An Introduction to Bleecker Street Ventures

Ludwig has been on all sides of venture — as an entrepreneur, corporate buyer of ventures, and venture capitalist. Before Alumni Ventures, he experienced the daily realities of entrepreneurship as Founder and CEO of a mobile payments venture that served over 12 million people. Earlier, at a Fortune 100 telecommunications manufacturer (Nokia), he held general manager and business development roles that included investing in and acquiring venture-backed businesses. His first experience in venture capital was with an $800 million global fund that focused on enterprise and mobile software both before and after the dot.com crash. Ludwig began his career as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He has a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia. He lives in NYC with his wife and 2 teenagers.

Rob is a former entrepreneur, institutional fund manager, and software executive. He has served on many corporate boards and has founded or financed more than 40 companies, raising capital in both public and private markets. He is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. Most recently, Rob was on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he taught entrepreneurship in the MBA program and was the Founder and Director of Texas Venture Labs. He was CEO and Founder of Business Matters, a venture-backed developer of financial modeling products that was acquired. He was also an executive with Pervasive Software, a company he helped take public. Rob holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue, an MBA from Babson’s Olin School of Management, and a PhD in Management from Capella University.