Overview

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but have been hesitant to take the lead. However, time after time, situation after situations, industry after industry, I keep ending up in leadership positions (whether I want to or not). Since I was in my single digits in years, when there were group dynamics that needed leadership to help it move forward, more often than not, the other members of the groups would ask me to step up and take the leadership role.

Testimonials

"I credit our success to the enterprise-level knowledge, support, and experience that Mr. Robinson brought to our company. " - Zombie Orpheus Entertainment -- full testimonial.

Hawke is ""The Grandfather of Therapeutic Gaming. He has been tracking and involved in the therapeutic and educational application of role-playing games longer than anyone else.” –Adam Johns, Game to Grow, Executive Director, Lead Facilitator.

Startups by others that I worked for in management roles

• PC Easy
• Fatbrain.com -> MightyWords Inc. -> acquired by Barnes & Noble.
• TriGeo acquired by SolarWinds for $35M USD
• Interlink Advantage 
• Intrinium (Project Manager)
• ManufacturingPower and iNSUPPLi (currently engaged as CTO)

Startups I created

• Hawke Studios (1991)
• Dev 2 Dev Portal LLC (2002)
  • The Computer Schools (2002)
  • MaladNet (2002)
  • Hawke Enterprising dba (2004)
• RPG Research (non-profit) (2004)
• RPG Therapeutics LLC (2014)
  • RPG.LLC 
  • RPG Mobile
  • RPG.Education 
  • ...TODO
• ...TODO

By The Numbers

• Largest startup funding: $47M USD (MW).
• Largest direct signature and annual budget expenditure responsibility: $20M USD per year ("burn-rate")
• Largest break-even or profitable annual revenue responsibility: $3.2M per year.
• Largest single check signed (so far): $1.3M USD to a VAR.
• Largest employee base directly responsible for as management or higher role (direct and indirect reports): 200 (local and across 6 continents, not counting outsourced).
• Highest revenue directly response for managing: 
• Highest labor costs managed:
• Greatest P&L numbers directly response for managing:
• Worst support per sale percentage:
• Best support per sale percentage:

Non-profit Leadership

As Founder, Chair, Executive Director, CEO, in more recent years I have taken on the challenge of building and running multiple non-profits, including a fully incorporated (C-Corp) 501(c)3 non-profit charity, RPG Research.

This has been much harder than the for-profit world for me. I am very comfortable with asking for payment for goods and services. And I am happy to give away goods and services for good causes, including my time volunteering.  What I really, really, really, struggle with is asking for donations, grants, etc. It just knots my stomach. But it has to happen for a non-profit to grow and move forward. So this has been a huge growth opportunity for me as well.

This is a whole other kind of challenge. To make it even more challenging, this non-profit has certain stipulations that most other non-profits are not limited by:

1. 100% unpaid volunteer-run, no one in the company is paid, including the board of directors, C-level, etc. This means we have an excellently low administrative overhead, much better than most non-profits, especially considering we have been able to directly help tens of thousands of people on a shoestring budget with this model.
2. We cannot accept grants from taxpayer-funded sources (too much political mess).

• Impact: We have directly helped improve the functioning and quality of life of more than 100,000 people with out programs. Every dollar donated currently helps at least 3 people. Indirectly we may have impacted millions.
• In 2017, when we incorporated as a non-profit, we had 6 volunteer staff. By 2021 we had more than 200, with a 90+% retention rate!
• Largest non-profit fundraising negotiated single donation directly responsible for managing (so far):  $28,400 USD.
• Largest annual non-profit budget directly responsible for managing (so far): 
• In 2020, with only 35 volunteers and only $10,000 USD, we saved WorldCon and the GenCon Film Festival from cancellation, by hosting on our platform (in partnership with TheFantasy.Network and Zombie Orpheus Entertainment), more than 20,000 concurrent video users per second! 
• TODO

RPG Research

TODO

RPG Community Center

RPG Museum

BCI RPG

AI RPG / AI GM

RPG.LLC / RPG Therapeutics LLC

NeuroRPG

RPG Parties

RPG.Education

RPG Mobile

Narrative

I have always been uncomfortable with having to "too my own horn", but time after time I end up in a trail blazing situation with new innovative ideas falling into  leading others, and there is no one else to take up the banner/ So unfortunately I have to undertake the unpleasant self-promotional marketing efforts to grow new business sectors. That is what this page is about, to help answer the many questions people are asking about my background and history.

While most of the other pages more technology focused, this page is more focused on the leadership aspects of what I have done over the years.

