Steve Swoboda

Steve Swoboda is a Colorado native and career finance-and-operations executive turned entrepreneur and investor. A CU Boulder business graduate, he began his career at Price Waterhouse LLP, where he built experience in domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, SEC reporting, and internal controls. He then held senior roles at several startups and public companies, including CFO of iBelay LLC (a seed-stage venture capital firm) and Director of Corporate Development at MessageMedia, Inc. (acquired by DoubleClick), as well as leadership positions at Ereo, Inc. and ProSavvy, Inc.

In 2001 Swoboda co-founded Booyah Advertising (also referenced as Booyah Networks), a Denver-area digital advertising agency, alongside longtime business partner Mike Shehan. In 2007 the two spun up SpotX (originally SpotXchange), which grew into the leading independent global video advertising and monetization platform. As COO and CFO, Swoboda helped scale the company to more than 450 employees across six countries, serving premium publishers and broadcasters such as Disney, Samsung, and WarnerMedia. In April 2021, he and Shehan led the sale process that resulted in SpotX being acquired by Magnite for $1.2 billion.

Following the exit, Swoboda and Shehan co-founded Roster Capital, an investment firm whose philosophy centers on backing already-strong teams and giving them a "collaborative, transparent, fair and politics-free" environment to do their best work. Swoboda was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year honoree in 2013 and is a member of the Economic Club of Colorado. He continues to serve as an advisor, investor, and board member for several growth-stage companies and nonprofits, and lives in Denver with his family.

• "We invest in people." Roster Capital's stated strategy is centered on businesses with strong teams — "we invest with the goal of empowering already-strong teams to do their best work in a collaborative, transparent, fair and politics-free environment."
• Values company culture over pure financial metrics — Swoboda has said he cares more about the culture he and Shehan built at SpotX than the money earned from the exit.
• Invests across fintech, consumer, commerce, ad-tech and SaaS, frequently leaning on the founders' deep operating background in advertising technology and scaling fast-growing organizations.
• Looks for teams tackling large, underserved, growing markets — of Ximplifi, Swoboda noted the team "identified an underserved but large and growing market, and they're delivering superior solutions and services."
• Provides hands-on operator help, not just capital — he frames his role as helping companies "grow and maximise the significant market opportunity" in front of them.
• Also pursues acquisitions of owner-operated businesses whose founders want to sell, while prioritizing the ongoing success of the existing team.