Robert J. Cole
Regenerative rancher, inventor and experienced
start-up CEO from Silicon Valley
Mad scientist, Dad, young at heart, inventor, over caffeinated, gear-head!
BIO
Regenerative Rancher skilled at implementing holistic livestock grazing programs, integrated chemical free weed mitigation, and soil development. Motivated team leader, former tech executive and CEO from Silicon Valley. Management expertise spans the range of business operations; P&L analysis, recruiting, IP/software development, Product Management, sales and marketing.
Career Highlights
Ranch Management
- Worked with a great team to convert a neglected Golf Course into a regenerative livestock farm in Rescue, CA Sonny's Farm
- Regenerative grazing operations at the farm include: Cow/calf, steer, goat, sheep, pigs, & chickens.
- Established and managed pastured poultry programs, layer and broiler.
- Implemented chemical free weed mitigation programs, notably Yellow Star Thistle.
- Co-authored Regenerative grazing plan.
- Developed and implemented data driven programs to analyze and measure success.
- Established the farm's first commercial customer accounts.
Tech Experience
- Growth hacked Survcast news aggregation platform MVP to over 1 million page views within 45 days.
- Published in science - Co-authored research paper working with staff from UC Berkeley.SafeTREC and Cambridge Systematics
- Secured pilot agreement to test online auction with Jaguar and Land Rover North America [JLR] while at product prototype stage
- Developed and manage a patent portfolio valued in excess of $100 Mn by third party legal analysts.
- 2007 Recruited and led product dev team working with Pivotal Labs, using agile methodologies.
- 1997 Built early generation search engine working in partnership with Autonomy Corporation.
Presentations
- UC Santa Cruz: entrepreneurship
- UC Berkeley: Advanced Driver Training
- Congressional oversight committee: Driver training
- State Senator LeLand Yee: Driver training
- State Senator Joe Simitian: Driver training
- Participated at NestCon, GSVlabs: Startup presentation
- TIE angel group: Startup presentation qualified top three
- Ford, Jaguar, Volvo: C executive level presentations
- Numerous venture capital and angel presentations
Intellectual property
- US 11,238,504 restrictively exchanging and controlling product data: inventor
- US 9,940,652 Social network exchange: inventor
- US 8,812,617 Social network exchange: inventor
- US 8,214,456 Social network exchange: inventor
- US 7,979,506 Social network exchange: inventor
- US 8,533,013 Content management: inventor
- US 8,342,339 Sporting goods: inventor
- US 8,386,363 Online vehicle trading: managed prosecution
- US 6,920,433 Online vehicle trading: managed prosecution
- US 5,978,776 Online vehicle trading: negotiated assignment
Interests
Besides regenerative agriculture, my interests are diverse and range from all things tech and innovation to classic cars and raising Trout to power my aquaponics soilless garden. I love to spend time with friends and family at the coast or lost in the Sierras in an Airstream. I'm an avid skier, spent many years surfing, and during my early 20s raced Sportscars eventually competing at a professional level in the SCCA. I've been married to my lovely wife Julia Cole for 24 years and have two children, Maebh and Aidan.
Endorsements
“Rob and I worked together on efforts he led for VNS. Rob proved to provide best in class leadership to the product development and technical team he assembled. His leadership style inspired confidence and trust. While leading the start up venture at VNS Rob also brought to the table superior business acumen, strong understanding of technology and a relentless pursuit of quality solutions that would deliver a top-notch user experience. He was in my experiences a great leader and partner.”
Greg Bertoldo
Snr. Director Product Design Salesforce“Rob is the most passionate, dedicated and determined entrepreneur I've worked with in years. It has been a privilege and an inspiration to assist him in developing his internet services businesses. I expect many will hear about Rob in the next year, and I feel fortunate to have been with him on the ground floor of what he is building.”
Dave Saunders
MBA CCSK Data Scientist"Rob is an entrepreneur who really researches and understands his market. He is also patient, reasonable, and thorough."
William Ahmann
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton Partner"Rob is in the know, he has a beat on what is going to happen next and is an extremely passionate expert in the auto industry, we could use more like Rob!"
Shelly Bennecke
Director Enterprise Media Cox Automotive Inc.Publications
Featured in autoweek
After years of research and efforts to bring Advanced Driver Training programs from Europe to the USA, my work was featured in Autoweek!
Read the article »
Published in Science
I co-authored a research paper on Advanced Driver Training working with experts at UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center "SafeTREC" and Cambridge Systematics- published by the IATSS March 2011.
Read the paper »