Bill Maris

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).[1][2] He is the founder and first CEO of Google Ventures (GV)[3][4] and also served as VP of Special Projects at Google/Alphabet.[5][6] He is the creator of Google's Calico project, a company focused on the genetic basis of aging.[7] 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.[8][9][10]

Bill Maris
Maris in 2016
Born
William J. Maris
Alma materMiddlebury College
Known for

Education and early career

Maris graduated with highest honors with a degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College.[11]

Maris's background includes research at the Duke University Medical Center Department of Neurobiology. Maris began his career as a biotechnology and healthcare portfolio manager for Swedish investment firm Investor AB. 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.[12] 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 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.[13]

Maris founded GV, formerly Google Ventures, in 2008 as the venture capital investment arm of Google. He was responsible for the fund's strategy and management, and oversaw $3.0 billion in investments in technology and the life sciences.[14] Bill was also Google's Vice President of Special Projects and head of Google for Startups[15][16] 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.[17][18][19][20][21]


Maris founded Calico, 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.[22][23][24]

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.[25]

Bill was also Google's Vice President of Special Projects, which included extensive work with at the earliest stages of Google X, Verily, Waymo and other projects.

Maris left Google Ventures on August 12, 2016, declaring "mission accomplished."[26]

In 2017, Maris founded Section 32, a California-based venture fund with approximately $2 billion under management.[27]

Personal life

In 2014, Maris married singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman at Kruger National Park in South Africa. On February 17, 2015, it was announced on social media that they were expecting their first child.[28] Their son Kylo Evergreen Maris was born on August 26, 2015.[29] Maris filed for divorce from Prettyman on April 20, 2018.[30]

References
  1. "Bill Maris, Section 32 LLC: Profile and Biography". www.bloomberg.com.
  2. "Bill Maris | Section 32 | A Venture Fund". Section 32. November 4, 2019.
  3. "Bill Maris". gv.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  4. "Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality". Bloomberg.com. 2015-03-09. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  5. "Best Practices & Helpful Tools for New Startups". Google for Startups.
  6. "Google for Startups Campus - A Global Community of Startups". www.campus.co.
  7. "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  8. Primack, Dan (2017-03-14). "Google Ventures founder Bill Maris is back. Again". Axios. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  9. "On again, ex-Google superstar Bill Maris is said to bankroll a $100M biotech fund". endpts.com. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  10. "Google Ventures founder Bill Maris: 'I'm leaving because everything is great.'". Recode. 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  11. The Disruptive Ideas of Google Ventures - Charlie Rose with Bill Maris and Kevin Rose, October 2012 (broadcast)
  12. "The Education of Bill Maris: How One Entrepreneur's History Shaped Google Ventures | Xconomy". Xconomy. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  13. "David Green | Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship". www.schwabfound.org. Archived from the original on 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  14. Google Ventures Stresses Science of Deal, Not Art of the Deal - New York Times, June 2013
  15. "Best Practices & Helpful Tools for New Startups". Google for Startups.
  16. "Google for Startups Campus - A Global Community of Startups". www.campus.co.
  17. "GV / Bill Maris". Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  18. "GV / Portfolio". Archived from the original on 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  19. Merced, Michael J. de la (May 16, 2017). "After Leaving Google, Bill Maris Is Set to Open New Fund". The New York Times.
  20. "Xconomy: Bill Maris Takes Stage for second Act, Says New Fund Mostly Committed". Xconomy. August 31, 2017.
  21. "Bill Maris Steps Down as CEO of Google Ventures". Fortune.
  22. "New details on Google's anti-aging startup". Fortune. 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  23. Popper, Ben (2013-09-19). "Understanding Calico: Larry Page, Google Ventures, and the quest for immortality". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  24. "I'm excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and…". plus.google.com. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  25. Brooker, Katrina (8 March 2015). "Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  26. Bergen, Mark (2016-08-11). "Google Ventures founder Bill Maris: 'I'm leaving because everything is great.'". Recode. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  27. Loizos, Connie (16 May 2017). "Bill Maris has closed his new fund with $150 million, to accommodate "strong" investor interest". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  28. https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/6041374919/10153100771204920
  29. https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/instagram/tristanprettyman/1060389685346692449
  30. "View Case Detail". courtindex.sdcourt.ca.gov.
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