Shannon Kay ’16

Shannon Kay of Cambridge, Mass., earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Clemson in 2016.

After graduating, she became a business technology analyst for Deloitte Consulting, the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees. She joined e-commerce giant Wayfair in 2018 and began graduate-level classes at Harvard University in both business administration and engineering sciences.

In 2020, she and a classmate Nick Ornitz co-founded Dwelling, a company to connect homeowners and service professionals for virtual diagnosis and solution advice related to home maintenance issues. The startup attracted attention and was featured in a New York Times article about COVID-friendly home repair options. By 2021, Kay and Ornitz launched Topline Pro, a company that empowers home service entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by using created, tailored, artificial intelligence (AI) tools that help automate marketing, sales and operations. Topline Pro has raised $44 million in venture capital funding and generated over $655 million in business for more than 4,000 businesses across the country.

Shannon shares her expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs in Harvard’s MS/MBA program as a classroom speaker and panelist of alumni founders. She has spoken at the Stevens Institute of Technology on topics such as lean startup methodology, artificial intelligence and engineering. She supports entrepreneurs through one-on-one mentoring and by participating in high-profile panels across the Boston tech community.

For Clemson, she is one of the most active volunteers for the Honors College and the National Scholars Program. She is an alumna of both and a former undergraduate student body president. She also has supported efforts at the Brook T. Smith Launchpad, the University’s resources hub for entrepreneurs.