#17 | Robin Rowe | Building the First Metaverse

Technologist Robin Rowe on the math test that changed his life, building what he calls the first metaverse for the US Navy in 1995, DreamWorks, defence contracting, and running for office in Beverly Hills. Starting from the early days on his family's organic farm in Illinois, Robin's life and career have taken him all over the place: working for the U.S. Department of Defense, sailing on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, working as a U.S. Navy research scientist, and staying busy in the startup space all the while. By 35 he was Chief Technologist and Enterprise Manager at a multi-billion-dollar engineering and defence firm. He also had stints at Lenovo, AT&T and DreamWorks Animation. Follow Robin Rowe on X: https://x.com/robinrowe Chapters 0:00 Welcome Robin Rowe 1:37 Growing up on an organic farm in Illinois 5:58 The math test that changed his life 10:34 College at 16 17:37 Into the performing arts 22:31 Dancing at the Kremlin 27:00 Working in TV news 30:48 Jacob's Pillow and dance film 35:03 Building the studios at NBC Chicago 37:33 Unions, hiring freezes and going freelance 41:47 Becoming a software consultant 45:39 Moving next to Microsoft in Seattle 49:55 Founding a C++ users group 53:59 An offer from the Naval Postgraduate School 1:00:22 Building the first metaverse in 1995 1:03:52 Military first, video games second 1:05:45 Training sailors to fight a submarine fire 1:10:11 Defence contracting in San Diego 1:13:16 Security clearances 1:17:26 DARPA and how the internet started 1:25:57 Life on an aircraft carrier 1:28:08 DreamWorks Animation 1:35:36 DreamWorks and Playa Vista 1:38:51 Layoffs and moving on 1:46:16 GoPro, DirecTV and the studios 1:51:04 Running for office in Beverly Hills 1:58:29 How local campaigns work 2:03:55 Wrapping up The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com