Bill Liao | |
|---|---|
 Bill Liao at the Third Sector Digital Communications and Social Media Convention 2011 in London | |
| Occupation | European venture partner at sosventures |
Bill Liao (born William Fu Wei Liao, 1967) is an Australian entrepreneur. He is a venture partner with SOSV and recognised as one of the Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology by the Financial Times. [1]
Liao is a social networking pioneer, [2] author [3] and speaker. [4] [5] He is a regular attendee at the TED conferences [6] and also the World Economic Forum New Champions conference. [7] Mr. Liao also has worked in the commodities trading arena with several boutique Swiss investment funds. [8] Since May 9, 2022 Bill Liao has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SRF (SENS Research Foundation) [9]
Liao joined SOSV as their European Venture Partner specialising in Internet and social media in 2011. Most notably he has invested in Mark Little's Storyful venture, Silicon Republic as well as MavenHut. [10] In 2014 he founded SOSV's biotech practice, RebelBio, [11] a VC-led investment programme for BioTech, HealthTech And Life Sciences. Liao is Managing Director [12] of RebelBio, which is a world pioneer for life sciences accelerators. [13]
Liao co-founded XING.com, a European early social network founded by Lars Hinrichs in Germany in 2003. He was the first external investor in the company, then called openBC.com. Later, Liao became a supervisory board member. [14]
Previously, Liao was the Director of Operations (DOO) of telecommunications company Davnet, which achieved the fastest capital value growth in the history of the Australian Stock exchange. [15] Davnet was acquired by Japanese telecommunications carrier Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1996. Liao left Davnet after the acquisition.
Davnet was previously named Golden Hills Mining NL, a mining and exploration company of precious metals in Australia and was the source of a reverse merger in the creation of Davnet Limited effective January 13, 1999 to February 28, 2002 and subsequently became Davnet Telecommunications Pty Ltd . [16]
Alongside James Whelton, Liao founded CoderDojo in Ireland in 2011, a not-for-profit organisation that teaches children how to code. [17] A champion of teaching children to code CoderDojo has spread to many countries, even getting a royal seal approval to coding clubs by Prince Andrew. [18] [19]
He is Chair of Nominet UK's Social Tech Trust, [20] a dedicated grant maker in socially motivated tech in the UK. Whilst acting as a trustee, Mr William Fu Wei Liao, [21] for Nominet UK in 2013, CoderDojo (Hello World Foundation - now part of part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation) received the sum of £27,990 in grant support. [22]
He is also a CoderDojo mentor and he has participated as an investor and volunteer in The Hunger Project in Uganda, New York and Mexico. [23]
In 2009, Liao founded WeForest.org,. [24] an organisation promoting reforestation as a way to combat global warming. [25] WeForest.org continues, with a stated goal of planting two trillion trees by 2020 and is run from Belgium by its current CEO Marie-Noelle Keijzer.
