Robert Reiss, MBA 1956

Robert “Bob” Reiss, HBS 1956, started out as a waiter at resorts in upstate New York. He moved on after graduating from HBS to run the personalized-pencil division of a small New York company. He saw that as an opportunity to learn about running a business while someone else “picked up the tab.” He then started a sales rep company and soon recognized opportunities to explore in games like chess and magic. Eventually he sold that enterprise to a needlecraft company and founded R&R to focus on creating and selling games, including the TVGuide Trivia game produced during the Trivial Pursuit craze in the 1980s. Bob talked about his entrepreneurial career in a video interview from his office in Boca Raton, Florida, in February 2001. Interviewer: Amy Blitz, HBS Director of Media Development for Entrepreneurial Management.