As an individual entrepreneur, I started working for money (besides just home extra chores or the like) around 7-8 years old. My earliest paid "job" was as a "Go-fer" at the Lost Packer Mine (at just 9 years old). I washed dishes, chopped wood, hauled the trash to the old smelter (to keep the bears from getting to it), refilled the generators, raked and swept the walkways, and was my grandfather's (and the rest of the mining crew's) "Go-fer". "Go-fer this" and Go-fer that, running up and down the switchbacks to and from the mine and the mining camp. Helping him with clearing tree branches for surveying, etc.

I shoveled snow from many of the neighborhood's driveways and sidewalks during the many major storms in the winter. I was always excited at opportunities to do work, and even nicer when there happened to be some pay added to the joy of helping others and achieving new accomplishments.

In the role-playing gaming world, by the time I was 13, gamers were willing to pay me to be their Game Master (GM for other games) / Dungeon Master (DM for D&D). Before long I had my regular personal group, and then two other paid groups every weekend, more than paying for my hobby and then some.

By the time I was able to to drive, I was the usually rapidly made the lead when there were teams such as for Best Buy Rentals and Events setting up tables and such for wedding and events.  By 16 I was put in charge of 1-2 other (much older) ground crew working on heavy duty construction projects for the surface work of the mine.

Over time I learned that my drive, energy, and enthusiasm could be infectious, and I could get most people around me to do all kinds of things. And I became wary of this after a few intentional experiments to see if I could get all these adults (still in my mid-teens) to do things that were "harmless" (but still not really legal) pranks, and that ability scared me, so I tried with each passing year to be more careful (though it took me some years before I would get my act together). From age 15 through 22 I accomplished a lot, but was also in and out of a lot of trouble, which would take some years to recover from some bad choices on my part. But I learned much from those experiences as well, that would benefit me, and others, in later years.

By my early 20s I was Head of Security and Head of Maintenance over the years for different apartment complexes and office complexes with hundreds of units.

I was also a professional photographer, and became lead photographer of Models International and The Look, later opening my own 2,000+ square foot studio, shooting for the top agencies in Utah, while I was training apprentice photographers and lab technicians.

In Automotive I did the work that no one else wanted, after getting four ASE certifications, I increasingly specialized in emissions and performance systems, and especially electrical and computer systems. All the other mechanics hated electrical and electronics, but I loved taking on the tasks no one else wanted.

Soon I was an instructor at the American Automotive Institute, and brought in as the guest instructor for the other instructors to teach the more modern automotive technology that the other older instructors just didn't get (or like).

I created the entire Graphics Design certificate triaging program from scratch at the Bryman School, later Utah Career College, later Broadview College, training all the instructors that would provide the training to later generations.

By my mid 20s I was rapidly climbing the "corporate ladder" in the tech industry, coming on as a PC Tech trainee and in 2 months taking over for the lead tech, and in another or so I was Chief Information Officer of a small custom PC building and services company, PC Easy, with a factory of 12 build technicians and service providers under my direct supervision. 

I became Director of Operations and Corporate Systems and Components Architect for Franklin Covey in my late 20s, and before I was 30, I was a Senior Principle (VP in training) for a publicly traded company, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the number online eBook company, MightyWords (later acquired by Barnes & Noble). I went through the whole startup lifecycle, from building company from scratch with the CEO and the entire tech department from scratch, to multiple hardware and software full iterations (alpha, beta, 1.0, many releases, then 2.0 complete overhaul), to clawing up and becoming the number one leader in our industry,. Reaching break-even (in the black) as a startup in those times that was rare in those heady times. We only "burned" through half of our funding in 2 years, and we now had a very long run way of capital and revenue as we worked toward 3.0 and increasing our market dominance. Then being bought out, having to lay people off (but everyone had generous severances, we were not like the other .coms that just suddenly closed their doors), including providing incentives to keep them working productively for months during the asset acquisition and liquidation phases. I was the last one out of the building (besides the CEO) after everything was handed over to B&N or sold off.

I used the money from the B&N takeover of MightyWords to create several of my own small business, including a Virtual Office Workplace company, Dev 2 Dev Portal LLC, a technology instructional company, The Computer Schools, and a wireless ISP, MaladNet, including a number of innovations and outright inventions along the way that I later sold to other interested parties (I never got around to patenting, instead working out straight cash deals with companies and individuals interested in acquiring the information on how to implement these ideas). I didn't get stinking rich, but I was reasonably comfortable, though there have been a LOT of ups and downs. The creation of MaladNet and my use of the exception UUNet backbone (before it was ruined by MCI WorldCom in later years), meant I was also able to help 2600's IRC build a whole new infrastructure after they had been wiped off the face of the earth for over a year. We rebuilt them and they have survived every global attack since.

3