Robert Coneybeer

Robert “Rob” Coneybeer is a co-founder and Managing Director at Shasta Ventures. Shasta’s own bio describes him as a venture-capital veteran focused on “emerging platforms” including robotics, space, connected hardware, and transportation. The firm says his current Shasta investments include Doctor On Demand, Fetch Robotics, LawVu, Spire Global, Starship Technologies, Survios, Tonal, and Turo.

Before co-founding Shasta in 2004 with Ravi Mohan and Tod Francis, Coneybeer was a General Partner at New Enterprise Associates. His earlier technical background includes work as an integration and test engineer at Martin Marietta Astro Space, consistent with his later focus on hardware, aerospace, robotics, and mobility companies.

Coneybeer earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where Shasta says he was named a Palmer Scholar. He has also been a co-host of Wharton’s “Launch Pad” with professor Karl Ulrich; Wharton Magazine still listed Launch Pad among current Business Radio shows in its Fall/Winter 2024 “10 Years of Business Radio” feature.

Coneybeer has also become active in New Zealand’s startup ecosystem. His LinkedIn profile places him in Auckland, and in 2025 he posted that he was serving on the founding board of Endeavor New Zealand; Signal also lists him as Chairman of Endeavor New Zealand.

• Shasta’s current firm-level thesis is to back “bold founders at the earliest stages” and partner with entrepreneurs building “software, AI, and deep technology.”
• Coneybeer’s personal focus is emerging platforms: robotics, space, connected hardware, and transportation.
• He has said Shasta focuses on early-stage investments, with a portfolio historically split across enterprise and consumer, and that his personal areas are “robotics and the future of transportation.”
• In hardware, Coneybeer looks for more than devices: in a TechCrunch interview, he argued that cheaper computing, better supply chains, and lower materials costs had made hardware startups more attractive, and he emphasized that his mechanical-engineering background lets him add more than capital.
• In a hardware-branding deck, he emphasized customer research, differentiated naming, iconic product design, word of mouth, software upgrades over time, and products that create “a strong positive emotional attachment” with customers.
• Signal lists his investment range at $2.0M-$10.0M, with a $6.0M sweet spot.