4x founder
Robert Thelen
Co-Founder at Rownd AI | Stop flying drones. Start commanding fleets.
Experience
Career
2021Rownd
Co-founderCEO and Co-Founder · Durham, NC · 2021 – Present
2025LlamaFarm
Chief LLM Wrangler · 2025 – Present
2016IBM
Senior Product Manager - API Connect/Gateways · Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area · 2016 – 2021
2017Durham Technical Community College
Adjunct Professor · Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area · 2017 – 2018
- 2017
Eclipse for a Cause
Co-founderCo-Founder and CEO · Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area · 2017
- 2014
FliQ - Connect, Faster
Co-founderCo-Founder / CEO · Hanover, New Hampshire · 2014 – 2017
2015Google
Sales Operations, Transformation, and Planning MBA Intern - Google for Work · Mountain View, CA · 2015
2013United States Air Force
Portfolio Execution Group Chief · Wright Patterson AFB, OH · 2013 – 2014
- 2011
United States Air Force
Program Manager · Wright Patterson AFB, OH · 2011 – 2013
- 2010
NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan
Combat Advisor · Gardez, Afghanistan · 2010 – 2011
- 2008
United States Air Force
Flight Commander - Accessories Flight · Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho · 2008 – 2010
- 2007
United States Air Force
Aircraft Maintenance Unit Assistant Officer in Charge - 389th AMU · Mountain Home AFB, Idaho · 2007 – 2008
- 2004
Mendota Beacon
Co-founderCo-Founder; Managing Editor · 2004 – 2006
Bio
Rob Thelen is the CEO and co-founder of Rownd. Prior to Rownd, he was a Product-lead for IBM's API Connect, a $200M a year API management platform where he was responsible for all aspects of the product, dev prioritization to sales strategy. Robert is an Air Force veteran, where he led hundreds on the flight line, led a diverse combat advisor team in Afghanistan for a year, and was responsible for $1.2B in gov acquisitions. He received an MBA from Dartmouth and calls Durham, NC home.