Excellence and Expertise on the Intelliversity Team

Robert Steven Kramarz - Executive Director, Author, and InvestorRobert Steven Kramarz

His Specialty - Driving growth by funding entrepreneurs and executive team building.

His passion - Empowering innovators.

Author of: Articles on LinkedIn Pulse, the Intelliversity blog and eBooks The Road Less Traveled,  Winning Conversations with Investors, So You are Thinking of a Startup, and Born to Star - Secrets for Business Funding Success. Rob's eBooks and others by Intelliversity faculty can be found in our library here.

Experience: Robert Steven Kramarz has over 30 years in computer and software management, and participated in corporate exit as employee #1 of venture-funded Cordata. Subsequently, he was CEO/co-founder of 1776, Inc. system software company; has been a Board member of non-profits, technology investor, and leadership trainer.  He is currently Chairman of the Board of the non-profit organization, The Brain-Body Research Institute.

Mr. Kramarz is currently Executive Director of Intelliversity — The Funding Academy for Entrepreneurs – Led by Investors and was previously a member of Tech Coast Angels and investor in technology companies. Most recently he co-founded 22’nd Century Ventures.  He's an active member of the advisory boards of the Alliance of M&A Advisors, Vantera Partners, Liquidity River, Blue Moon Advisors, Pacific Royalties, and others.

Mr. Kramarz wrote 21 patents on behalf of other inventors. Of which, at least, five now have been granted. Wrote the original papers on software RAID and co-designed the first server mirroring software with automatic fail-over. He has a degree in psychology from UCSC and two years studying physics and environmental science at Cal Tech. Mr. Kramarz’ expertise is in leadership training and advising early-stage companies on funding strategy.

Arthur Lipper III, Advisor

Arthur Lipper is an innovator in the field of financial services. He pioneered breakthroughs in the fields of mutual fund analysis, stock index futures, and mutual funds, through the Lipper Index, and the International Lipper Fund Performance Awards.

Mr. Lipper formed two New York Stock Exchange member firms, Arthur Lipper Corporation, and New York & Foreign 150115-AL-photoSecurities, and served both as Chairman. These firms specialized in serving institutional investors, and their services included the creation of mutual fund investment performance analysis. They were members of all of the major U.S. securities exchanges, and some commodity futures exchanges, and transacted hundreds of millions of dollars of business. He has also advised stock and commodity futures exchanges, including Mid-America Commodity Exchange and Bourse de Beyrouth.

In 1969, Arthur Lipper Corporation filed the first prospectus for a Stock Index Fund and subsequently conceived and initiated trading Stock Index Futures. The company had offices in New York, London, Washington, Amsterdam, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Singapore, and Tokyo, and was actively involved in Australia.

Arthur Lipper Corporation invested in privately-owned companies, including Venture Magazine, where Mr. Lipper served as Editor-in-Chief. He has lectured at many prominent universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown.

In 2007, Mr. Lipper was awarded a U.S. patent covering the Comparator service for investment managers. Comparator allowed users to review uniquely and manage portfolios based on the relative weighting of holdings. In 2010, he was awarded a patent for an approach to using revenue royalties in the financing of companies. In 2013, he filed another patent covering the combining of debt and royalties.

He is a leader in the field of royalty finance and has published some analytical tools to help investors and business owners understand their potential. Mr. Lipper is involved with some efforts to initiate funds, partnerships, and public securities exchanges focused on revenue royalties.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps, receiving a Purple Heart in Korea.

Ravi Bhola, Co-Founder / Advisor

Ravi Bhola has spent over 30 years investing in, building and growing technology companies and has worked extensively on DSCN1546-225x300an international basis in information systems, satellite systems, information warfare, energy. Mr. Bhola's experience is both as an investor and in various aspects of general management. He has acquired, grown, and sold seven companies and has invested in over a dozen early-stage companies as well as co-invested in some early-stage startups.

Throughout his career, Mr. Bhola has been very actively involved in the application of new technology, methods, and processes to provide a competitive advantage or completely new ways of providing higher-value solutions to new and existing markets. In many cases, He has brought together customers, investors, and companies into strategic relationships that allowed entry into new markets or to undertake complex projects in a manner that was faster and at lower cost and risk.

Mr. Bhola was a principal in a leveraged buyout of a $100M+ company which was acquired from General Dynamics and subsequently sold to BAE Systems at triple the price in four years after the acquisition. He has held senior management positions in companies like General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, E.W. Blanch Holdings, Orincon where he has P&L and major long-term strategic business development accountabilities. He has been a partner in a Venture Capital Fund and is currently a partner in a boutique private asset management company with an international focus that seeks opportunities and high-quality management teams in energy and technology.

Mr. Bhola holds a BSEE, MSEE, and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and has attended executive development programs at Stanford and Harvard on innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

The entire Intelliversity team is committed to your success.