What we talked about
Rob Terry is a serial entrepreneur and technologist with 25+ years of experience at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and real-world systems. He is the founder and CEO of SeafoodAI, which builds biometric scanners and digital tools to modernize seafood supply chains with real-time traceability and compliance. Previously, Rob founded SmartCatch, a pioneer in deep-sea monitoring for bycatch reduction, which was successfully acquired. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Crunchbase News, and National Fisherman. He’s held leadership roles at Whole Foods, PARC, UCSF, and Silicon Graphics, and is passionate about bringing scalable tech solutions to overlooked, impact-driven industries like ocean sustainability and food systems.
Show notes
Rob Terry is the founder & CEO of SeafoodAI, a Techstars-, NEC X- and BlueSwell-backed startup that’s bringing the ~$400 billion seafood industry into the digital age with AI-driven biometric scanners and cloud logbooks that automate sorting, slash waste and create tamper-proof “sea-to-table” traceability records.
Before launching SeafoodAI, Rob built and sold SmartCatch Inc.:an award-winning ocean-monitoring platform:and earlier spearheaded Whole Foods Market’s first national e-commerce rollout after senior engineering stops at PARC, SGI and other Silicon Valley icons.
Over three decades he’s earned five seafood-tech patents and multiple innovation prizes for sustainable fishing technology, making him a go-to voice on how advanced data and robotics can protect our oceans while boosting profitability.
Today we dive into Rob’s journey from deep-sea prototypes to scalable products, the realities of building hardware for harsh marine environments, and why transparent supply chains are becoming table-stakes for retailers and regulators alike.