An Introduction to Venture Investing with Congress Avenue Ventures

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.

Brook is a member of the Congress Avenue Ventures investment team with experience in operating and private investing. He began his career as an entrepreneur and is the former founder of two acquired consumer startups. Prior to joining Congress Avenue Ventures, Brook worked for Brand Foundry Ventures where his primary focus was early-stage investing, due diligence, and working with portfolio company founders. He is an active startup investor and brings to Congress Ave his passion for entrepreneurship, business strategy, and investing in bold founders disrupting categories with better products and technology. Prior to venture, he worked for financial technology startup Funding Circle preIPO. He has a BA in History cum laude from the University of Richmond and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from McCombs.

Patrick is a member of the investment team at Alumni Ventures where he is responsible for spearheading due diligence, financial analyses, sizing market opportunity, and managing portfolios of startups. Prior to his current role, Patrick was a Quantitative Research Associate at Harvard Business School where he specialized and published research with regards to VC, PE, entrepreneurship, innovation, and diversity. Before moving into the venture capital industry, Patrick worked on an energy hedge desk where he sold and traded oil & gas derivatives. Patrick holds a Master of Science in Financial Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Texas A&M University, where he focused on econometrics and finance.