Martech Entrepreneur Adam Robinson Among Nine Dead in Florida Plane Crash

Adam Robinson, an entrepreneur who founded and led multiple martech companies, is reportedly among those dead after a Learjet 60 en route to the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida on Sunday. The founder, age 44 at the time of his death, according to TMZ, was traveling with his wife Helen Sharp, two young children, Emma and Charlie, their nanny, and two friends. The private aircraft departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Sunday morning and was airborne for more than an hour before plummeting to the ground in a residential area of Palm Beach County, resulting in the deaths of all nine people aboard, including two pilots. In a joint statement published on Facebook on behalf of victims’ families, Robinson's brother Anthony wrote: “Adam and Helen were devoted parents, and Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, were the light of their lives. Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever. Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives. Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return.” The statement named other victims aboard the plane as Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr, and Anita Maria Cetina, and thanked first responders, investigators, and Palm Beach County community “for their care.” It added, “Our hearts are also with the families of the pilots, who are grieving alongside us.” A Rice University alum, Robinson founded and led B2B data enrichment API business MoltSets, de-anonymization company RB2B, and identity resolution and ecommerce marketing platform Retention.com. He wrote on the day of his death that RB2B had achieved $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while MoltSets was close to hitting an ARR of $1 million. Previously, he co-founded email marketing firm Robly with his brother, according to Anthony Robinson’s LinkedIn profile. He also invested in a handful of companies, according to LinkedIn. Anthony Robinson did not respond to a request for comment. Robinson had gained popularity on LinkedIn and X, where he frequently posted about business and entrepreneurship. He claimed to have bootstrapped all of his ventures, refusing funding from outside investors, and encouraged other founders to stay operationally lean, save money, and lean into marketing. Earlier in his career, Robinson worked on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers, he said during an interview on the SaaS Club podcast in 2024. Kevin McGrew, founder of B2B consultancy Strategos Growth, said that while he’d only met Robinson briefly at a conference, he followed him avidly on social media. “I’ve probably listened to over 10 hours of his interviews and podcasts, so I feel like I knew him. He was a straight shooter and never afraid to go toe-to-toe with haters or people who disagreed with him,” McGrew said. “He built in public, so many of us were learning from him as he built his companies online.” McGrew said that while he “didn't agree with everything Adam said,” he “found his voice fresh and authentic in a world of AI voices on LinkedIn.” It was clear, he said, that Robinson “genuinely cared about people, his employees and his family,” and that “he wasn't seeking attention for himself.” He called Robinson’s death “a tragic loss,” and said that “his voice will be missed.” Steve Hutt, host of the Ecommerce Fastlane podcast, wrote in a LinkedIn comment that he’d hosted Robinson as a guest on his podcast twice and met him in person. “[W]hat always struck me,” he wrote, “was that he was the exact same guy behind the scenes as he was online. Every time we talked, he gave far more than he took.” He said Robinson “shared what he knew freely with anybody who asked.” Hutt called Robinson’s death, and the death of his fellow passengers, an “unimaginable loss.” Another peer, the founder and marketing consultant Robert Gilbreath, told ADWEEK he tuned into Robinson’s weekly webinars. He said it was clear that the Retention.com founder “lived in peace and had worked in ways that proved that burnout and a growth-at-all-costs mentality is not the only way in tech.” Gilbreath said he “admired, learned from, and will miss” Robinson’s “counter-VC culture capitalism.” Larry Kim, founder of go-to-market upstart CustomersAI, said in on LinkedIn that he and Robinson were competitors who sometimes “butted heads on social media,” but spoke admirably about his business acumen. “[H]e was a builder and content creator and a clever marketer who pushed our whole category forward, and he made me sharper. Competing with him was a privilege,” Kim wrote. Tributes to the tech entrepreneur flooded social media Monday and Tuesday.

In Memoriam

Martech Entrepreneur Adam Robinson Among Nine Dead in Florida Plane Crash

Peers remember Robinson, who amassed 160,000 LinkedIn followers and endorsed a “bootstrap” approach to entrepreneurship, as smart and caring

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Kendra Barnett

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