Chip Roberson is no slouch.

A been-there, done-that kind of guy, he’s worked on everything from satellite imaging for NASA to open-source software. He started his online career when the Internet was something called ARPANET. And he’s already grabbed onto the brass ring every Silicon Valley worker dreams about: He was employee No. 3 at optical equipment maker Cerent and made off handsomely when Cisco bought the company for $7.2 billion in 1999. As a reward, the now 46-year-old bought himself the Porsche Carrera he’s dreamed about since boyhood in Virginia.

Since the Cerent sale, Roberson has worked for Cisco, been active in angel investing, served on corporate boards, blogged, written for local newspapers, served as a director at Real Estate business intelligence software firm Terradatum, and been active in his Northern California community—among his good deeds, he serves on the Sonoma, California, planning board and mentors a boy through the local Big Brothers program.

Think that’s impressive? Meet his business partner.

Christine Mason McCaull is one of those people you look at and wonder: How does she do it all? In her early twenties, she was a mom and also a grad student working on her MBA at Northwestern University. She started her career as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at Coopers & Lybrand. Since then, she's led startups including Spring CM, an industry-leading software as service provider. And she was interim CEO of Intellext, a technology company spun out from Northwestern University’s incubator.

The 43-year-old native of Chicago has raised a daughter, who’s making her way as a fashion designer in New York, and a son, who's developing a television show in Los Angeles, a son in college in Seattle, a third son in high school, and 2 stepdaughters. She speaks four languages fluently. This year, she helped organize the San Francisco TED-X event. And she’s a yoga instructor.

“She has a big brain,” says Roberson of Mason McCaull, a woman he’s happy to call his business partner.

Together, Roberson and Mason McCaull are working on a suite of software tools that they say will help companies measure the impact they have on such social media as Facebook and Twitter. Roberson, with his deep technical background, is heading up the development of the software. Mason McCaull, with her background in running companies and marketing, helms the consulting business that has developed around the software. She’ll also work with Roberson on the sales plan for the software once it’s ready for wide release, expected in May.

They hope to create a pair of companies that can have a powerful impact in the growing global phenomenon of social media. And they’ve so far done it by putting in long hours, hiring contract workers, and tapping into a freelance network that ranges from Sonoma to India.

But they’re applying their skill in a crowded, competitive field, albeit one with tremendous potential. Consider this fact: social media drives half as much traffic to media sites as Google, and the tools for measuring that traffic are limited.

“Our thinking is that social media is enabling a complete shift in the way companies—in the way people—communicate,” Mason McCaull says. “Not top down but peer to peer. There’s a whole new way that you can enter into a dialogue with people who care about your company, care about your brand, care about your mission."