Rahim Shamsy: Building solutions to environmental issues 

Rahim Shamsy, HBA ‘18, combines his business acumen with the technical expertise he gained from his business and engineering dual degree at Western to create value from waste. As the Co-Founder of Pressure Corp, Rahim and his team develop and finance waste pressure power systems that transform waste pressure at industrial facilities and across pipeline networks into clean energy. 

A drive to create green solutions 

Since his middle school geography class, Rahim has felt a strong drive to address environmental issues. This passion intensified during his engineering education at Western, where he learned how to design solutions for various environmental challenges and build projects with a focus on sustainability.

Though Rahim never planned to pursue engineering for undergraduate studies, a family member encouraged him to apply, suggesting that he seize the opportunity to broaden his skill set. 

“I’m very grateful for having that right advice at a critical fork in the road.”

Following the completion of his dual degree in business and civil and environmental engineering, Rahim applied his skills by joining FutureSight, a venture studio. This experience exposed him to how business and venture building can be approached with intentionality, bringing process and structure to a very complex problem. . During his time at FutureSight, Rahim gained insights into the intricacies of starting a company, covering aspects such as ideation (through various sources such as customer interviews, subject matter experts, and evaluating data science and machine learning research), validation of opportunities, creation of teams with the necessary ingredients for success, and experimenting with various business models.

Acquiring these invaluable skills from the venture studio perfectly aligned with Rahim’s overarching motivation: to build companies with environmental and sustainable impact. From there, Rahim was propelled to explore climate-specific ventures through fellowships and networking, ultimately leading him to meet his Pressure Corp co-founders.

Pillars of success in building a company 

As a co-founder, Rahim initially assumed responsibilities in overseeing essential business functions required for the company's growth, including recruiting team members and identifying gaps in skill sets that would be necessary for success. As the company reached its initial stage of expansion, he played a pivotal role in fundraising efforts for Pressure Corp's seed, series A and project-capital fundraising, ensuring the sustainability of both the company and its team.

From there, Rahim took on the role of executing projects and managing customer relationships, where his dual expertise in business and engineering was instrumental to his success.

“As an engineer, you have the technical skill sets which are important, but paired with a commercial skillset, you’re able to understand and appeal to customers’ needs, contribute to financial/commercial structuring, and more. You can provide even more value.”

Rahim brings together his unique expertise and venture-building experience to accelerate the success of Pressure Corp., crucially combining the variety of skills necessary to persevere through the endless struggles of being a start-up founder who is bringing an innovative idea to market. 

Creating a global impact 

Looking ahead, Rahim is excited about the upcoming growth phases of Pressure Corp. “Building any company is very difficult and they’re all important problems to work on,” Rahim says, but he welcomes the challenge. 

Beyond his co-founding responsibilities, Rahim aims to embrace another key part of his identity: his connection to East Africa. With a desire to contribute to his family’s work and the place where he grew up, Rahim intends to bring his love of venture building and environmental impact to Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently serving as an advisor for Need Energy, a distributed energy management and trading platform, he already plays a pivotal role in supporting founders in fundraising and execution efforts, making a meaningful regional impact.

Rahim looks forward to ongoing collaborations with ambitious individuals whom he can learn from, acknowledging the value of strong and trusting friendships in both company building and in life.

“I’ve been grateful to meet people who have been there, done that before, and I rely on their advice.”

“I would recommend students to continue to think about where you want to be, and to find those people in those roles who you are aligned with on values and build good relationships with them so they can support you as you go through your journey.”

To connect with fellow alumni, join Ivey's LinkedIn Sustainability Community.