Founded in 1988 over a small bookstore in downtown New York City, the D. E. Shaw group began with six employees and $28 million in capital and quickly became a pioneer in computational finance. In the early days of exposed pipes and extension cords, tripping on a cable could take out our whole trading system. Today, the firm has more than 1,200 people around the globe and an institutional-grade (and trip-proof) infrastructure, but we still value creativity, entrepreneurship, and the spirit of discovery.