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 BillPersonal Side
My grandchildren / Economics / History / San Francisco Opera
Press & Media
Current Companies
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Alkira lets customers build and deploy global secure cloud networks in minutes.Current Stage
Growth
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2018
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Barefoot Networks, now part of Intel, designs and produces programmable network switches.Current Stage
Acquired
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2014
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Blue Danube designs next-gen wireless solutions for mobile networks and other applications.Current Stage
Growth
Partners-
Bill Coughran,
Jim GoetzPartnered In2013
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Cohesity is a software-defined enterprise data management platform in the cloud that eliminates data silos.Current Stage
Growth
Partners-
Bill Coughran,
Carl EschenbachPartnered In2013
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Entos accelerates molecular discovery with physics-based machine learning.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2021
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Graphcore designs processors for machine learning.Current Stage
Growth
Partners-
Bill Coughran,
Matt MillerPartnered In2017
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Graphiant is creating a new model for connectivity in a rapidly changing world.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2020
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Lilt's translation services are up to five times faster and reduce costs at least 50%.Current Stage
Growth
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2018
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Neeva is search reimagined—ad-free, private and deeply personal.Current Stage
Growth
Partners-
Bill Coughran,
Jim Goetz,
Pat GradyPartnered In2019
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Orbital Insight transforms aerial imagery into actionable information.Current Stage
Growth
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2014
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Oso is an open-source library for developers to make it easier to build authorization in their applications.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2019
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Prelude is a technology company that hardens cybersecurity defenses.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2021
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Quantum Circuts builds quantum computers designed to scale.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2017
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Robust Intelligence is a security company that integrates seamlessly into the AI-development life cycle.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2019
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Seaplane is the global platform for building and scaling applications.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2020
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Stairwell is a cybersecurity company building enhanced security diagnostics.Current Stage
Early
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2019
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Stripe is building an economic infrastructure for the internet.Current Stage
Growth
Partners-
Michael Moritz,
Bill CoughranPartnered In2010
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Tecton provides data management for ML.Current Stage
Early
Partners-
Sonya Huang,
Bill Coughran,
Matt MillerPartnered In2018
Enduring Companies
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FireEye builds world-class cybersecurity and malware protection services.Current Stage
IPO
Partner-
Bill Coughran
Partnered In2004
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Viptela, now part of Cisco, is a software-defined networking solution.Current Stage
Acquired
Partners-
Bill Coughran,
Carl EschenbachPartnered In2012