Background
- Partner at First Round Capital since 2012 — leads the firm's data, devtools, and infrastructure practice
- CEO of LiveOps — scaled the cloud contact center company to $100M in revenue and hundreds of employees
- Co-Founded Jump Networks — web calendar and personal organizer, acquired by Microsoft
- Partner at Founder Collective — angel investments included Uber, IronPort (acquired by Cisco), AdRoll, PowerSet (acquired by Microsoft), Lending Club, Tapulous (acquired by Disney), Slide (acquired by Google), and Chegg
- Started two businesses as an undergraduate
- Deep operational experience building and scaling software companies
Investment Focus
- AI infrastructure and applications
- Developer tools and data infrastructure
- SaaS and enterprise software
- FinTech
- Hardware and climate moonshots
- Platforms for distributed labor management
- Pre-Seed and Seed stage exclusively
Notable Investments
Looker (acquired by Google), Together AI (AI infrastructure), Labelbox (data labeling for ML), Verkada (security cameras + software), Flexport (logistics), EvolutionIQ (acquired by CCC Intelligent Solutions), Superhuman (email client), Airbase (spend management), Nova Credit (cross-border credit), Legion (workforce management), and Kubecost (Kubernetes cost monitoring).
AI Agent Relevance
- Top-tier fit for AI infrastructure at seed — Bill explicitly leads First Round's data and devtools practice
- His investment in Together AI demonstrates direct pattern recognition for AI infrastructure companies
- Labelbox investment shows comfort with the AI/ML tooling stack
- First Round's brand is a powerful signal to follow-on investors — one of the most respected seed-stage firms
- Operational background (LiveOps to $100M revenue) means he understands the journey from zero to scale
- First Round's platform (CEO Summit, 1,000+ founder community, First Round Review) provides exceptional post-investment support
- Can invest in small rounds ($750K+) which provides flexibility for early-stage raises
- Collective deal evaluation process means the whole partnership needs to be excited, but Bill is the right entry point for AI/infra deals