AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Next Coast Ventures, a venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs on the ‘Next Coast’ of innovation, announced today that Adam Rogers has joined as a Partner. Rogers joins Next Coast Ventures after a storied career as an operator and leader at one of the most admired technology companies in enterprise software. With Rogers joining the firm, Next Coast Ventures continues to focus on its “built for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs” mantra and deliver on its commitment to provide guidance and advice based on real operating experience.
Adam Rogers is the former CTO and CEO of the leading global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM), Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI). He joined Ultimate in 1997 as its first intern but quickly became an integral part of growing the company. As CTO, Adam and his team created the first enterprise SaaS solution, UltiPro, an award-winning HCM product with exciting new advancements like AI, Machine Learning, predictive and prescriptive analytics, Natural Language Processing, and mobile technologies. As CEO, he helped Ultimate Software scale to over $1.4B in revenue and guided an $11B take-private deal by Hellman & Friedman as well as a $22B merger one year later. In his last year as CEO, Ultimate Software was ranked #2 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.
“We strive to partner with entrepreneurs to help them build and scale their companies, and Adam is uniquely positioned to help early-stage founders do that,” states Michael Smerklo, managing director and co-founder of Next Coast Ventures. “Adam has deep engineering, product development and go-to-market experience from his time at Ultimate Software. He knows what it takes to build and scale world-class software products and the teams that develop them. Adam brings immense value to founders as a trusted advisor and board member. Adam exemplifies our ‘built for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs’ ethos, and to have him join Next Coast Ventures in this new capacity is incredibly exciting.”
Rogers originally joined Next Coast Ventures as a member of the Entrepreneurs Council in August 2020. “I was immediately drawn to the culture at Next Coast. The transparency and openness in which the team operates was refreshing. As a result, I got the chance to see first-hand the value their platform brings to entrepreneurs. Next Coast Ventures was purpose-built to support the entrepreneurs creating the next generation of innovation and I am thrilled to join the team,” Rogers said.
“Adam has already shown an ability to identify promising companies outside traditional technology markets,” states Thomas Ball, managing director and co-founder of Next Coast Ventures. “We know first-hand the value of being deeply embedded in emerging technology hubs as they grow. When you combine Adam’s experience successfully scaling a massive enterprise SaaS business and his deep network in the technology community, Adam is uniquely positioned to identify and invest in great entrepreneurs in current and emerging ‘Next Coast’ markets and support them as they build great companies.”
About Next Coast Ventures
Next Coast Ventures is an Austin-based venture capital firm that partners with bold entrepreneurs building innovative companies in big markets. It provides early-stage capital to high-growth startups in ‘Next Coast’ markets, using macro trends and themes to guide its investment strategy. Next Coast provides its growing group of portfolio companies hands-on, company building resources through its strong industry network, Entrepreneurs Council program and the founders’ own experiences as entrepreneurs. Learn more at https://www.nextcoastventures.com/.
