Advisory Board

Rich Robinson

Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Animoca Brands | Evangelizing the Open Metaverse & Digital Property Rights | Entrepreneur, Executive, Investor & Professor

Nearly 30 years in Asia as an entrepreneur, exec, professor, investor, and advisor across:

- Web 1.0 - ('95 -' 05) Read era
- Web 2.0 - ('05  -' 20) Read/Write era
- Mobile - ('00 - present) Services
- Web3 - ('20 - present) Read/Write/Own

As Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Animoca Brands, I'm about working with builders to empower users to own and leverage digital assets across the open metaverse, previously with 8 startups as a co-founder or senior exec, and with dozens of others as an investor, board member, advisor or mentor (HAX, Chinaccelerator & 500). First a senior exec at 3 companies from private to public, then went on to found 5 companies: 3 exited to publicly listed companies and 2 blew up. I have eagerly/gratefully been teaching the class Entrepreneurship in China as a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at Peking University's Guanghua Int'l MBA Program for nearly a decade.

For five years I've been mentoring amazing Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University's Schwarzman College 苏世民学者. Have taught 'pracademics' to senior execs at Tsinghua University's BI-Tsinghua program and the Spirit of Entrepreneurship at Alibaba University.  Also frequently guest lectured globally at Harvard University, University of Southern California, Technical University of Munich, and RSM at Erasmus University, etc. Active in the geek-o-system in Asia/globally and am a sought-after keynote speaker and event MC in the tech, startup, and innovation space (NFT.NYC, NFTLA, Web Summit Lisbon & Dublin,  TechCrunch Beijing, etc)

My entrepreneurial journey in China was profiled in the New York Times:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/a-globetrotting-serial-entrepreneur-finds-roots-in-chinas-start-up-scene/ 
Grew up in Greater Boston and my Boston accent and I went 'wicked fah away' to study at USC in L.A. and Cambridge University in the UK.

After college, I was a wild-eyed backpacker working my way around the world as a bartender in the Virgin Islands; a concierge/ski bum in the Swiss Alps; an English teacher in post-revolution Prague; a house-painter in Norway; a grape picker in France; and a BMW factory worker in Munich. In '93 I traveled overland from Switzerland to Hong Kong via Beijing on the Trans-Siberian and fell in love with the potential and promise of China. I got an MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management in The Netherlands from  '94-'96 where I fell in love with the interwebs. After grad school, I did a solo bicycle trip from Africa's equator to its southern tip - 4,000km from Nairobi to Cape Town: http://vimeo.com/22348199 

Labors of love to exercise/exorcise my creative muse:
- Write children's books through Creatribute where all money goes to charity;
- Produce/MC stand-up comedy shows across Asia with top comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Louis CK & Russell Peters.
- Podcasting - since, by law, during Covid lockdown,  had to choose between learning the ukulele, making 
sourdough bread or starting a podcast, so I jumped in. 🤣

After nearly a quarter century in China now happily based since Covid in Bali, Indonesia - the Island of the Gods.
Loverly entrepreneur wife http://linktr.ee/EmRoblin and three terrific children all 'Made in China.' Perpetual Mandarin & Bahasa student. 😊 http://linktr.ee/RichRobinson