Moot Corp > About > Robert J. Adams
Robert J. Adams Jr.
Before becoming Moot Corp Director, Rob Adams was a Managing Director of Tejas Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm in Austin, Texas. Prior to founding Tejas, he was a Partner with Austin Ventures, and the Managing Director of AV Labs, a venture capital firm he started in August 1999. His focus is on enterprise software and new company formation. Prior to the venture business, he was a software operating executive. Throughout his venture and operating career he has been a founding investor in more than 30 companies, including Waveset (sold to Sun, NASDAQ: SUNW), Newgistics, and Troux.
Adams founded Tejas Venture Partners, the second venture fund he has started, in July 2004. Previously he was the founder of AV Labs, a successful early stage venture fund allied with Austin Ventures, starting it after being a partner with TL Ventures. Before entering the venture business, he was a technology executive for 18 years. He started his career with Lotus (NYSE: IBM), joining the company shortly after its public offering. Adams was instrumental in the development and launch of both 1-2-3 for Macintosh and Lotus Notes. He went on to be founder and CEO of Business Matters, a venture backed developer of financial modeling products and was an executive with Pervasive Software (NASDAQ: PVSW), a company he helped take public in 1997.
Adams holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Purdue University and a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College's Olin School of Management. He was a top ranked adjunct professor on the entrepreneurship faculty at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business and has taught at the MBA programs of The Acton School of Business, Babson College, University of Texas, St. Edwards, and Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey.
He is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on company formation, marketing strategy and technology issues. He recently keynoted the Inc. 500 business conference and speaks regularly to Fortune 500 audiences and leading business schools around the country. He has been covered in Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Money, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, on Bloomberg Radio, Public Television, and public radio’s nationally syndicated “Marketplace” program. He is also the author of A Good Hard Kick in the Ass: Basic Training for Entrepreneurs (Random House/Crown, 2002), and is currently working on his next book, Bullseye: Finding Your Market First, Fast and Forever.
Adams is on the advisory board of Austin's Community Development Corporation, an organization that provides loans and assistance to small businesses in low and moderate income areas. He is a Fellow at IC2, a University of Texas based foundation that runs the Austin Technology Incubator, on the board of Purdue Research Park, a judge for Moot Corp, and a volunteer with Austin's Habitat for Humanity. He is an avid skier, marathoner and private pilot. He was a collegiate rower and graduated from the Marine Corps' Officer Candidate School.
