Robert "Rob" Hayes, '95

Mr. Hayes joined First Round as a partner in 2006, opening up the firm’s San Francisco office. Over the past ten years, he has led multiple landmark investments, including Uber, Square, Planet Labs, Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), Gnip (acquired by Twitter), and Bowery.

Mr. Hayes invests across categories, with particular interest in financial tech, the sharing economy, robotics, agriculture, and consumer hardware. In working closely with companies like Uber and TaskRabbit, amongst others, he’s developed deep expertise in advising marketplaces and community-based startups. He’s constantly drawn to explore new areas and work with entrepreneurs who push the boundaries of existing markets.

In addition to his investing work, Mr. Hayes leads First Round’s diversity and inclusion coalition—spearheading efforts that have markedly increased the diversity of the firm’s staff, events, programs, and investments.

Prior to joining First Round, Mr. Hayes led many of Omidyar Network’s initial VC investments in technology. He arrived there from Palm, where he product managed the Palm OS and started the company’s first corporate venture fund.