In this Fund81 podcast episode, I spoke with Bill Maris, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on technology and the life sciences. Bill founded early web hosting pioneer Burlee.com, now part of Web.com, and then went on to found and become the first CEO of Google Ventures or GV. Under his leadership, GV grew from 1 - 70+ team members, across seven offices and had over $3 billion under management. GV made over 350 investments including Uber, Nest, Cloudera, DocuSign, Climate Corp, 23andMe and more. He also created Google's Calico project, a multi-billion dollar company focused on the genetic basis of aging.
Bill left GV in 2016 and recently started his own fund Section 32.
In listening to other interviews with Bill, I learned two unexpected things: Bill is a practicing magician (Who knew?) and an introvert.
I am also an introvert and have been doing a lot of thinking about how my introversion plays into my life as a venture capitalist. Bill and I explore this topic in this episode.
Enjoy.
I allowed myself to include all of my “ridiculous” wants and aspirations on my list of 2023 goals, one of which was “finding a coach and co-collaborator who would agree to hold meetings from the chairlift.” Believe it or not, I was actually able to manifest that.
Read more ➞It is amazing what you can achieve if you get out of your own way.
Read more ➞I have learned the important lesson that being mediocre at anything is not a “safe” path to success. I now realize that the “safe” path for others may not be the best route for me.
Read more ➞In investing, and in life in general, an ability to foresee potential pitfalls has served me well. However, being able to see what can go wrong can prevent me from seizing an opportunity. I sometimes forget that most of my successes have been the result of seemingly impossible feats.
Read more ➞