Next Coast Ventures Expands Entrepreneurs Council with Addition of Adam Rogers

Next Coast Ventures, an Austin-based venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs on the ‘Next Coast’ of innovation, announced today that Adam Rogers has joined its Entrepreneurs Council. The Firm works to support the best entrepreneurs outside of the coasts by creating a dynamic team of the highest-performing industry experts. Adam’s strong entrepreneurial background and experience will further enhance this leadership team.

Adam Rogers is the former CTO and CEO of the leading global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM), Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI). Rogers 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.

“Adam will bring an immense amount of expertise to Next Coast Ventures,” states Michael Smerklo, managing director and co-founder of Next Coast Ventures. “Having the opportunity to leverage Adam’s deep technical, product development, engineering management and go-to-market experience at scale will be extremely useful to our entrepreneurs. Adam is another example of an incredible caliber of resource that we are able to offer to our portfolio company leadership.”

Since leaving his position as CEO in May 2020, Rogers advises companies on scaling. He has been published many times in well-known publications, such as Forbes and InformationWeek, as a blogger focusing on HR Technology, Product Development, and the Cloud. Rogers graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

“Joining Next Coast Ventures’ Entrepreneurs Council gives me the opportunity to partner with a rapidly-growing firm that shares my conviction to grow and scale great companies outside of Silicon Valley,” says Rogers. “I am also pleased to join a group of such distinguished entrepreneurs already on the council. I am looking forward to seeing what we can build together.”

“Adam has successfully scaled a massive business in Florida,” states Thomas Ball, managing director and co-founder of NCV. “His career experience and having graduated from the University of Florida give Adam strong connections in the technology community in the state and other ‘Next Coast’ markets. Adam strengthens our ability to source great entrepreneurs outside the traditional technology markets, and we are very excited to work with him to identify and invest in great entrepreneurs in ‘Next Coast’ markets.”

About Next Coast Ventures

Next Coast Ventures is an Austin 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/.

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