# Rob Ratterman

> Rob Ratterman is the Cincinnati-based co-founder and CEO of Waites, an industrial condition-monitoring company combining wireless sensors, AI, and human expertise. He previously co-founded Up4Sale, acquired by eBay in 1998, worked on eBay’s international expansion, and founded transactional-data consultancy CanDo.com. His public writing emphasizes customer problems and practical AI that supports industrial workers.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Waites
- **Organizations:** Waites Sensor Technologies, Inc., Up4Sale / Jump, Inc., eBay, CanDo.com, American Financial, Delta Sigma Pi
- **Education:** Bachelor’s degree in finance; accounting studies also documented, University of Cincinnati, Carl H. Lindner College of Business
- **Known for:** Co-founded Up4Sale, acquired by eBay in 1998., Founded CanDo.com, a consultancy focused on complex transactional data., Co-leads Waites, which reports more than 500,000 deployed sensors across six continents.

## Career timeline

- **1995** — Graduated from the University of Cincinnati.
- **1996** — Began the Up4Sale venture with Chris Downie.
- **1997** — Up4Sale went online.
- **1998** — eBay acquired Up4Sale; the founding group stayed in Cincinnati.
- **—** — Worked on eBay’s international expansion and later founded CanDo.com.
- **2001** — First met future co-founder Andrew Waites.
- **2006** — Waites was founded, according to its company LinkedIn profile.
- **2013** — Named co-inventor on eBay-assigned patent US8438050B2, granted May 7.
- **2022** — Publicly supported Waites’ Ukrainian team and spoke about its contributions.
- **2025** — Waites announced a Peru distributor partnership and a Cincinnati expansion project.
- **2026** — Published his argument for applying industrial process and system data to human workflows.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Up4Sale, acquired by eBay in 1998.
- Founded CanDo.com, a consultancy focused on complex transactional data.
- Co-leads Waites, which reports more than 500,000 deployed sensors across six continents.
- Co-inventor on patents concerning online transactions, complaints, fraud reporting, and community ratings.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Published a Forbes Business Council article on applying process and system data to human manufacturing workflows.
- **2026-01** — Discussed human collaboration and prescriptive maintenance in an interview with Jeff Reinke, published January 20.
- **2025-12** — Published a Forbes Business Council article advocating deeper attention to customer challenges.
- **2025-10** — Appeared in episode 24 of Asset Management Visionaries with Maura Abad.
- **2025-04** — Cincinnati city documentation outlined Waites’ Queensgate expansion, $1.1 million in improvements, and a 48-new-job commitment.
- **2025-03** — Waites selected Uteco Tecnología as its exclusive distributor in Peru.

## Links

- Website: https://waites.net/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robratterman

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rob-ratterman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-14