Why ROCeteer exists
We believe the biggest problems — and the biggest opportunities — cannot be solved alone. ROCeteer exists to make collaboration something you can design, measure and improve.
We believe collaboration is one of humanity's greatest capabilities.
Almost everything ambitious requires it.
Launching new industries. Transforming supply chains. Scaling innovation. Regenerating communities. Tackling climate change. Building entirely new markets.
But collaboration doesn't happen simply because people are brought into the same room.
ROCeteer turns groups of individuals and organisations into communities of action — and those communities into positive outcomes.
DOWNTOWN PROJECT SIZZLE REEL · 2016
Where ROCeteer began
ROCeteer began with a belief in the power of community.
ROCeteer would not exist without Tony Hsieh.
When ROCeteer was first conceived, Tony believed strongly enough in the idea to invest in the company and asked that its initial focus be dedicated to the community he was building through the Downtown Project in Las Vegas.
Our first role was to support the founders, entrepreneurs and businesses across the Downtown Project — including companies connected with the DTP Small Business Fund and Vegas Tech Fund — through coaching, mentoring, consulting and training.
But what Tony was building was about much more than individual companies.
He believed in collisions, co-learning and connectedness — creating the conditions for people, ideas and opportunities to find one another.
One of the principles behind Downtown Project was Return on Community: the idea that the value created by an investment could be measured not only financially, but by what it contributed to the wider community around it.
That idea became part of ROCeteer's DNA.
Return on Community
Return on Collaboration
An idea that started in Downtown Las Vegas and still shapes how we think about collaboration today.
Today, ROCeteer takes that thinking further: helping organisations deliberately design the connections, relationships and conditions that allow people to achieve more together than they could apart.
Tony's belief in the power of connected communities continues to influence the work we do today.
10+ years studying what makes collaboration work.
We have discovered that collaboration happens within and between six scales and this needs to be understood. A person collaborating with a colleague is fundamentally different from a team working together, an industry addressing a shared challenge, or multiple sectors attempting to change a system.
Across startups, corporations, governments, communities, supply chains, innovation ecosystems and global challenges, we have repeatedly seen the same thing: Collaboration is a design discipline. Effective collaboration depends on conditions that can be understood, designed, measured and improved.
The journey
From one downtown to whole systems.
Downtown Project, Las Vegas
Working alongside Tony Hsieh on a city-scale experiment in community. Return on Community became the seed of Return on Collaboration.
AFWERX
Designing open innovation and challenge programs that connected a defence organisation to industry, startups and academia.
Industry & value chains
Taking collaboration design into supply chains, industry bodies and multi-organisation programs.
Systems and planetary collaboration
Climate weeks, ecosystems and system-level programs — collaboration designed, measured and improved through ROC.
The founding team.
Mark Rowland
Co-Founder
Designs the conditions for collaboration at scale, from startups to global systems.
Jeneen Minter
Co-Founder
Builds the community and partnership foundations for finance, optimisation and growth.
Heather Renze
UNICORN WHISPERER
Connects people, programs and place into practical pathways for action. Also our CTO :)
Kimberly Guiry
HAPPINESS ASTRONAUT
Working with humans and teams to prioritize wellbeing and happiness.
Danielle Rowland
ROCKET BOOSTER
Shapes the learning, storytelling and culture behind every collaboration.
Our expanded team.
Brandon Klein
AI AGENT WRANGLER
Pioneer of DAOs and hybrid intelligence.
Josh Kaplan
TECH MR GADGET
Builder of impactful tech to support hybrid collaboration.
Troy Paige
INNOVATION CHALLENGER
Innovation Challenge design legend.
Brian Kehner
COLLABORATIVE DESIGNER
Creator of joy, wonder and impact.
Tom Kehner
MASTER DESIGNER
Pioneer of collaboration design and large-group facilitation for mission critical impact.