Bill Coughran

Seed/Early

“Engineering is easy. People are hard.”

Backstory

My original plan was to be an academic. After I got my PhD in computer science, I went to Bell Labs. At the time, Bell Labs was quite academic. Some of the work I was involved with—core modeling and computer systems work—shaped my thinking about how to build large-scale systems and designs for many years, and it’s something that served me well at Google. Because there I had the opportunity to work with some of the most sophisticated systems at that time.

After my time at Bell Labs, I co-founded Entrisphere in late 2000. That company was acquired by Ericsson after I left. I joined Google in 2003. The toughest challenge at Google was managing such a wide variety of special technologists, and then a broad scope of research and development groups. What I bring, maybe, is intellectual breadth and pragmatic organizational psychology, coupled with a lot of operational experience. I’ve certainly overseen a wide range of technologies, from semiconductors up to large distributed systems, search, security, and other web and mobile services.

On the lookout for

The companies that interest me the most are companies creating solutions to technical problems that can change markets. I’ve always been drawn to creative problems and people with a technical point of view—networking, security, machine learning, and AI, to name a few.

But over the years, I found I truly enjoy day-to-day leadership and mentoring most of all. I’d describe myself as a technologist with general-management experience.

Get in touch with Bill

Personal Side

My grandchildren / Economics / History / San Francisco Opera

Press & Media

Engineering Execution is a Strategic Weapon

Podcast

Listen

More Productive Eng Teams

by Bill Coughran

Sequoia

Read

Seven Questions with Bill Coughran

by Team Sequoia

Sequoia

Read

Behind the Tech: Interview with Bill Coughran, Bell Labs Researcher, Google Executive, Sequoia VC

Podcast

Listen

Lessons on Hyper Growth and Scaling with David Singleton and Bill Coughran

Podcast

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Current Companies

Alkira
Alkira lets customers build and deploy global secure cloud networks in minutes.

Current Stage
Growth
Partner
Partnered In
2018
Barefoot Networks
Barefoot Networks, now part of Intel, designs and produces programmable network switches.

Current Stage
Acquired
Partner
Partnered In
2014
Blue Danube
Blue Danube designs next-gen wireless solutions for mobile networks and other applications.

Current Stage
Growth
Partners
Partnered In
2013
Cohesity
Cohesity is a software-defined enterprise data management platform in the cloud that eliminates data silos.

Current Stage
Growth
Partners
Partnered In
2013
Entos
Entos accelerates molecular discovery with physics-based machine learning.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2021
Graphcore
Graphcore designs processors for machine learning.

Current Stage
Growth
Partners
Partnered In
2017
Graphiant
Graphiant is creating a new model for connectivity in a rapidly changing world.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2020
Lilt
Lilt's translation services are up to five times faster and reduce costs at least 50%.

Current Stage
Growth
Partner
Partnered In
2018
Neeva
Neeva is search reimagined—ad-free, private and deeply personal.

Current Stage
Growth
Partners
Partnered In
2019
Orbital Insight
Orbital Insight transforms aerial imagery into actionable information.

Current Stage
Growth
Partner
Partnered In
2014
Oso
Oso is an open-source library for developers to make it easier to build authorization in their applications.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2019
Prelude
Prelude is a technology company that hardens cybersecurity defenses.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2021
Quantum Circuits
Quantum Circuts builds quantum computers designed to scale.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2017
Robust Intelligence
Robust Intelligence is a security company that integrates seamlessly into the AI-development life cycle.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2019
Seaplane
Seaplane is the global platform for building and scaling applications.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2020
Stairwell
Stairwell is a cybersecurity company building enhanced security diagnostics.

Current Stage
Early
Partner
Partnered In
2019
Stripe
Stripe is building an economic infrastructure for the internet.

Current Stage
Growth
Partners
Partnered In
2010
Tecton
Tecton provides data management for ML.

Current Stage
Early
Partners
Partnered In
2018

Enduring Companies

FireEye
FireEye builds world-class cybersecurity and malware protection services.

Current Stage
IPO
Partner
Partnered In
2004
vIPtela
Viptela, now part of Cisco, is a software-defined networking solution.

Current Stage
Acquired
Partners
Partnered In
2012