First Round and Rob Hayes join the team

I'm thrilled no end to announce the addition of First Round Capital to Values of n's first round (led by Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures in October of this year).

I was lucky enough to spend a goodly amount of time with First Round's managing partner Josh Kopelman early on in Stikkit's life and came away bolstered by Josh's firm grasp—early though it was—on what we were building, why it was interesting, and thoughts about where our little yellow notes might lead us.

As if this weren't enough, this investment brings long-time (at least in Stikkit-time) and always-on supporter Rob Hayes to our board.

Rob and I met at PC Forum earlier this year where we fell into easy conversation — one that continued late into the night and has been ongoing ever since. He suggested I spend some time with Di-Ann Eisnor and the folks at Portland-based startup Platial, that we'd be a good complement to one another: he was right and we've been sharing an office in Portland's vibrant Pearl District ever since.

Rob's experience building simple, intuitive, integrated applications for the small screen at Go Corp and Palm means he is intimately familiar with what we're trying to accomplish with our "small page" approach to personal productivity (and we don't have all that pesky handwriting recognition to worry about). While he's never needed to ask why we're building Stikkit, Rob is never shy about asking how we mean do it. His active, engaged participation, strong business focus, and expectation of at least deep thought if not absolute answers to the tough questions has meant a lot to me over the past months and I welcome his continuing that role in an official capacity as a member of our board. (Not to mention his irreverent sense of humor and devilish grin–as seen on Flickr.)

(I've previously referred to Rob in this blog as "one of the early sausage makers" behind the scenes in Jerry Kaplan's Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, the book that started me on this entrepreneurial path back in 1994.)

Rob and First Round join our already stellar group of Silicon Valley- and Portland, Oregon-based angels brimming with encouragement, inspiration, and just the right mix of hands-on and light touch.