Bill Maris (born William J. Maris) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on technology and the life sciences. Bill Maris's investments have to date resulted in over 150 exits and more than 50 companies that have grown to over $1B in value, including: Aurora Innovation, Nest (acquired by Google), Uber (NASDAQ: UBER), Crowdstrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), 23andme, Flatiron Health (acquired by Roche), Foundation Medicine (acquired by Roche), The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto), Vir (NASDAQ: VIR) and Auris (acquired by JNJ). He is the founder and first CEO of
Google Ventures (GV) and also served as VP of Special Projects at Google/Alphabet. He is the creator of Google's
Calico
Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...
project, a company focused on the genetic basis of aging. He is the founder of early web hosting pioneer Burlee.com, now part of Web.com, and the founder of
Section 32, a California-based venture fund focused on frontier technology.
Education and early career
Maris graduated with highest honors with a degree in neuroscience from
Middlebury College.
Maris's background includes research at the
Duke University Medical Center
Duke University Hospital is a 957-acute care bed academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health System, a network of physicians and hos ...
Department of Neurobiology. Maris began his career as a biotechnology and healthcare portfolio manager for Swedish investment firm
Investor AB
Investor AB is a Swedish investment and ''de facto'' conglomerate holding company. It was founded in 1916 and is still controlled by the Wallenberg family through their Foundation Asset Management company FAM. The company owns a controlling st ...
. In 1997, Maris founded one of the first Web hosting companies, Burlee.com, and built the company's original computing, network and technological infrastructure after teaching himself to code from books purchased at the local Barnes & Noble. Burlee was subsequently acquired by Interland, Inc. and renamed
Web.com
Web.com Group Inc. was an American company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida that provides domain name registration and web development services. Established in 1999 by Darin Brannan, the company was known as Website Pros Inc. until early ...
. Burlee.com was merged with Interland in 2002. Maris remained with the company until 2003.
Career
In the mid-2000s, Maris partnered with entrepreneur
David Green
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
to transfer a novel hydrophobic acrylic lens to Aurolab to cure cataract blindness in the developing world, where it has been used in more than 30 million patients.
Maris founded GV, formerly Google Ventures, in 2008 as the venture capital investment arm of
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. He was responsible for the fund's strategy and management, and oversaw $3.0 billion in investments in technology and the life sciences. Bill was also Google's Vice President of Special Projects and head of Google for Startups and led Google's global startup and private company investment activities, including building a team of 70+ across 13 global offices, eight countries and nine different venture funds.
While at GV, Bill managed $2.5B and made 400+ investments in companies including Nest, Uber, Flatiron Health, Robinhood, Cloudera, Carbon 3D, Slack, Duo, The Climate Corporation, Impossible Foods, Aurora, Jet, and 23andme. His investments resulted in more than 20 IPO's, 100+ mergers and acquisitions, and includes more than 40 companies whose valuations have exceeded $1B.
Maris founded
Calico
Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...
, a multibillion-dollar company whose mission is to understand and influence the genetic basis of aging. Google funded the company after Maris pitched the board of directors.
In a 2015 interview, Maris stated that health care breakthroughs can significantly improve the quality and duration of human lifespan across the globe, and that he is looking to invest in promising biotechnology companies.
Bill was also Google's Vice President of Special Projects, which included extensive work with at the earliest stages of
Google X
X Development LLC (formerly Google X) is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010, which now operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. X has its headquarters about a mile and a ...
,
Verily, Waymo and other projects.
Maris left Google Ventures on August 12, 2016, declaring "mission accomplished."
In 2017, Maris founded
Section 32, a California-based venture fund with approximately $2 billion under management.
Personal life
In 2014, Maris married singer/songwriter
Tristan Prettyman
Tristan Ann Prettyman (born May 23, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter from San Diego, California. She was signed to Virgin Records until 2013 and released her first major label album '' Twentythree'' on August 2, 2005, followed by her sec ...
at
Kruger National Park in South Africa. He filed divorce from Prettyman on April 20, 2018.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maris, Bill
Living people
American computer businesspeople
Businesspeople in information technology
Google employees
Private equity and venture capital investors
Alphabet Inc. people
Life extensionists
1975 births