Team

Whether as founder, CEO or investor, Rob Soni has helped launch and build more than 30 successful start-up businesses across a range of technologies, including communications systems and software, systems management software, semiconductors and storage. More than two-dozen of those companies have gone on to public offerings or profitable acquisitions.

Rob is a hands-on board member who brings focus, high-energy, intellectual rigor and a competitive spirit to the companies he serves. Over the years he has helped entrepreneurs define and refine business plans, and change course when necessary.

The son of Indian immigrants, Rob grew up in the suburbs of Rochester, NY; RTP, NC; and Atlanta, GA. In high school, in addition to being valedictorian, he competed in national tennis tournaments as part of America’s greatest tennis generation, playing (and occasionally winning!) against the likes of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Malavai Washington, and David Wheaton. He studied physics with Professor Karl Strauch, then head of CERN, and switched to Social Studies at Harvard College. Rob earned a fellowship to study U.S. nuclear policy in New Zealand, and then joined The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he worked in the automotive, health care services, pharmaceutical, and media markets.

In 1994 he signed on with Bessemer Venture Partners. Still in his mid-twenties, Rob founded the firm’s early stage data communications practice. One of the first businesses Rob backed was Aptis, a data networking equipment maker. The company sold within 24 months to Nortel for $290 million.  This was followed by Maker Communications, which was bought by Conexant for $1 billion after going public on Nasdaq.

Among the other companies Rob helped launch: Element 14, a maker of high speed telecommunications chip sets (sold to Broadcom for $600 million), Sirocco, an optical networking outfit (sold to Sycamore Networks for $3.6 billion), Powertel, a wireless service provider (bought by VoiceStream Wireless for $6 billion), Bladelogic, (bought by BMC Software for $800 million), and Broadsoft (NASDAQ:BSFT).

In 1999, while still at Bessemer, Rob co-founded Intersect Software, a maker of project, portfolio and resource management software.

Rob officially joined Matrix Partners in 2003. His current portfolio includes start-ups in network security, data center virtualization, analog and programmable semiconductors.

In addition to tennis, Rob recently picked-up squash. Please drop him a line if you are an entrepreneur with a promising business idea, a competitive spirit and a desire to play any game with a racket.

When we started this company, we went straight to Matrix. The firm is very selective, so having Matrix behind us adds to our credibility. Rob Soni has had a significant influence on Envio’s strategy. His most valuable contribution has been to make sure we stay focused. He has also been extremely helpful with making introductions, bringing in job candidates and helping us think about how we build and sell our product.

Prakash Iyer, Co-founder and CTO, envIO Networks

This is the third company Rob and I are building together. I trust that I can tell him exactly what is going on in my business and he will not go back to his partners and say, ‘The sky is falling!’ What he will do, is say, ‘OK, let’s put together a plan to solve this.’ At Akorri, we have already been tested with two major strategy shifts. We initially planned to sell hardware and software using a direct sales force. After conducting industry research we decided to drop the hardware component. We also decided to switch to a channel sales model, which should enable us to scale faster. A less experienced VC might have been upset by so much change, but Rob and Matrix have provided constant insight and support.

Rich Corley, Founder and CTO, Akorri

The reason I came back to Matrix to fund my second company was the overall gravitas of the partnership. I feel privileged to be working with Rob and his team. Their creativity, passion and drive to succeed are evidenced by the way they have engaged with us and guided us in the building of our company. Rob is insightful, experienced and hard working, and his deep relationships with people in the financial and technology sectors have helped us round out the experience and capabilities of our management team. We feel confident that we have chosen the best investment partner to help us succeed.

Steve Akers, Founder and CEO, Digital Reef, Inc.