Rob DeMillo
Venture Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures
Rob DeMillo
Venture Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures
Oakland, California
Overview
Work Experience
Venture Partner
2013 - Current
SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new seed-stage investment fund. We believe business is now truly global, but most investors are not. Exceptional entrepreneurs that are building strong, category defining companies can be found anywhere. SparkLabs Global is a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and operators based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA that will focus on helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.
Advisor
2024
At Drawbridge Labs, I leverage my extensive experience from Nimble Collective to guide the company through challenges in cloud-based computing and animation technology. My role involves advising on strategic partnerships, participating in strategy conversations, providing insights on new hires, and navigating technological landscapes to support Drawbridge Labs' mission of democratizing CGI production.
Advisor
2024
My role as advisor is to use my knowledge from my past history in digital advertising services and networks, my history of ML/AI as well as my experience in media technologies (specifically audio processing) to help advise Digitent through technology challenges related to AI, user interfaces, and audio processing technologies, as well as strategy conversations, and partnership suggestions and conversations.
Advisor
2012
As an advisor at VidIQ, I leverage my extensive background in media technology, cultivated at Revision3 and Discovery Digital, to guide the company through complex technological challenges. My role involves advising VidIQ's strategic partnerships, offering insights into their business strategies, and ways to ensure that their technology solutions maximize potential on YouTube for creators around the globe.
Chief Technology Officer
2019 - 2024
In April 2019, I was honored to be selected as the first Chief Technology Officer appointed at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in its 80+ year history. Provide technology vision and direction to empower architects, engineers, and designers in advancing global projects. Manage business intelligence, data warehousing, and operational scaling. Serve as a technology strategy liaison between executive partners, the market, and technology partners. ◆ Transformed local computing and business technologies to cloud-based equivalents, ◆ Removed physical hardware from all worldwide offices and created a change-management path to move all users to new virtual infrastructure. ◆ Moved forward with ML/AI technologies to assist in architectural planning and knowledge mining. ◆ Officer member of SOM Executive team. ◆ Earned feature coverage in Tech-Exec and transformed SOM into a cloud-based technology center. ◆ Increased network, cloud and operational security by %125 (according to 3rd party threat analysis).
Chief Technology Officer
2016 - 2019
Nimble Collective provided a virtual streaming, cloud-based, collaboration animation platform empowering a community of artists to create, collaborate and prosper on any platform, unencumbered by software downloads. Nimble was led by a stellar team comprising acclaimed animators, technologists and entrepreneurs. Directed the technology vision and direction, offering studio-level capabilities without expensive infrastructure. Contributed to business intelligence, software buildout data warehousing, operational scaling, and channel partner distribution technology. Implemented enhancements to technological infrastructure and optimized processes for improved animation production and distribution. ◆ Secured Series A funding and served as CTO, while ,additionally assuming operations functions during COO vacancy. ◆ Scaled up engineering and technology teams , adding product and project management, QA engineering, and UIX design functionality. ◆ Initiated a new architectural direction, introduced innovative technology and concepts, and originated the patented license broker technology architecture (named in patent), catalyzing transformative change within the organization and the broader technology ecosystem. ◆ Achieved milestones in developing a cloud-agnostic technology platform, securing a Microsoft Azure partnership, and delivering the 1.0 version of Nimble Studio across AWS and Azure, supporting the first animation film studio customer. ◆ Independently created a custom video streamer and virtual machine provisioning system and secured privatized IP in streaming, eliminating reliance on external services like Fra.me and Teradici. Ensured full control over future endeavors. ◆ Negotiated, or assisted in, strategic partnership licensing deals with vendors like Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, ToonBoom, and Pixar, the acquisition of shared video player company RGB Notes, as well as Nimble Collective’s sale to Amazon Web Services in Q1 2019 for an undisclosed amount.
Partner & Chief Technology Officer
2014 - 2016
StudioNow is focused on creating a video marketplace targeted at bringing together it's network of over 7,000 video producers with brands and agencies under a single, easy to use technology umbrella. Led the company’s technological transformation after being asked to join as a partner and CTO, having been established as a thought leader and expert within the digital media landscape. Disrupted the current unfulfilled $3B small video market demand by driving scalability, repeatability, and cost-effectiveness through groundbreaking technology, which allowed creatives and clients to connect in a marketplace SaaS environment. ◆ Revitalized executive team to transform the company from a video production studio to a cutting-edge technology platform. Relocated and re-established the Nashville, TN technology team to San Francisco, CA. ◆ Contributed significantly to shaping and solidifying the vision of a distinctive global marketplace by leveraging the “gig economy” through the creation of a production marketplace, eliminating the manual effort to connect creatives with clients.
Chief Technology Officer, Discovery Digital Networks (formerly Revision3)
2009 - 2013
Previously Revision3, which became the digital arm of Discovery Communications through acquisition, and was renamed Discovery Digital Networks. Accepted the CTO role at Revision3, addressing technical challenges associated with the complexities of new media distribution. Led initiatives to develop technology infrastructure, improve processes, reduce costs, and optimize user experience within a limited departmental budget. Represented the company to internet video partners and ad agencies, serving as an industry spokesperson while guiding product/platform strategy. ◆ Emerged as a recognized thought leader within Discovery Communications, establishing expertise in digital media delivery and execution. Honored in 2012 as one of the "Top 15 Media Influencers" by a leading authority, EContent, along with Steve Jobs and Larry Page. ◆ Rebuilt the Revision3 infrastructure, creating a new distribution platform for moving video content from the creators to the viewers. ◆ Integrated new metrics systems and ad networks to allow for stream-lined ad revenue generation ◆ Directed a new client-side engineering team to create new client consumption applications on Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Sony Playstation, as well as one of the first 4 client applications for Google Chromecast (along with Netflix and Hulu). ◆ Negotiated, or assisted in, strategic partnership licensing deals with content creators, production channel distribution networks, and CDNs. ◆ Provided executive level participation in the M&A activity that led to the sale of Revision3 to Discovery for an undisclosed amount.
Chief Technology Advisor
2010 - 2011
The 4INFO Ad Platform, AdHaven, offers businesses targeted advertising programs through mobile ad serving technology. Companies also partner with 4INFO to publish free ad-supported mobile content. As the Chief Technology Advisor of 4INFO, I oversaw the strategic direction of company technology, research and development, and product development - and in 1 year as a technology advisor succeeded in transforming the company from its SMS only solution, to an ad platform for all mobile media. In addition I was responsible for linking 4INFO business goals to the platform technology, as well as taking the lead on mobile advertising integration. Under my guidance, 4INFO became the premier company for targeted mobile advertising using audience segmentation in the mobile space.
Chief Technology Officer / Co-Founder
2007 - 2009
Secured funding from Flybridge Capital after agreeing to become co-founder and CTO. Led business model development, managed global relationships, and oversaw P&L for Engineering and Operations with a team of 28. Created one of the first platforms to deliver video content stitched with target video advertising to mobile phones. Well over 150 phones were supported at the time of sale of Transpera to Tremor Media.