Rob Hayes

Managing Partner, First Round Capital

Rob has been a partner at First Round Capital since 2006. There he has led investments in companies such as Uber, Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), Planet Labs, Eero, TaskRabbit, and Square. Rob came to First Round Capital from Omidyar Network where he was their first venture investor. He led most of Omidyar Network’s initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group. Prior to joining Omidyar Network in 2004, Rob was at Palm where he started up their corporate venture fund. While in that role he also managed the strategy effort around Palm OS that led to the spinout of PalmSource. Rob started at Palm as product manager for the initial device-independent releases of Palm OS. During this time, Rob was responsible for the versions of Palm OS on dozens of devices including the initial Treo products. Rob previously spearheaded complex, system-level product development efforts at companies such as Geoworks and Go Corp where he focused on building products for the Japanese market. He began his career with the Japan External Trade Organization, studying international trade issues and building relationships between US and Japanese businesses, at a time when trade friction between the two countries was at its peak.

Articles by Rob Hayes

How to Keep Your Emails Landing in the Inbox with Google’s Updated Spam Policies with Daniel-wise Ojaide

In this Mucker Growth session, Daniel-wise Ojaide from Warmbox.ai delves into the changes to Google and Yahoo’s updated spam policies and how to ensure your emails and outbound campaigns are...

Best Customers, Best Results: Unlocking Retention-Driven B2C Growth with Julius Lai

In this Mucker Growth session, Julius Lai from ArtShare discusses customer retention, which is often overlooked but essential for startups facing growth challenges. The following content will provide practical recaps...

Leveraging a Financial Model for Fundraising Success with Steven Plappert

In this Mucker Growth Session, Steven Plappert, CEO and co-founder of Forecastr, tackles how to use your financial model to the best capacity when fundraising. Your financial model can be...

How to Nail Your Pitch Deck (and Avoid Mistakes Founders Make) with Matt Gore

Have you ever thought of the average attention span per slide when an investor is going through your pitch deck? What kind of pitch deck are investors expecting? Our recent...

How Startups Can Develop a Positioning Strategy To Create a Lasting Brand with Rosabel Tao

In this Mucker Growth session, Rosabel Tao from Fire & Bridge delves into the critical field of startup positioning strategy and its crucial role in shaping enduring brands. Rosabel also...

SaaS Startup Pricing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them) with Kyle Poyar

In this Mucker Growth session, Kyle Poyar from OpenView delves into the critical topic of pricing for SaaS startups, aiming to rectify prevailing mistakes in your pricing strategies. Optimizing SaaS...