Robert Allison

Robert "Bob" Allison founded Innovate Partners, LLC in 1995 and serves as its Principal and Managing Partner. He describes the firm as an operationally oriented private investment and advisory company serving emerging-growth companies, and he manages its Emerging Growth and Equity Fund. Over the firm's history he has facilitated more than fourteen investments.

Before founding Innovate Partners, Allison built a career as an operator in the electronics-distribution industry. He was the Founder and CEO of Insight Electronics, Senior Vice President of Arrow Electronics, and President of Aurora Electronics. He subsequently moved into institutional investing as a General Partner of the Chicago-based Edgewater Private Equity Funds, a role he held from roughly 1998 through 2004.

Allison holds a BA in Business from California State University, Northridge. His investing approach reflects his operator roots: a preference for companies that are geographically close (so he can stay "within arms-reach"), hands-on operational involvement, and limited syndication. The firm's team also includes co-principal Richard Conn, plus finance, legal, and operations staff and a board of advisors drawn from healthcare, telecommunications, retail, and restaurant backgrounds.

• Invests in technology, business services, and consumer-products companies, with a stated focus on businesses using "new technologies to deliver market-changing results."
• Targets companies with "substantial market traction" and a "proven and identified opportunity to scale" — i.e., evidence of traction over pure idea-stage bets, despite aggregator classification as a Seed investor.
• Prefers investments that are geographically close ("within arms-reach"), enabling active, hands-on operational involvement rather than passive capital.
• Favors limited syndication and a concentrated, operationally engaged portfolio over broad diversification.
• Historically oriented toward companies that can become market leaders and attractive acquisition targets (the firm points to past exits to Fortune 500 acquirers).