Shock is a nonprofit startup that creates technology to bring people together where it matters most: in-person.
Every community has people who show up for their neighbors. They materialize with shovels after storms. They coach teams on weekends. They deliver meals, sort donations, and organize cleanups. What's been missing is a way to connect it all. The systems meant to help communities function haven't kept up with the scale of what people are willing to do.
Communities have been left behind. The technology we have at our disposal has never been meaningfully applied to the real challenges they face. Shock was founded to change that.
Our founder, Saul Costa, alongside volunteers at the Yestermorrow barn raising in Worcester, VT.
Our founder, Saul, with volunteers Ashley and Amy building an ADA-compliant bridge in Stowe, Vermont.
Bee helps people discover what's happening around them so they can become a part of it. Blueberry picking, board game nights, run clubs, conservation projects and more. Your community bulletin board. In your pocket. On a map.
Our founder-in-residence, Margarita, gleaning at Old Road Farm in Granville, Vermont.
Meadow is a powerful volunteer management for nonprofits and municipalities. Meadow helps organizations nurture volunteer communities by making every contribution visible, every relationship stronger, and every impact easier to understand.
Saul Costa, down in the mud planting trees. Waitsfield, VT.
Saul is a lifelong technologist who grew up on a homeschool family farm in Vermont. He spent his twenties out West, where he built and sold a tech startup for $40 million dollars. When he came back to his home state in 2022, he saw two things clearly: communities had more energy and goodwill than anyone gave them credit for, and technology had done almost nothing to help them channel it.
He spent a year studying and thinking about why that was before founding Shock in 2023. The research led to a simple realization: technology hadn't been meaningfully applied to the real challenges facing local communities.
Now he leads a team of twenty, building the tools to change that.
Shock's founder on the history of communication technology and the question that started Shock.
Shock's story begins.
Saul Costa returns to Vermont, buys land, and starts asking a question he can't let go of: what if technology actually served communities?
Shock is founded.
A social welfare nonprofit built around a simple realization: technology had never been meaningfully applied to the real challenges facing local communities.
Bee goes live in Vermont.
Shock's first product launches: a free app for discovering local activities, events, and volunteer opportunities.
Meadow enters the field.
A volunteer management platform built for the organizations coordinating community work, designed alongside the communities that use it.
Beyond Vermont.
Expanding across communities in the Northeast.
Stay posted on what our team is doing and how you can be a part of it. Sign up to see what we're building, what we're learning, and the stories that emerge along the way.