Robert Hayes
Partner @ First Round Capital
San Francisco, United States
Robert Hayes is a seed investor at First Round Capital in San Francisco focused on Software and Internet. Rob joined First Round as a Partner in 2006, opening up the firm's San Francisco office. Over the past eight years, he has led investments in companies such as Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), Gnip (acquired by Twitter), Square, Uber, and Planet Labs.Rob invests across categories, with his interests spanning financial tech, the sharingeconomy, meal delivery, and consumer hardware. He is constantly exploring new areas, and enjoys working with founders who push the boundaries of existing markets.Prior to joining First Round, Rob became the first venture investor at Omidyar Network, the investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. While there, he led most of the initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group.Before that, Rob worked at Palm, where he product managed Palm OS during the heyday of Palm products (Palm III, Palm V, Handspring Treo). He also started the company's corporate venture fund and managed the strategic spinoff of PalmSource.Rob lives with his wife and two daughters in San Francisco. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking at home and traveling up and down the California coast with his family and two dogs. He has an MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
- Total investments:
- 54
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 20%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Robert Hayes invests in
Stages Robert Hayes invests in
Countries Robert Hayes invests in
Round sizes
Round size
- Seed
- $1M–$8M
- Series A
- $1.6M–$20M
- Series B
- $3.5M–$90M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 7 (13%)
- Internet 4 (7%)
- Information Technology 4 (7%)
- FinTech 3 (6%)
- Analytics 3 (6%)
Stage
- Seed 17 (31%)
- Series A 12 (22%)
- Series B 7 (13%)
- Pre-Seed 4 (7%)
- Funding Round 4 (7%)
Country
- United States 25 (46%)
- New Zealand 1 (2%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Scorbit
|
Scorbit develops a platform for pinball players and pinball machine owners and operators. | $5M / Seed / Nov 13, 2025 | |
Barndoor AI
|
Barndoor AI offers a centralized governance layer to manage granular access, policy enforcement, and visibility across agentic AI workforce. | $13.6M / Seed / May 19, 2025 | |
ShareWell
|
ShareWell is a peer assistance platform that allows users to participate in small group video sessions. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $1.3M / Pre-Seed / Feb 16, 2023 | |
Mad Realities
|
Mad Realities is reimagining entertainment for the modern world, powered by ownership incentives of the new internet. | $6M / Seed / Apr 25, 2022 | |
Ark Biotech
|
With an intelligent bioprocess platform, Ark helps today’s innovators make better decisions and accelerate development timelines dramatically — to bring transformational science to those who need it most. | $2.5M / Pre-Seed / Dec 14, 2021 | |
Solo Technologies
|
Solo Technologies is an innovative platform for app-based gig workers that provides a solution for app-based workers that leverages data to bring professional and financial stability to those in the gig economy. | $5.3M / Seed / Aug 30, 2021 | |
|
Solo Technologies
|
Solo Technologies is an innovative platform for app-based gig workers that provides a solution for app-based workers that leverages data to bring professional and financial stability to those in the gig economy. | $5.3M / Seed / Aug 30, 2021 | |
Happs
|
Happs is a global community working together to change the face of live news. Happs is a live streaming news platform that covers top stories from around the world. Using Happs app, it alerts the community to global breaking or trending news events — this could be an article, tweet, image, or live video of the event. | $4.7M / Series A / Jun 24, 2021 | |
Kinema
|
Kinema is building the world's largest network of alternative theaters - enabling organizers across the world to host unique events in-person and online. | $2M / Seed / May 01, 2021 | |
Lobus
|
Lobus is aiming to commoditize blockchain tech with an asset management platform that they hope can bring creator-friendly mechanisms from NFT marketplaces like SuperRare to the physical art world as well, allowing art owners to maintain partial ownership of the works they sell so that they can benefit from secondary transactions down the line. | $6M / Apr 29, 2021 | |
| See all 54 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About First Round Capital
First Round is a seed-stage venture firm focused on building a community of technology entrepreneurs and companies, including Uber, Square, and Warby Parker. Through custom-built software, incredible in-person experiences, and a host of other unique services, First Round helps tiny companies get big while constantly reimagining the role of venturecapital. It offers a growing number of services and products to help founders build companies from scratch.First Round has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.
First Round Capital Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Amy Fu
VP, Investments
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Elliot Cohen
Angel Track
|
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Emery Rosansky
VP, Revenue Growth and Enablement
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Akins Van Horne
Angel Track
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Bill Trenchard
Partner
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FAQ
What does Robert Hayes invest in?
Robert Hayes invests primarily in Software, Internet and Information Technology startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 54 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is Robert Hayes's check size?
Robert Hayes typically joins rounds of $1M–$8M at Seed, $1.6M–$20M at Series A and $3.5M–$90M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Robert Hayes participates in.
When did Robert Hayes last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Robert Hayes closed in Nov 2025. Shizune tracks 54 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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