Peter Sims (writer)

Peter Eagle Sims is an American writer, entrepreneur, and investor. He authored three books including True North (2007), co-authored with Bill George, which was among the Wall Street Journal bestseller books. Others include Little Bets (2011) and Black Sheep (2024). Sims has been praised as "one who knows his way around disruptive ideas."

Sims is the Founder & Chairman of BLK SHP (Black Sheep), a place and platform for small bets and investing. Previously, he worked as an investor at Summit Partners in London where he co-founded the firm's European office. He has also been an advisor at Google[x], The Moonshot Factory, Alphabet's semi-secret innovation laboratory.

Additionally, Sims was part of the founding team for GivingTuesday, the philanthropy movement that has become a globally recognized day of giving to charity. GivingTuesday is the first Tuesday after the United States' Thanksgiving, and has raised more than $13 billion for nonprofit causes to date.

Investing
In 2024, Sims' company established an investment arm called BLK SHP Ventures. Founding partners included J. Taylor Crandall, a founder of Oakhill Capital, Pixar co-founder and long-time President Ed Catmull, and former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass. The inspiration for "black sheep" came from Pixar, a phrase used by Director Brad Bird for "restless contributors with unconventional ideas." Sims, Catmull, and Bass worked together as advisors at Google[x].

Life
Sims is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Stanford Business School. He grew up in the rural foothills of Northern California, where his father was a county judge, and he attended Colfax High School. His mother is a photographer and practicing Buddhist who worked closely with Pema Chödrön, the American Buddhist teacher, on several books.

Sims has a daughter, Riley, who appears in Black Sheep, and for whom he dedicates the book. He is sixth generation Californian. His 3rd-great grandfather, Jacob Gundlach, founded Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma in 1858, now the oldest family-owned winery in California.

Film
Sims and Orlando Bloom served as executive producers for the documentary film ''Earthbound. '' Directed by Farhoud Meybodi, the film explores the life of Nzambi Matee, a Kenyan innovator and entrepreneur who is tackling the plastic waste epidemic in her hometown of Nairobi. The film won numerous awards, including a 2023 Tribeca X Award in the feature film category.

Works

 * True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, ISBN 978-0-7879-8751-0, with Bill George, 2007.
 * Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, ISBN 978-0-7879-8751-0, 2011.
 * Black Sheep: The Quest to Be Human in an Inhuman Time, ISBN 978-1-939714-25-1, 2024.