Robert Kost

Mr. Kost is an accomplished entrepreneur, skilled in Product Development, Marketing, Business Development, and Operations, and multiple successes taking vision to practical concept through successful implementation.

Kost began his career as a legal analyst for the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, where he consulted to the Congress concerning the impact of information technology on intellectual property, especially copyright.

Ten years before the commercial internet, Rob joined Prodigy, initially as Senior Counsel in charge of a patent process that later yielded IBM over $2 billion and writing the earliest privacy policies and interactive contracts with banks, grocery stores and online brokerages.

After seeing the Mosaic browser, Kost left Prodigy to found US Interactive, one of the first internet professional services firms, with Larry Smith and others. At USI, Kost was responsible for strategic consulting and later for general management of USI’s largest and most successful operation in New York City. With Kost’s contributions, USI became a public company in 1999.

After USI, Mr. Kost started Realtime Enterprises, which created ground-breaking products in industries as diverse as education, advertising and travel. Later, Rob became CEO of Portaga, Inc., which offered the first SAAS internet travel booking tool designed specifically for the small business traveler, which integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Salesforce and a variety of other business software applications. Most recently, Rob is also Partner at Brand New Media Partners, a New York-based video marketing firm.