Robert LoCascio

Robert LoCascio (born May 15, 1968) is an American businessman. He is the Founder and CEO of LivePerson which offers integrated messaging, voice, targeted content, and video. He is a Founding Member of the NYC Entrepreneurs Council of the Partnership for New York City and a mentor of the NYC Venture Fellows, a joint initiative formed by the 92Y and the NYCEDC which is designed to help the next generation of global entrepreneurs succeed in New York City. Passionate about community and helping others, Robert founded FeedingNYC, a volunteer-based non-profit hunger-relief project. Robert also maintains a column in Huffington Post that features contributions to the greater community, and a column in Inc Magazine that covers best practices for innovative business leaders.

LoCascio was born on May 15, 1968 in Bayshore, New York, the son of Peter LoCascio and Connie LoCascio (née Immordino). LoCascio comes from a family of entrepreneurs. He graduated from St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip, New York in 1986 and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland in 1990.

After graduation, LoCascio briefly worked for Elders IXL in the international chemicals trading division but after six months, the company experienced cutbacks and he got laid off, vowing to never again work for anyone but himself. In 1991, LoCascio started his first company, Sybarite Media, Inc., a developer of interactive public kiosks that integrated interactive video features with advertising and commerce capabilities, by charging his initial $50,000 investment on his credit cards. Due in part to the rise of the Internet, the interactive kiosk business did not succeed and was subsequently shut down in 1995. In 1995, LoCascio founded LivePerson.

"I started LivePerson after one of my first experiences on the Internet. I had a product question on a site, but there was no one online that I could connect with. I had to dial a number, wait, and explain my whole dilemma. It was a very disconnected and disruptive experience. I thought the Internet was created so that we could "connect" with human beings, but what I experienced was the opposite. This created that ‘light bulb’ moment for me and helped set into motion what is now LivePerson."

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