TED Community » Ron Robertson

About Me

Ron Robertson has proven multiple talents essential to identifying, analyzing, organizing, financing and marketing high-tech ventures and projects. These skill sets were developed in the military and industry, a nationally accredited MBA, and a long and successful involvement in high tech ventures and venture capital. Let me tell you my story.

I was born and raised in a great small town, Danville Virginia. Although I graduated from George Washington High School in 1971, I did not attend class during my senior year. I actually started my freshman year at Averett College and started my family that year. Being eighteen, having a new son, working two jobs and attending college did not mix well with me. I quit college to serve in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) as a Medical Supervisor on a SCUBA A-team, Airborne package D. The physical rigor, intense training, worldwide travel and great friends was what this young man needed. My wife and I had our second child, a daughter, in the service. I left the service to go back to school.

I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning 100% of my expenses working as a sharecropper on a tobacco farm. I earned my BA in economics. I invested my savings to purchase and operate a ski lodge on Beech Mountain, NC. It did not snow that winter and I had to sell the lodge. I then attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro working as a bookkeeper for a construction company. I earned my MBA with a concentration in marketing.

My entrepreneurial management career began after graduate school. I utilized financial planning and market development skills by brokering insurance and mutual funds. I was introduced to contracts and salesmanship performing estate planning and investment analysis. I started my computer background writing financial management software programs. Using this experience, I became a manufacturer's representative representing over fifty computer peripheral manufacturers back when IBM introduced the PC. This learning experience led to project management and license negotiation skills managing a flat panel electroluminescent computer display research and development project. From that experience, I raised millions of dollars as Chief Financial Officer of a DNA medical diagnostics company, a transdermal pharmaceutical company, and an electronics company. After gaining expertise in Internet technology and in security regulations, I became the compliance officer for an investment banking firm. I went on to develop entrepreneurial management skills as President of an Internet-based sports travel wholesaler, a financial publishing company, and a telecommunications company.

My claim to fame is an Internet based financial publishing company and electronic communications network (ECN) I founded back in 1993. I managed development of rule based, visual basic software application for creation of limited offering documentation for exempt registrations. Was first to develop and publish electronically a registered offering on the World Wide Web. Worked extensively with SEC and state securities administrators in creation of new approaches to electronic delivery of corporate offering information. All proposals have been adopted by regulators through new legislation (Market Improvement Act of 1996). The ECN concept was adopted and applied by the Small Business Administration web site.

I also started a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) company called eCall Enabled, in 1993 in Boston, MA. Working with a diverse group of sotware engineers and programmers out of Bellcore Labs in RTP, NC, we were way ahead of the curve. We developed server based switching technology connecting VOIP with public switched telephone network. Our patent applications predate all other patents in this area. But we were unfortunately rejected by the likes of MCI, Lucent, Alcatel, Intel, etc. We were told there would never be a market for free digital voice communications. Now look at the market trends.

In addition to these two example over the last two decades, I have had extensive hands-on experience at strategic analysis, marketing/sales, business plans, finance, computer/internet applications, regulatory compliance and technology management. I have demonstrated successes in market development, contract negotiations, business modeling, and fund-raising attributable to exceptional vision, analytical and communication skills. Current consulting activities include documenting and implementing private placement offerings, business development projects and strategic marketing initiatives.