Rob Stavis is a partner in Bessemer Venture Partner’s New York office. He focuses on investments in the financial services, education and emerging software and hardware technologies.
Mr. Stavis has been actively investing in venture-backed startups for more than 15 years and currently serves on the boards of directors of several companies, including 2U, Betterment, Gerson Lehrman Group, Quantopian, August Home, Knewton, Brightbytes and United Capital Financial Partners.
Some of Mr. Stavis’ historical investments include Skype (acquired by eBay); SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee); Kroll Bond Ratings; Yodle (acquired by Web.com); debit-card provider PRE Solutions (acquired by Incomm); India based financial services provider Motilal Oswal (BSE:MOSL); and Bermuda-based reinsurance company PXRE (NYSE:PXRE).
Mr. Stavis entered venture capital after a 15-year career at Salomon Smith Barney, where he was co-head of global arbitrage trading. He was a member of Salomon’s operating and risk-management committees and chaired the recruiting committee, in addition to managing a $100 billion balance sheet. Active in a number of not-for-profit initiatives, Mr. Stavis serves on the Board of New School Venture Fund, WJCS, and Crisis Text Line. He holds a B.A.S. from Penn Engineering and a B.S.E. from The Wharton School.