Robert N. Grosshandler - Founder
Robert Grosshandler's career spans more than 35 years as an entrepreneur and principal in e-commerce, software, marketing, and real estate ventures.
A pioneer of e-Philanthropy, Mr. Grosshandler designed the online charity mall model and launched iGive.com in 1997. Today, over 350,000 socially-conscious people choose to use iGive and the iGive Button to shop at over 1,800 socially-responsible stores in order to help 50,000 causes and charities. He continues to develop the company's overall strategy and champions its philosophy of "change online shopping for good."
Mr. Grosshandler co-founded iConsumer in 2015, taking advantage of changes in the regulatory environment made possible by the JOBS Act of 2012. iConsumer filed to go public under Title IV, Tier 2 (Reg. A+) in September, 2015. Because iConsumer may become the most widely held company ever, Mr. Grosshandler co-founded ShareholderAcademy.com, to be the resource for the first-time investor in crowdfunded startups, as well as for iConsumer corporate governance issues.
In 2005, Mr. Grosshandler co-founded eComXpo - the online virtual trade fair for the eCommerce industry. eComXpo was sold in 2009. In 2011, Mr. Grosshandler founded Outsourced Site Services, LLC, a Chicago-based company that provides marketing, accounting, and fulfillment services to e-commerce companies.
During 1995 and 1996, Mr. Grosshandler built Intercast, LLC. With Motorola as a technology partner, Intercast developed basic technology and applications for wireless devices, using Apple's Newton technology. Intercast was sold in 1996 to a west coast chip manufacturer.
From 1981 - 1993, Mr. Grosshandler was president, chief executive officer, chairman and co-founder of The SOFTA Group, Inc., where he oversaw the development and marketing of management and analysis software for the real estate and investment fields. His contributions helped grow the organization from a spare bedroom into a company with more than 10,000 clients, 25,000 daily users, 160 employees, $16 million in annual revenue, and a ranking among the country's 500 fastest growing companies according to Inc. magazine. After a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company was sold in 1994 to a Dutch investor.
From 1975 to 1981, Mr. Grosshandler served as a principal or lead principal in the acquisition and management of distressed real estate and a manufacturing company. A family-related investment group took control, improved, then sold properties ranging from single-family home developments in Chicago's suburbs to raw farmland. Mr. Grosshandler's responsibilities included negotiating with lenders and unsecured creditors and managing various operations. The manufacturing company produced extrusion and injection blow-molded bottles with plants in Chicago, Illinois and Morristown, New Jersey. Additionally, Mr. Grosshandler served as a principal in an exporter of automotive parts to Africa.
Mr. Grosshandler is a member of the World Presidents' Organization (and former member of Young Presidents' Organization) as well as a past board member of the Chicago High Tech Association and the Information Technology Association of America. He was a judge for the 1999 GII awards. He studied economics at Northwestern University. Mr. Grosshandler writes for the Huffington Post on corporate social responsibility and related subjects.
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