"Seed Stage Investing"
Articles and mentions
Sunil Dhaliwal, Founder of Amplify Partners, on Lessons from 27 Years in VC
My friend Sunil Dhaliwal has proven to be one of the most successful investors in our space. Two far-ranging hours on We The Builders, from the dot-com bubble to where the AI boom is really constrained to building Amplify. Go listen to the whole thing.
“Fastly was an introduction through a former CEO of mine, Jesse Robbins … Jesse said whenever Artur Bergman quits his job, he's going to start something. I would back that guy … Artur is fucking brilliant. Believe what he says … And that is probably the single biggest success in the history of the firm.”
The Seed 100: The Best Early-Stage Investors of 2026
Business Insider named Jesse Robbins to its 2026 Seed 100, its annual ranking of the best early-stage venture investors. Robbins invests in AI developer tools and infrastructure, with recent investments including Figure AI, Shield AI, Instacart, and Fastly. He cofounded Chef and the DevOps movement.
“I look for founders who want to build the operating system for entire industries. This requires extraordinary taste, grit, drive, and a vision for the future.”
Musical AI Raises $4.5M: Jesse Robbins Joins Board
Los Angeles Times follow-on coverage of Musical AI's $4.5M round led by Heavybit, with me joining the board. The piece frames Musical AI as rights-aware infrastructure for generative music.
Musical AI Bags $4.5M to Scale AI Attribution Tech: Jesse Robbins Joins Board
Music Business Worldwide broke Musical AI's $4.5M round, led by Heavybit, with me joining the board. The piece covers what Musical AI is building and why attribution matters for generative music.
“Musical AI's attribution technology is essential infrastructure that will enable and accelerate every media-focused AI product.”
Investing in Vibrant Labs: AI Agent Simulation Infrastructure
Annoucing investment in Vibrant Labs, which builds production-grade simulation and verifier-driven evaluation for long-horizon AI agents.
“Vibrant Labs opens a new frontier in AI infrastructure: production-grade, RL-ready simulation and verifier-driven evaluation built for long-horizon agents.”
AI Investor Jesse Robbins on NYSE Floor Talk
On NYSE Floor Talk, August 2024: a short statement of what I invest in now, AI-powered developer tools and infrastructure at the pre-seed and seed stage.
“I am focused on investing in pre-seed and seed companies using AI to enable new ways of writing software, of managing and deploying the software and infrastructure that powers everything.”
Jesse Robbins Named One of the 30 Most Successful Early-Stage Startup Investors
Business Insider named Jesse Robbins one of the 30 most successful early-stage startup investors of 2024. An investor in developer tools and infrastructure, his entry cited investments in Fastly, PagerDuty, LaunchDarkly, and CircleCI. Robbins cofounded Chef and the DevOps movement.
The Seed 100: The Best Early-Stage Investors of 2021
Business Insider named Jesse Robbins to its 2021 Seed 100, its ranking of the best early-stage venture investors, built with Tribe Capital. An investor in developer tools and infrastructure, his entry cited seed investments in Conjur, LaunchDarkly, and Zymergen. Robbins cofounded Chef and the DevOps movement.
“Robbins is the right investor to call in an emergency.”