Rob Adams is a venture capitalist and educator with 30+ years of experience building, funding, and advising startups. He is Executive Director at Alumni Ventures and founder of Congress Avenue Ventures and Ring Ventures, which have backed hundreds of companies. At UT Austin, he taught entrepreneurship and led Texas Venture Labs. Rob previously held executive roles at Lotus, helping launch Lotus Notes, and founded Business Matters, a VC-backed startup later acquired. He holds a PhD in Management, an MBA from Babson, and an Industrial Engineering degree from Purdue. His insights have appeared in Forbes, WSJ, Bloomberg, and more.