Bill Maris

Bill Maris
Alma mater Middlebury College
Known for Founder, Google Ventures (GV)
VP of Special Projects at Google
Founder Burlee.com (now part of Web.com)
Founder, Calico
Investor in Uber, Nest, Adimab, 23andme, Kobalt Music Group, The Climate Corp, Silver Spring Networks

Bill Maris is a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and prominent venture capitalist focused on technology and the life sciences. He is the founder and first CEO of Google Ventures (GV).[1] With $2.5 billion under management and investments in Uber and Nest, GV was described as one of the hottest venture funds in Silicon Valley under Maris' leadership.[2][3] Maris oversaw the growth of the team from zero to 70+, across 7 offices, 2 continents, and 350 investments. Maris led investments in and/or was a board member of Nest, Uber, Adimab, The Climate Corporation, Silver Spring Networks, Kobalt Music Group and 23andme. Maris has particular interest in next generation life sciences and artificial intelligence.[4] He is the creator of Google’s Calico project, a multi-billon dollar company focused on genetics and aging.[5][6] Maris is known to have extensively studied magic, hypnotism and mentalism, and is believed to be part of a secret society of magicians.

Education and early career

Maris’s background includes research at the Duke University Medical Center Department of Neurobiology. He has a degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College.[7] Maris began his career as a biotechnology and healthcare portfolio manager for Swedish investment firm Investor AB, where he and Anne Wojiciki shared an office. 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 Web.com.

Career

Google Ventures Founder, President & CEO

Maris founded GV, formerly Google Ventures, in 2009 as the venture capital investment arm of Google Inc. He was responsible for the fund’s strategy and management, and oversaw investments of $500 million per year in technology and the life sciences.[8] Maris grew GV into the most successful corporate venture fund of all time, with $2.5 billion under management, more than 300 portfolio companies, and offices in San Francisco, Boston, New York, Seattle, Mountain View, CA, and London.[9][10][11][12][13] Notable Google Ventures investments include Uber, Nest, Foundation Medicine, DocuSign, and Flatiron Health.

[14] Maris was one of the first to cite the troubles with Theranos, the troubled Silicon Valley blood testing company.

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.[15]

Maris was also VP of Special Projects at Google, where he was heavily involved in Google X, Verily, and multiple other Google initiatives as one of the company's senior executives.

Maris left Google Ventures on August 12, 2016, declaring "mission accomplished," and is rumored to be starting his own venture fund.[16][17]

Calico

Maris founded Calico, a multi-billion dollar company whose mission is to understand and influence the genetic basis of aging. Maris came up with the idea to treat aging itself as a genetic disease, rather than treating the diseases of aging symptomatically. Google itself funded the company after Maris pitched the Google board of directors. Maris then recruited and hired Art Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, as Calico's first CEO.[18][19][20][21]

Google for Entrepreneurs

Maris was responsible for Google’s global startup efforts, including Google for Entrepreneurs, Campus London, and Campus Tel Aviv.[22]

Aurolab / Aravind Eye Institute

In the mid 2000s, Maris partnered with entrepreneur and MacArthur award winner 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 22 million patients and counting.[23]

Burlee.com / Web.com

Maris founded and was the CEO of early web hosting pioneer Burlee.com. The company was initially funded with credit cards and run from Maris' one bedroom apartment in Burlington, VT. Maris taught himself to code with books he bought at the local Barnes & Noble.[24] Burlee.com grew to support tens of thousands of customers globally, and was merged with Interland in 2002. Maris remained with the company until 2003. Interland subsequently changed its name to Web.com.[25]

Investor AB

Maris was a portfolio manager at Investor AB in 1997, where he and Anne Wojcicki shared an office. It was on a business trip to Investor's headquarters in Stockholm where Maris was inspired to found Burlee.com, after seeing a rack of servers in a closet which housed the company's email and web site.

Middlebury College / Duke University

Maris graduated with a highest honors with a degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College, where he was also an Independent Scholar and a National Merit Scholar. Maris also spent time at Duke University in the Department of Neurobiology at the Duke University Medical Center as he was planning to pursue a Ph.D / MD program. While there his research focused on neurotransmitter control of muscle movements, in particular acetylcholinesterase and its function in saccadic eye movements.

Recognition

Maris has been named as one of Silicon Valley’s 40 under 40, Fast Company named him one of the most creative people in business, and Vanity Fair named him one to watch and to the New Establishment list.[26][27][28][29]

Maris appears regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC, and in print and television news outlets around the world speaking on a variety of topics from technology to the life sciences and current events.

Personal life

In 2014, Maris married singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman at Kruger National Park in South Africa.[30][31]

References

  1. ↑ "Bill Maris". gv.com. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "These are the venture firms celebrating Uber's massive $18B valuation". fortune.com. Fortune. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Google’s Creative Destruction - Fast Company, April, 2012
  4. ↑ "Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality". Bloomberg.com. 2015-03-09. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  5. ↑ Page, Larry. Google+ https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/Lh8SKC6sED1. Retrieved 12 June 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  7. ↑ The Disruptive Ideas of Google Ventures - Charlie Rose with Bill Maris and Kevin Rose, October 2012 (broadcast)
  8. ↑ Google Ventures Stresses Science of Deal, Not Art of the Deal - New York Times, June 2013
  9. ↑ "Google Ventures Opens London Office As A Base For Investing $100M Across Europe". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch.
  10. ↑ "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Corporate Venture Capital Investors in Tech". cbinsights.com. CB Insights. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  11. ↑ "Google Ventures: A Closelyx-Watched Wildcard". The Information.
  12. ↑ "Google grows into a venture capital power". The New York Post.
  13. ↑ "Google Ventures: $1.2B Under Management, 75 New Investments And 9 Exits In 2013". TechCrunch.
  14. ↑ McDuling, John. "What it's like to run Google's $2 billion venture capital fund". Quartz. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  15. ↑ Brooker, Katrina (8 March 2015). "Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Bergen, Mark (2016-08-11). "Google Ventures founder Bill Maris: 'I'm leaving because everything is great.'". Recode. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  17. ↑ Marino, Ari Levy, Jon (2016-09-14). "Ex-Google Ventures head Bill Maris is raising a huge VC fund". CNBC. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  18. ↑ "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  19. ↑ "New details on Google's anti-aging startup". Fortune. 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  20. ↑ Popper, Ben (2013-09-19). "Understanding Calico: Larry Page, Google Ventures, and the quest for immortality". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  21. ↑ "I'm excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and…". plus.google.com. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  22. ↑ "Google Goes To... Poland?". Forbes.com. Forbes.
  23. ↑ "David Green | Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship". www.schwabfound.org. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  24. ↑ "The Education of Bill Maris: How One Entrepreneur's History Shaped Google Ventures | Xconomy". Xconomy. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  25. ↑ "Interland Completes Acquisition of Web.com Assets: Assets Include Web.com Domain, Web Hosting Accounts, Registrar Business; Interland Announces Plans to Change Name to Web.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEB)". ir.web.com. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  26. ↑ "Silicon Valley 40 under 40: Bill Maris, Google Ventures". Silicon Valley Business Journal.
  27. ↑ "MCP 1000: The Most Creative People In Business". Fast Company.
  28. ↑ "The Next Establishment Fifteen up-and-comers to keep an eye on.". vanityfair.com. Vanity Fair.
  29. ↑ "The New Establishment". Vanity Fair.
  30. ↑ Tristan Prettyman Maris - Instagram
  31. ↑ tristanprettyman (2014-10-06), Maybe The Best Just Happened, retrieved 2016-10-23

External links

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