Robert Steele | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, inventor, businessman |
| Known for | Rightscorp, Inc., Thumzup Media |
Robert Steele is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and CEO of Thumzup Media, a NASDAQ-traded marketing/social media company that allows social media users to monetize their likes and upvotes with businesses. [1] He is a former chief operating officer and chief executive officer of copyright manager and enforcement firm Rightscorp, and holds the patent for "System To Identify Multiple Copyright Infringements". [2] [3] [4] He also holds a patent for "Unique architecture for handheld computers". [5] Steele was also a Republican candidate for the California State Assembly in 2020. [6]
Steele was raised in Virginia and received an Apple II from his parents and wrote his own game programs, but he also saw the opportunity to manufacture and sell game controllers for the computer and began that business at age 12. [7] [8] [9] Steele attended George Mason University and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science. [8] [9]
His first business venture after graduating from college was a computer-aided design company, CADD Microsystems, which he co-founded with two friends. CADD Microsystems was sold in 2024 to Arkance for an undisclosed amount. [10] iBrite, his next venture, was founded during the first dot-com boom, Steele's iBrite software was one of the first to have authoring tools and a browser specifically design to put rich graphical content on mobile devices. AOL and Mapquest were early customers of the startup. Steele's iBrite software was used by AOL Mapquest to put the first interactive digital maps on smartphones. Global Knowledge used iBrite's software to build some of the first mobile learning courseware for Cisco and Oracle training. Steele's patent application for the iBrite software has been cited as prior art by subsequent patents more than 30 times. [5] [11]
Following that, he was CEO of Quintek a publicly traded business outsourcing company that services GMAC (now Ally Financial) and FedEx, among others. Quintek offered high volume transaction processing services to its clients. [8] [9] [12]
Steele is best known as the COO and later CEO of the copyright firm Rightscorp in the mid-2010s. [2] [3] Rightscorp enforced copyrights on behalf of copyright owners. Rightscorp represented Warner Bros., and BMG among other media companies. Rightscorp has been used to obtain a billion dollar judgment against Cox Communications. [13] [2] Steele has stepped back from his executive roles but continues to advise the company.
Steele is currently the CEO of Thumzup Media Corporation, founded in 2020. [14] Steele describes the company as a "neighbor-to-neighbor" marketing company and a democratization of advertising that allows social media users to monetize their recommendations and likes with partner businesses, [15] [16] [1] [9] but it is not an influencer marketing company, and users have to show proof that product or service was used. [17] [14] As of February 2025, Thumzup works with 5,000 advertising partners, launching in Palm Beach, Florida, and expanding into Los Angeles, California, and South Florida. The service currently works with X, but the company plans to integrate other social media networks in the future. [14] [17] [18] The company began publicly trading on the NASDAQ in November 2024. [14]
In 2020, Steele ran for the California State Assembly for district 62 as the Republican candidate. He lost the general election to the incumbent, Autumn Burke. [6]