Full Bio

Rob has earned his reputation as a Growth Catalyst by pioneering new markets throughout his career. His education and early experience as an engineer stoked his enthusiasm for innovation. As he began his sales career, Rob decided that he needed to find new applications for his products in order to be truly remarkable in a crowded field and thus create opportunity where none existed before. While this strategy helped to make Rob a top performer in the field of specialty chemical sales, he aspired for more. So, in 2002 he began to transform himself from a salesman into an entrepreneur. This process culminated with the formation of On The Spot Games® in 2003.
Rob envisioned On The Spot Games as the first name in family-friendly entertainment for over-scheduled families on the go. With no prior experience in consumer products, Rob conceived and produced the company’s first product in 2003. DidYa Know® was an award-winning card game designed to promote family fun through storytelling, The game was produced and packaged for retail sale through specialty retailers in the US. However, Rob felt that adding one more game to the jam-packed game aisles in retail stores would not accomplish his goal of entertaining busy families.
In 2005 Rob began work on a distribution system that would deliver games directly to families in the social settings where they were likely to play and enjoy them. He identified casual restaurant chains as an ideal place to reach his target audience and so he set out to adapt On The Spot Games’ products to the challenging environment of a busy restaurant. Rob adapted DidYa Know and several other games for play in casual restaurants by working with development partners such as Pizza Hut and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. In 2006, he debuted a full line of Fun On The Spot™ restaurant games at the National Restaurant Association trade show in Chicago, IL.

Before endeavoring on his entrepreneurial journey, Rob was a top-performing salesman. In 1992, Rob accepted a sales position with KR Anderson Company, a distributor of engineered chemicals. Rob was promoted to Branch Manager in 1994, managing sales and operations for the Pacific Northwest region. He focused on increasing sales by creating new value-added services, expanding market share and developing new applications for the company’s products. Under Rob’s leadership, the region experienced 5 years of double-digit sales growth, resulting in $7 million in sales in 1999 contributing to total company sales of $55 million. Also, his region led all others by generating a record-setting gross profit margin of 29%.
Rob strived to round out his business skills while still achieving his goals at KR Anderson. So he enrolled in Seattle University’s Albers School of business to pursue his MBA in 1994. He graduated from the program in 1997 with a GPA of 3.5.
Rob continued to prospect new business opportunities for KR Anderson during the recessionary economy during the early 2000’s. His efforts spawned new business in many new markets, including a partnership with Eldorado Stone, Inc. of Carnation, WA to develop a new molding technology for faux stone facades for the building industry. Eldorado Stone quickly became one of KR Anderson’s largest customers, generating over $5 million in revenue in 2005.

Rob was working as a manufacturing engineer in 1989 when Robert McKeown Co, a chemical distributor, recruited him into his first position in sales. As the Area Manager for New York State he developed his skills for planning and executing sales strategies. During the next four years he learned to use his technical skills to develop new applications for his OEM customer base. Rob quickly became the company’s top salesperson, as he lead the company in sales and gross profit margin in 1990. He continued to perform for Robert McKeown until 1992, when he and his new bride decided to improve their quality of life by relocating to Seattle, WA.

Rob’s past life experiences include selling ice, cookware and used cars. He’s played drums for a new wave cover band and ridden his bicycle up the Tour de France’s legendary Alpe D’ Huez. He and his wife Barbara live an active, playful life with their twin boys Jason and TJ (age 9) in a grand old house in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. He planted his first organic garden this year.
Among his many passions, Rob thoroughly enjoys a challenging climb on his bicycle, belly laughs with the kids, tasty wine and food pairings and grabbing a beer with the guys.

In the Zone Today

Some days, getting words out on a page is about as easy as pouring molasses in Anchorage in December. Not today. After a few days of false starts I was able to find the right voice for my bio. I had been struggling in writing pertinent information that was not a bullet point better suited for my resume.

The bottom line is that I was able to convey my intentions and goals for On The Spot Games in a way to captures my feelings during the early days of the company. Since I don't have glowing results to recount, I've decided to discuss my plans, actions and lessons learned. The latter is best discussed during an interview. A draft of opening to my bio appears below:

Rob founded On The Spot Games in 2002 and served as the company’s Big Picture Guy until he closed the company in the spring of 2007. After a long career selling industrial chemicals (more below), Rob founded On The Spot Games in order to create and distribute games for families to play while dining in casual restaurants. With no prior experience in consumer products, Rob conceived and produced DidYa Know®, an award-winning card game, in 2003. He then marketed and sold the game to specialty retailers in the US. During the company’s four-year existence, Rob commercialized over a dozen toys and games. Rob was able to adapt DidYa Know and several other games for play in casual restaurants, working with both Pizza Hut and Red Robin as development partners. Finally, Rob developed a toy brand called SMore Toys™ for a line of active toys produced in Asia and distributed through On The Spot Games in an effort to broaden the company’s offerings in 2007.

It was very difficult to summarize my experience with On The Spot Games to a single(?) paragraph. After pouring every ounce of myself into the company, there's so much more to tell. For example, I got the idea for creating the DidYa Know storytelling game after a discussion with Wizards of the Coast alumni Mike Davis, in which we discussed the difficulty in creating a game that three generations could play equally well. But alas, brevity must prevail. So, that story will live here in the blog and make select appearances sometime down the road...