Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner

Rob is a founder of Shasta Ventures and a 23-year veteran of the Silicon Valley venture capital industry. At Shasta Ventures, Rob focuses on investing in robotics, space, and the future of transportation. Early in his career, Rob served as an engineer in the Astro Space division of Martin Marietta, where he helped build the first A2100 satellite, a platform which is still in production today at Lockheed.

Rob spends his weekends car-racing and believes similar skills are needed to be a successful entrepreneur. As he explains, “Racing requires you to focus and make good decisions quickly.” Rob led Shasta’s Series A investment in Nest (acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in 2014). His current investments include Accion (ion engines for in-space propulsion), Fetch Robotics (robots for warehouse logistics), Starship Technologies (local delivery robots), and Turo (peer-to-peer carsharing company).

Rob earned an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He also holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named a Palmer Scholar.