Bill Maris

Bill Maris – Life, Career, and Visionary Entrepreneurship

Explore the journey of Bill Maris — American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and innovator behind Google Ventures and Section 32. Discover his career, philosophy, notable deals, and lessons for startups and investors.

Introduction

Bill Maris (full name William J. Maris) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist noteworthy for founding Google Ventures (GV), launching Calico (Google’s longevity / anti-aging initiative), and later creating the frontier-tech fund Section 32.

Over his career, Maris has backed transformative companies in technology and life sciences: from Nest and Uber to 23andMe and Flatiron Health. His approach bridges deep curiosity about biology and longevity with high-risk, high-impact investing in early-stage innovation.

In what follows, we'll trace his life, ventures, influence, and lessons.

Early Life, Education & Foundation

Bill Maris was born in 1975 (exact date not widely publicized) and raised on the U.S. East Coast.

He studied neuroscience at Middlebury College, graduating with highest honors.

During or after college, Maris conducted research in neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center.

His early professional start included a role as a biotechnology / healthcare portfolio manager for the Swedish investment firm Investor AB.

Maris’s trajectory thus combined scientific interest with financial and managerial exposure — a blend later reflected in his venture choices.

Career & Major Ventures

In 1997, Maris founded

Interland, Inc., and eventually was renamed or folded into

This early venture gave Maris hands-on experience in growth, operations, tech stack, and scaling a web-based service.

Google Ventures (GV)

In 2008, Maris founded Google Ventures (later known as GV) as the venture capital arm of Google / Alphabet.

Under his leadership, GV deployed capital across technology and life sciences. Some of its highest-profile investments include:

• Nest (acquired by Google)

• Uber

• Flatiron Health (later acquired by Roche)

• 23andMe

• Foundation Medicine

• Uber, Slack, Robinhood, and many others.

Maris also served as VP of Special Projects at Google / Alphabet, overseeing early initiatives like Google X, Verily, Waymo, and Calico.

In 2016, Maris stepped down from GV, declaring that he considered his mission accomplished.

Calico

One of Maris’s signature creations is Calico, a Google-funded company focused on aging and longevity.

His pitch: treat aging as a disease that can be understood, intervened upon, and mitigated.

Calico represents Maris’s enduring interest in life sciences, healthspan, and the intersection of biology and technology.

Section 32

After leaving GV, Maris launched Section 32 (sometimes styled S32), a venture fund targeting frontier technology, life sciences, AI, and health innovations.

By 2017, it had raised substantial capital and attracted attention as the next chapter in Maris’s vision of high-conviction investing.

Influence, Achievements & Impact

• Maris’s deals helped bring some of today’s most impactful tech and biotech companies to scale (Nest, Uber, 23andMe).

• He bridged the gap between deep science (neuroscience, aging biology) and technology investment, pushing investors to take bets on life extension and next-gen health ventures.

• His leadership style at GV blended domain expertise, operational rigor, and willingness to support moonshots.

• Section 32 continues to carry forward his vision — investing in bold frontier ideas that mix tech and biology.

• Through his trajectory, Maris exemplifies a modern model of founder-investor: someone who builds, then enables others.

Known Public Statements & Insights

While not as extensively quoted as some public personalities, Maris has shared reflections through interviews and talks. Here are some paraphrased insights and themes he has expressed:

• He was initially drawn to medicine and helping people but found the day-to-day of clinical practice less inspiring than the potential of technology to scale impact.

• He speaks about control over time as an early motivator in his entrepreneurial path: preferring autonomy over reporting to others.

• Regarding GV’s strategy, he emphasized balancing discipline in deal-making with openness to radical ideas.

• He views aging not as an inevitable decline but as a process that biology might one day understand and meaningfully intervene in.

• After leaving GV, Maris said the timing felt right: “everything is going so well” and that he wanted space for new ventures.

Lessons from Bill Maris

1. Follow intellectual curiosity
   Maris’s background in neuroscience and medical questions informed his investing lens — letting deep interest guide risk-taking.

2. Build before you bet
   He didn’t start as a pure investor; running gave him operational grounding and empathy for founders.

3. Bridge domains
   His success lies partly in combining domain areas: health + tech, biology + data, science + capital.

4. Know when to exit
   His departure from GV was deliberate — not out of failure, but out of moving purposefully to new frontiers.

5. Support boldness with rigor
   Investing in frontier areas demands imagination — but tempered by clear metrics, due diligence, and team selection.

6. Enable others
   A large part of his legacy is the ecosystem he helped build — funding and mentoring companies that go on to shape industries.

Conclusion

Bill Maris is more than a venture capitalist — he is a visionary investor who views technology and biology as converging frontiers. From founding Google Ventures to architecting Calico and launching Section 32, his work spans the speculative and the pragmatic, the biological and the computational.

His journey teaches us that impact lies not just in capital deployment, but in balancing deep curiosity, domain fluency, operational experience, and bold conviction. For entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists alike, Maris offers a model of thinking expansively while executing deliberately.