William J. Maris is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on technology and the life sciences. He is the founder and first CEO of Google Ventures. He is the creator of Google's Calico 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' background includes research at the Duke University Medical Center Department of Neurobiology. He has a degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College. Maris began his career as a biotechnology and healthcare portfolio manager for Swedish investment firmInvestor 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. Burlee.com was merged with Interland in 2002. Maris remained with the company until 2003. Interland subsequently changed its name to Web.com. Maris was a portfolio manager at Investor AB in 1997. 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.
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. Maris founded GV, formerly Google Ventures, in 2008 as the venture capital investment arm of Google Inc. 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, 8 countries and 9 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 was one of the first to cite the troubles with Theranos, the troubled Silicon Valley blood testing company. 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. 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, 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 $400 million under management.
