Bob Gemmell

I chaired the board for an early iot player for ten years. During that time, I successfully maneuvered through a variety of challenges including the .com meltdown (I was raising money around that time, plus 9/11 shortly thereafter). We had complex and messy board governance and cap table issues that required major ownership and board composition restructuring. I learned a lot over those ten years and would hopefully be able to help a young management team avoid various pitfalls. I made mistakes (learned the most from those!) but I did some things right - it’s not easy to survive that long as an early stage tech company CEO.

After selling that company, I retired from my operating career and began teaching and coaching entrepreneurial teams. I’ve enjoyed getting my hands back into a wide variety of startups and having time to reflect on things I had experienced.

In terms of companies where there would be a best fit: Most of my career was in product development (I have BS/MS degrees in EE) or product management (MBA from Duke U). I’m good at getting products to market and refining business models and sales channels for efficiency and profitability. I am especially good at OEM and other partner leverage type sales channels. I’ve been both an angel investor and operator - which allows me to see issues through the eyes of investors while retaining empathy for the problems and pressures of being an early stage CEO. I also became fluent in finance, operations as a CEO and (post retirement) have been teaching strategy at top ranked MBA programs. I took strategy in school, but teaching various strategic analysis techniques has given me a fresh appreciation for these tools. I’ve done a lot of international business and partnerships, including extensive off-shore manufacturing.