Robert Gamble (’15, business administration), a seasoned entrepreneur and operations leader, knows about growing businesses. He launched his career at Bird, a global micromobility provider, where he played a key role in expanding operations across Europe as a founding member of the EU headquarters.
Gamble helped Bird’s international growth with the launch of more than 35 maintenance sites across Europe and the Middle East. He later led a rapid commerce business unit to generate $1.6 billion in annual revenue, overseeing a transition from 200 to over 6000 employees within six months, and managed a multi-entity restructuring effort as the group COO of a sustainability organization.
After developing his skills and maximizing his opportunities in these organizations, Gamble wanted to apply the lessons learned into his own endeavor.
“I joined an incubator program in Austin, Texas where I met my co-founder,” explains the CBA alumnus. “Home Schooling is the fastest growing educational group for kids ages K-12, and it’s doubling every year. Because of that, as well as our own passions, we started looking at the home education space with the goal of creating SmartPath — a platform to help home schooling parents simplify the complexities of matching curriculum and resources for their children.”
Gamble cautioned the students with a “90-percent fail rate” for startups, quelling any get-rich-quick-talk, while yielding the true value of startup experience.
“The reality in my opinion, when it comes to the value of working for startups, is that you can be exposed to deeper challenges earlier in your career and if you get lucky, you get rich,” he says. “The real gold is being exposed to challenges you wouldn’t face until 10-15 years into your career and getting them in the first two years to allow you to develop yourself further and faster.” Now, as co-founder and COO of SmartPath, Gamble says he focuses on making home education more accessible to families.
Shoutout to CBA alumnus Joshua Hernandez (’20, technology and operations management, ’25, master’s in business analytics) for hosting and coordinating Gamble’s visit to ÁùÉ«Íø, and we appreciate all our incredible students and alumni for participating in the Dean’s Business Leader Speaker Series at the CBA.
Robert Gamble’s Keys to Succeeding in a Startup:
- Take big swings
- Find a manager who you can grow with
- Say "yes" to the scariest task someone will trust you with
- Develop skills and experiences, titles & pay will come naturally
- Accumulate impact, not titles
- Bring solutions, not problems
- Own your work/challenge yourself to innovate, no matter how small the task