OUR TEAM

Robert S. Adams
Co-founder and Managing Partner
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Rob brings 15 years of venture capital, operational, and financial experience to NextStage Capital. His work with emerging companies includes business strategy development and implementation, financial analysis and modeling, management development, and business positioning.

Prior to co-founding NextStage Capital / NextStage Advisors, Rob was vice-president and officer of Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE) a publicly traded venture capital firm. During his six years at Safeguard, Rob led the sourcing, negotiation, management, and exit of more than $102 million in venture capital investments and produced a combined IRR of 21%. At Safeguard, Rob was involved in the development of numerous technology companies, from early stage through public entity. He was responsible for designing and executing Safeguard's investment strategies for both business software and communications industry segments, including technology-specific investment platforms in voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and wireless middleware applications. Rob led Safeguard portfolio companies through the strategic planning, product development, and commercialization processes; recruitment of various CxO management positions; and development of strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions. Rob was also a member of Safeguard's investment committee.

Examples of Rob's venture investments while at Safeguard include: PacWest Telecomm ($100 million IPO), Extant ($200 million acquisition by Dynegy), and ThinAirApps ($20 million acquisition by Palm).

Rob co-founded Ascendigm, a firm focused on the identification, development, and commercialization of emerging information and communications technologies. At Ascendigm, he developed a proprietary technology commercialization and go-to-market methodology, which was successfully applied in government funded research projects and for-profit businesses.

Prior to Safeguard, Rob was with the media and entertainment industry firm of Rascoff/Zysblatt. There he held profit and loss responsibility for a business unit providing financial and compliance services to media companies and media artists, growing revenues by broadening the firm's product offerings.

Rob began his career in the Entrepreneurial Services unit of Ernst & Young, where he obtained his CPA license and provided consulting and auditing services to management/owners of technology-based venture-backed companies.

Rob has a BS in Economics from Skidmore College and earned his MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan.

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