[1][2] He graduated from Cornell University with a chemical engineering degree and from Columbia Business School with an MBA, before working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
Later, he worked at Kraft General Foods as a chemical engineer, and registered two United States and two European patents as the principal inventor.
He first worked for it in New York City, and then moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 where he started Goldman's technology-focused merger and acquisitions efforts there.
[3][11][5] He advised on $50 billion in merger and acquisition activity with companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, eBay, and Yahoo.
[3] According to Black Enterprise magazine, Smith was credited with consistently generating a 30% rate of return for his investors from the company's inception through 2020.
[24] As of 2019, Vista Equity Partners was the fourth-largest enterprise software company, after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, including all their holdings.
[32] In 2018, Smith was included in Vanity Fair's New Establishment List, which is an annual ranking of individuals who have made impactful business innovations.
[37][38] As part of the deal, Brockman required an offshore trust be set up to conceal earnings from tax authorities and avoid litigation in US courts.
[49] In 2013, Smith joined the Carnegie Hall Board of Trustees and donated money to expand Link Up, which creates a free music education curriculum for elementary students.
[52][53] Also in 2015, Smith and his wife provided support to the non-profit organization Foster Love through Fund II Foundation by creating the Family Fellowship Program.
[64] That same year, Smith donated $2.5 million to the Prostate Cancer Foundation to advance prostate cancer research among Black American men and created the Robert Frederick Smith Precision Oncology Center of Excellence in Chicago, located at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center.
Smith stated that he was inspired by his own internship experience with Bell Labs, which is what led him to create the platform.
[82] In January 2022, he donated $10 million to Columbia Business School, to fund the Robert F. Smith ‘94 Scholarship Fund for students graduating from historically black colleges and universities, from diverse backgrounds who have overcome significant hardships or challenges in their academic pursuits, or who have demonstrated a strong commitment to engaging principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
[86][87] In May 2022, Cornell University announced a $15 million donation from Smith that will provide financial aid to engineering students from historically underrepresented communities.
[88] Smith had previously made a donation that provided similar funding for underrepresented students at Cornell’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
[7][11][88] In June 2023, Smith helped launch a new branch location of Grameen America in Atlanta, Georgia through his leadership of Southern Communities Initiative.
[89] Also in 2023, it was announced that Mansa, a free ad-supported streaming service, would be launching, for which Smith provided initial funding.
[90] Smith co-founded Anglers of Honor., a charitable organization that strives to make therapeutic fly-fishing opportunities available to individuals with physical disabilities and their families and is a River Deep alliance program.
[92] In December 2022, taking a stand together against increasing instances of racism and antisemitism in the US, Smith joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Reverends Al Sharpton and Conrad Tillard, World Values Network founder and CEO Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Elisha Wiesel to host 15 Days of Light, celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in a unifying holiday ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
[93][94] Smith said: "When we unify the souls of our two communities, we can usher in light to banish the darkness of racism, bigotry, and antisemitism.
"[95] Smith has served as the chairman of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights,[96] on the board of overseers of Columbia Business School, as a member of the Cornell Engineering College Council,[97] on the Cornell University Tech Board,[20] and since 2008 as a Trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.
[69][70] In April 2020, Governor Greg Abbott named Smith to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
[103] In June 2020, Smith shared a plan called the 2% Solution, in which large corporations would use 2% of their annual net income over the span of ten years to empower minority communities.
[105] In October 2022, media outlets including TMZ,[106] Revolt TV,[107] Variety, and Vibe Magazine[108] published an article highlighting Smith being nominated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to serve as executive producer of a series of film and television projects titled "The GOAT" aimed to tell Mayweather's life story.
Mayweather said: “As someone who owns his own brand, I can’t think of better partners than Deon (Deon Taylor), Roxanne (Roxanne Avent Taylor), Robert F. Smith — the wealthiest African American in the world — and Hidden Empire Films, a prolific Black-owned production company.”[109] In 2024, Smith was interviewed by Tony Robbins for his New York Times #1 Bestseller, The Holy Grail of Investing.
[126] In October 2019, Smith received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, which is given to individuals who have donated private wealth to the public.
Smith married Hope Dworaczyk, the founder and CEO of skincare company MUTHA, a former Playboy playmate, healthy living advocate, and fashion editor, on July 25, 2015, after she gave birth to their first child in December 2014.
[145][21][146][147][148] Smith partnered with Matthew Burkett to purchase the historic Lincoln Hills, Colorado property in Gilpin County in 2007 and convert it into an exclusive invitation-only fly fishing club.