Furthermore, it felt serendipitous for Alex and Becket to open an office in Birmingham, in the same city that their grandfather, Harris Saunders, founded his company, Saunders Systems Inc. The company sold to Ryder in 1986 for $100 million. The brothers look up to their grandfather’s success and are inspired by the impact he was able to have in Birmingham.

Harris Saunders, grandfather of Alex and Becket Linn.

Shipshape applied and was accepted to Techstars, and the entire team had the opportunity to experience three months in Birmingham, which was both a wonderful bonding experience and a “game-changer for the survival of the company,” according to Alex. The support they received from the Birmingham business community during the COVID-19 pandemic made it a no brainer that Birmingham was the city in the Southeast where they wanted to open an office. Alex said, “It was comforting that our entire team was advocating for the decision to open an office here because they had experienced the welcoming nature of the business community themselves.” 

When asked about how he feels that Shipshape will soon have an office in his hometown, Alex said, “It is the privilege of a lifetime that Shipshape is able to have a presence in Alabama. The stars have aligned to make it possible for us to be here, and we couldn’t be happier.”

Shipshape currently has three team members based in Birmingham and will be hiring three salespeople, three customer support representatives, and three install techs who will all be Birmingham-based. The Birmingham office is expected to open in June 2021, so keep an eye out for their job openings to be listed on our career page soon.

Welcome home, Shipshape!