Ricardo Roberts

Entrepreneur in Residence

2023 - Current

Assess high growth, high potential startup companies across a variety of sectors, including eSports, blockchain, fintech, consumer and tech. Review a startup's management team, product validation, market and product fit, growth strategy. Conduct due diligence and industry analysis. Advise the startup's executive team on which areas it can improve. Write investment memos and present the thesis to the investment committee. Recommend whether a startup is investment ready for equity capital from LaunchNY's seed fund.

Co-Founder

2022

Business Development and Head of Investor Relations

2021 - 2022

• Cultivate and develop strategic business partnerships with global businesses across the media, tech, & fintech verticals • Participate in capital-raising initiatives for FounderTribes’s seed and series A round • Provide updates regarding the company’s financial and business growth to investors. • Determine new market target initiatives and work with the CEO to determine revenue and business growth goals.

Principal

2019

VU Venture Partners is a multi-stage investment fund, making initial investments of $20K-$1M, and follow-on investments up to $15M. Venture University's large investment team enables it to cover markets broader, deeper, and faster than a traditional fund, and offers portfolio companies access to a powerful network. • Venture University investment team member as part of a cohort 3, which includes 25 investors selected from over 5000 applicants, and a less than 1% acceptance rate. • Source and review over 1500 investment opportunities across several industries including consumer, blockchain and fintech, by analyzing market landscapes and developing investment theses. Subsequently develop a strategy for increasing velocity, quantity and quality of deal flow. • Conduct due diligence, review pitch decks, evaluate a target market size, and a team’s ability to execute. Review the quality of products/services, business models, historical & projected financials, competitive landscape, customer and investor interviews, cap tables, term sheets and investment docs.

Strategy Consultant

2019 - 2021

Founder & CEO

2017 - 2019

Ad Tech and Start-Up business professional with proven ability to develop new business models, execute deals, and help startups grow. Built operations division within a start-up of a small growth ad-tech company. Extensive experience working with start-ups, including a fintech. Financial services background. Strategic thinker who sees the big picture and can share that vision with team members. Columbia MBA. Tufts BA.

Senior Manager, Digital Ad Products

2017 - 2017

• Set digital ad strategy, including advertising revenue goals, for A+E's network of sites • Determine digital ad product map with Director of Ad Product Management • Establish relationships with MVPD and Programmatic Ad Partners • Clients include MVPDs such as CenturyLink, AT&T and Verizon • Lead product management team on server side dynamic ad insertion for A+E Networks

Capital and Partnership Development Manager

2016 - 2017

Establish capital and business relationships with chief financial officers, treasurers and venture capitalists for an early stage fintech company, Paygevity, a B2B payment solutions company.

Senior Associate: FourFronts Premium Marketplace: A Comcast company.

2014 - 2016

• Provide input in the FreeWheel product development process that represents the needs of the FourFronts team • Provide inventory forecasts and pricing guidance to FourFronts team • Develop, document and execute the processes through which FourFronts can monitor and audit digital campaigns • Manage various digital campaign operations independently • Understanding of FreeWheel’s business model, and product and service offerings • Knowledge of FourFronts strategy model, including organizational structure, technology architecture, economic model, customer pipeline, partners and legal process

Digital Ad Strategy, Product and Operations

2007 - 2014

Review, prioritize and test digital ad creative that appear on Discovery's network of sites. Clients include Unilever, General Motors, AT&T. Extensive knowledge of ad server technologies, OAS and Solbright to launch and manage campaigns Use of Flash CS4 and Actionscript 2&3 to test and troubleshoot rich media creative Participate in testing, review and implementation of Discovery's redesign web site Manage and train account coordinators in rich media testing and I-Frame creative Encode, upload, and test video creative from various digital agencies Train account executives and coordinators about ad server and web technologies Work with flash developers to troubleshoot rich media creative and landing pages

Flash Developer & RedCats Catalog Consultant

2005 - 2006

Create functional, interactive flash-based web sites via Flash Actionscript 2&3 and XML. Establish the workflow of RedCats turnkey e-Catalog solution Responsible for configuring image maps for nine RedCats retail brands Create and implement project plans