Adam Robinson did not believe in Silicon Valley rules. He built successful business without Venture Capital money before death in a Florida plane crash

In a tragic incident, technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson died in the Florida plane crash. The Bahamas-bound Learjet crashed in South Florida with nine people aboard, just miles away from Mar-a-Lago. Besides Adam, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their kids - Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2 also lost their lives. Robinson was a co-founder of Robly, an email marketing platform. He was also the founder of Retention.com, a firm that uses technology to connect e-commerce website visitors to their email addresses.

Building a business without venture capital

Adam Robinson’s first company, Robly, was built without the entrepreneur relying on venture capital funding. He sold it in 2021, as revealed by Robinson in a 2024 interview. However, he had started developing his next business already in the field of email marketing platforms even before the acquisition.

Robinson’s idea gradually turned into GetEmails and later evolved into Retention.com. Robinson started Robly in the highly competitive email marketing and automation industry. He had limited resources, finding it difficult to compete with larger companies. But instead of giving up, he began exploring new ways to offer something special that major competitors weren’t willing to provide or were unable to do so.

Turning an untapped technology into an opportunity

Robinson finally discovered a technology that helped in identifying email addresses of website visitors. It was possible even when they did not fill out any contact form. The practice was initially operated and permitted in the US. But Europe was excluded. Robinson took the opportunity.

Robinson introduced a special technology feature called Robly ID within his existing platform. Despite the long process of downloading files and transferring them to another system, customers were satisfied with the system and gave favourable reviews. Some even agreed to pay 25 cents per lead.

Spinning off a feature to build a bigger business

Eventually, Robinson realised the importance of separating the feature from Robly. He wanted to make it compatible with multiple email marketing platforms and create bigger businesses. The product was finally launched in November 2019. In just a few years, Retention.com reached approximately $23 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Robly, which was acquired in 2021, had only 9 employees. All of them remained with the business for 3 years after the acquisition. 45% of Robly belonged to Robinson alongside 3 co-founders.

Bootstrapping a second venture with existing profits

The company produced about $3 million in ARR and $1.5 million in earnings when it was sold. Robinson had purposefully built GetEmails as he wanted to reach comparable financial figures. He believed the decision could help him move away from Robly without the income taking a hit.

To conclude, Robinson did not depend on outside investors. He utilised the cash generated by his first business and developed his second venture.