About
General partner at Heavybit; hosts interviews and community content and previously organized a DevOps community conference.
Invests in
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Cofounded Chef, the infrastructure automation company, and served as its founding CEO. Cofounded Orion Labs, a real-time voice AI platform for frontline teams. Cofounded the O'Reilly Velocity Conference with Steve Souders.
- Communities
- Helped start the DevOps movement.
- Awards
- Named to Business Insider's 2026 Seed 100 ranking of the best early-stage venture investors.
- Hobbies
- Trained as a firefighter and EMT after an early IPO in 1999.
- More
- Was building ISPs and working on early wireless modems in high school. Created the GameDay practice and chaos engineering at Amazon as 'Master of Disaster'.
From Jesse's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Board director at Colimit
Intro paths
In turn, Jesse can intro founders to Colimit's investors below.
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Board director at Sanity
Intro paths
In turn, Jesse can intro founders to Sanity's investors below.
Sanity's investors · 12
Co-founders at Sanity
Experience
- Prime RadiantAdvisorcurrent2026 — present
- Sanity.ioSeed Investor & Board Membercurrent2019 — present
- LaunchDarklySeed Investor & Advisorcurrent2015 — present
- TailscaleSeed Investor & Advisorcurrent2019 — present
- BlockdaemonInvestor & Advisorcurrent2017 — present
- Shield AIAngel Investorcurrent2021 — present
- MemgraphSeed Investor & Board Membercurrent2021 — present
- RecceSeed Investor & Board Membercurrent2025 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- groundcoverInvestor & Advisorcurrent2021 — present
- Musical AIInvestor and Board Membercurrent2025 — present
- SkySafeAngel Investorcurrent2021 — present
- FigurePrivate Investorcurrent2024 — present
- Vibrant LabsPre-seed Investor & Advisorcurrent2024 — present
- MobotSeries-A Investor & Board Membercurrent2022 — present
- LocalStackInvestor & Advisorcurrent2021 — present
- ReplicatedInvestor & Advisorcurrent2018 — present
- CircleCISeed Investor & Advisorcurrent2013 — present
- RadarInvestor & Advisorcurrent2019 — present
- Tonic.aiInvestor & Advisorcurrent2018 — present
- Gradle Inc.Investor & Advisorcurrent2016 — present
- Apollo GraphQLInvestor & Advisorcurrent2015 — present
- Omnitron SensorsAngel Investorcurrent2021 — present
- Alloy Therapeutics, Inc.Angel Investorcurrent2021 — present
- Eight SleepAngel Investorcurrent2021 — present
- HeavybitGeneral Partnercurrent2022 — presentSan Francisco, CA
- HeavybitPart-Time Partner2015 — 2022San Francisco, CA
- KentikAngel Investor2021 — 2026
- ContinueSeed Investor & Board Member2023 — 2026San Francisco, California, United States
- Anchor.devInvestor and Board Member2022 — 2026
- ParticleInvestor & Board Member2022 — 2026
- Orion LabsFounding CEO & Executive Chairman2013 — 2023San Francisco
- Jeli.ioInvestor & Advisor2020 — 2023
- Testim.ioInvestor & Advisor2016 — 2022
- TruSTAR (acquired by Splunk)Investor & Board Observer2018 — 2021
- ChefFounder, CEO, Board Member, Chief Community Officer2008 — 2020Seattle, WA
- FastlySeed Investor & Advisor2012 — 2019San Francisco Bay Area
- PagerDutySeries-A Co-Lead Investor & Advisor2012 — 2019San Francisco, California, United States
- InstacartStrategic Advisor2013 — 2017
- US ArmyCivilian Technology Advisor, U.S. Army CIO/G-6 Advisory Group2009 — 2013Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- O'Reilly & AssociatesFounder & Chair, Velocity Conference / DevOps movement2007 — 2011
Skills & more
+12 more
GraphRAGGraph DatabasesLarge Language Models (LLM)Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Web DevelopmentWeb ApplicationsDeveloper ExperienceTestingSoftware ObservabilityLeadershipInternet of Things (IoT)Product Development- HAZWOPER (24-Hour) — OSHA Safety Training Institute
- Firefighter-I — California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
- National Incident Management System (NIMS) - IS-700 Level Certs — FEMA
- Emergency Medical Technician — National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians
From Jesse's professional profile.
Deals · 3
Anchor Security, Inc.Board seat
via Heavybit · filed Nov 2022 · $2.5M raise
Attribution from SEC filings, press coverage, and firm rosters.
Other disclosed investments
Investor
Axiom SpaceBlockdaemonCaribou BiosciencesCircleCIEight SleepEllipsis HealthEpirusFastlyFigure AIFireflyGradleHonorInstacartKennKentikLaunchDarklyMilestoneNetlifyOmnitron SensorsOrion LabsPagerDutyPrime RadiantRadarReplicatedShield AISignalWireSkySafeTailscaleTonic.aiVibrant LabsZymergen
Sources: SEC Form D filings · the investor's own website.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Jesse RobbinsGameDay: Creating Resiliency Through Destruction
USENIX
Writing
All posts ↗Jesse Robbins has been writing hands-on technical research about on-device and browser-based AI, covering neural processing units like Apple's Neural Engine and Google's TPU, serverless in-browser semantic search, and sandboxing untrusted AI coding agents on macOS.
A research report explaining what neural processing units are, how they differ from CPUs and GPUs, and how Apple's Neural Engine and Google's TPU have evolved.
The author describes implementing serverless semantic site search in the browser by combining Fuse.js keyword matching with a locally-run e5-small-v2 embedding model and rank fusion.
The author explains using sandvault, which runs untrusted AI coding agents as isolated macOS users, and describes a /sv skill he built for seamless sandbox handoff.
Colleagues at Heavybit
Network7
Investors connected to Jesse in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Jesse Robbins?
- General partner at Heavybit; hosts interviews and community content and previously organized a DevOps community conference.
- Where does Jesse Robbins work?
- Jesse Robbins is General Partner at Heavybit and Board director at Colimit and Board director at Sanity.
- What does Jesse Robbins invest in?
- Jesse Robbins invests in AI & Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Data & Infrastructure, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software.
- What check size does Jesse Robbins write?
- Jesse Robbins typically writes checks of $500K – $5M.
- What boards does Jesse Robbins sit on?
- Jesse Robbins holds tracked board seats at Anchor Security, Inc., Colimit, Colimit, Continue, Memgraph, Mobot, Musical AI, Particle, Recce, Sanity.
- What companies has Jesse Robbins invested in?
- Investments tracked here include Axiom Space, Blockdaemon, Caribou Biosciences, CircleCI, Eight Sleep, Ellipsis Health, Epirus, Fastly, Figure AI, Firefly, Gradle, Honor, and 19 more.
- What awards has Jesse Robbins received?
- Named to Business Insider's 2026 Seed 100 ranking of the best early-stage venture investors.
Founder mafias
Instacart mafia23
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 16 more
Shield AI mafia9
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 2 more
LaunchDarkly mafia7
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
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PagerDuty mafia5
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Apollo mafia4
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
