Frank R. Robles
Founder, CEO, CTO and COO across three decades of networks, data centers, software and operations. He originated the metro Ethernet carrier model and holds two US patents.
At a glance
- Years building and running technology companies
- 30+
- US patents in data communication
- 2
- Raised at the metro Ethernet carrier he co-founded
- $291M
- Miles of metro fiber Ethernet deployed
- 36,000
Frank Robles has spent thirty years taking ideas other people called impossible and turning them into operating businesses. In 1998 he conceived of running metro communications over fiber with Ethernet, which became the metro Ethernet carrier model and a standard around the world. He co-founded the company that built it, raised capital for it, ran its operations and its treasury, and helped found the standards body that made it an industry.
Since then he has founded a carrier, a green data center and a consulting firm, run a seed fund, served as chief technology officer of a 3,600-person multinational, and led technology and operations at a legal marketplace and a public smart-cities company. Today he runs Robles Industries and GateTracker, and he still writes the core of what the firm builds.
Companies founded and led
- NanoSpace, renamed Yipes Communications. Co-founder and CEO, 1995 to 2001. Brand-name customers including Amazon and Google. Originated metro Ethernet in 1998. 36,000 miles of fiber, 600 points of presence, 165 data centers, $291 million raised. Later acquired by Reliance Communications for $300 million.
- Neopolitan Networks. Founder and CEO, 2002 to 2009. A metro Ethernet carrier across the Bay Area, South Florida and San Antonio, linked to New York and London. Hosted Keyhole, later Google Earth.
- CityNAP. Founder and President, 2005 to 2008. Texas's first 100 percent green data center.
- Robles Industries. Founder, 2010 to today. GateTracker, Chief Executive Officer since 2024.
- OakStone Ventures. General manager of a seed fund, 1999 to 2010, backing Kana, Keyhole and Yipes.
Executive roles
- Operational Technologies. Chief Technology Officer of a 3,600-person, $200 million multinational across eight divisions, 2010 to 2011.
- Austin Board of Realtors. Interim Chief Technology Officer through a modernization, 2013 to 2014.
- JustLegal. Chief Technology Officer, 2017. Built the team of 12 and led the sale of the platform to a public company.
- DigitalTown. President of Got.Law at launch, then Chief Operating Officer, 2017 to 2018.
- US Air Force, AFWERX SBIR Phase II. On the winning proposal team and development lead under prime Quantum Interface, $1.15 million, 2023 to 2024.
- ClearFunds. Chief Technology Officer, 2020 to today. DisinfectWell. Chief Technology Officer.
- Netcom, Apple, Alphablox. Engineering and quality leadership, 1992 to 1997, including Netcom's 1994 IPO.
Patents
- US 6,282,172. Generating acknowledgement signals in a data communication system. Issued August 2001.
- US 6,359,882. Method and apparatus for transmitting data. Issued March 2002. NASA had said TCP/IP could not carry communication between Earth and space; this work showed how.
Recognition
- Most Innovative CLEC, Interop 2000.
- Business Journal 40 Under 40 Rising Stars, 2006.
- Helped establish and sponsored the Metro Ethernet Forum, the first public standards body for metro Ethernet.
- Austin Mayor's Blockchain Challenge, 2018: second place, with the only working solution, which the city built its MyPass digital identity program on.
Selected speaking
Keynotes in Tokyo and Oita, Japan, 1999. Networld and Interop, kicking off the optical networking track, 2000. SuperComm 2001. The joint ITU-T and OASIS workshop on public warning standards, Geneva, 2006. SXSW in 2007 and 2018. FastCompany on data centers, 2008. Financial Executives International on big data, 2014. Texas Bitcoin Conference, 2018. Quoted in Internet Week, Network Magazine and Business Communications Review.
Boards and advisory
YMCA of Greater San Antonio, director and IT committee chair, 2008 to 2025. San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, director. Hispanic Hackers, senior board member. Boards of NanoSpace and Yipes and seven subsidiaries, Neopolitan Networks, HeavyMail, AgileMedia and Ascencia. Advisory board, YY Software. Advisor to SanityDesk and to Lost Light Studios.
How he works
- Test and ship. His career started in quality engineering, building the test harness before the product and documenting so anyone could step in. That habit is in everything the firm builds.
- Measure the business, not the activity. At Yipes, Operational Technologies, the Austin Board of Realtors and DigitalTown the first thing he built was the KPI reporting, because a leadership team cannot fix what it cannot see.
- Build the core himself, then hire. A platform gets its shape from whoever writes its core. On the Air Force SBIR he took a product idea from zero code to a working solution, alone for a long stretch, before the team arrived.
- Think like an owner. He has raised the money, run the treasury, paid the staff and closed companies down when they stopped making sense. He tells clients when the thing they asked for is the wrong thing.
“Frank provided invaluable guidance on expanding the business. His advice on outsourcing roles, building a strong team, and demonstrating success rather than relying solely on equity funding was strategic and cost-effective.”
What we can start on
A fractional chief technology or operating officer seat. A build where the commercial, financial and operational questions are as hard as the engineering. Or an honest second opinion from someone who has run a carrier, a data center and a software company.
Next record: NanoSpace and Yipes
All records are also bound as one document: Case record set (PDF).