He is a frequent blog poster on Medium on the subject of Climate Change [26] (and other subjects including, 'Psychopaths and how to spot them'). [27]
He was an official part of the delegation of St Kitts and Nevis to the COP15 UN climate change summit in Copenhagen where he also promoted the science and concepts behind WeForest.org. [28]
Liao was appointed as a special diplomatic envoy for St Kitts and Nevis for sustainable development and the environment. He has contributed to the St Kitts and Nevis recovery fund for the sugar cane industry there. [29]
The award of this diplomatic status was given to Liao via support from Henley & Partners [30] a firm where he sits on their advisory board, and act as the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment. Henley & Partners were subject to an investigative piece by the Guardian newspaper in 2021. [31]
Mr Liao provided a written testimonial to Henley & Partners for the services they provide; 'Henley & Partners is a truly global firm of global citizens supporting global citizens with absolutely outstanding service and results'. [32]
In 2016 WeForest.org published a statement that confirmed Bill Liao sat on the board of a US based oil exploration company Starboard Resources (latterly known as Brushy Resources, Inc, then acquired by Lillis Energy, Inc. (OTC: LLEXQ)). An oil exploration and development company operating in the Permian Basin of West Texas and South Eastern New Mexico. Lillis Energy were acquired by Ameredev. [33] [34] [35]
In a 2016 filing with the SEC its states that 'The Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors, Bill Liao, works for SOSventures'. Further, a group composed of SOSventures, Sean O’Sullivan Revocable Living Trust [36] and Bradford R. Higgins constitute a group owning 4,863,720 or 39.34% of the Company's common stock shares. [37] The CEO of SOSV Sean O'Sullivan is known for his environmental projects and is a frequent speaker on the subject, including a lecture on 'Reducing Oil Dependence' given in 2012 to the IIEA. [38]
Liao was named in legal proceedings where he is referred to as an SOSv representative in a dispute with fellow shareholders. [39] [40]
In SEC filings in 2013 stated clearly that Bill Liao was Director and Chairman of Board of Directors of Starboard Resources. [41] A fellow director of Starboard Resources was Bradford (Brad) Higgins, also a venture partner at SOSV and former CFO at the US Department of State. [42] [43]
Mr Liao is a frequent mentor and investor in technology start-up companies. A key subject he delivers advice on is 'the importance of listening'. [44]
Mr Liao's publication issued in 2014, 'Forests. Reasons to be hopeful', is available to purchase on Amazon and currently has a single 5 star rating. [45]
In November 2018, Liao was named to the Financial Times' list of the 'Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology.' [46]
He is married with three children and lives in Cork, Ireland.
He appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023. [47] His hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was Drosophila melanogaster .
Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk.
Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden.
TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high-tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
Jean Case is an American businesswoman, author, and philanthropist who is chair of the board of National Geographic, CEO of Case Impact Network, and CEO of the Case Foundation. She is married to AOL co-founder Steve Case.
Wix.com Ltd. or simply “Wix” is an Israeli software company, publicly listed in the US, that provides cloud-based web development services. It offers tools for creating HTML5 websites and mobile sites using online drag-and-drop editing. Along with its headquarters and other offices in Israel, Wix also has offices in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, Ukraine, and Singapore.
Howard Lindzon is a Canadian Author, financial analyst, technical analyst and super angel investor. Lindzon manages a hedge fund, serves as managing partner of the holding company Social Leverage, limited partner at Knight's Bridge Capital Partners, and is the co-founder of StockTwits. Lindzon was named one of The Best Tweets for Your Money in 2013 by Barron's.
500 Global is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011. They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011. 500 Global has $2.3 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 2024.
Sean O'Sullivan is an entrepreneur, inventor and investor, born in New York City and currently living in Princeton, New Jersey. He is best known for co-founding MapInfo Corporation, which popularized street maps on computers, and for coining the term "Cloud Computing". He is the founder and managing partner of SOSV.
New Relic, Inc. is an American web tracking and analytics company based in San Francisco. The company's cloud-based software allows websites and mobile apps to track user interactions and service operators' software and hardware performance.
AngelList is an American software company for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.
Chamath Palihapitiya is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, and the founder and CEO of Social Capital. Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook, working at the company from 2007 to 2011. Following his departure from Facebook, Palihapitiya started The Social+Capital Partnership, through which he invested in several companies, including Yammer and Slack. He is also the co-host of technology podcast All-In, along with David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg.
Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States in terms of trading volume. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. In May 2020, Coinbase announced it would shut its San Francisco, California, headquarters and change operations to remote-first, part of a wave of several major tech companies closing headquarters in San Francisco in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SOSV is a venture capital firm that provides pre-seed, seed, Series A and later stage funding to deep tech startups that join its startup development programs, which are located in New York City, Newark, New Jersey, and San Francisco. SOSV was founded in 1995 by Sean O'Sullivan. It is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, with additional offices in Cork, Pune, Shenzhen and Tokyo.
Rothenberg Ventures, known briefly as Frontier Technology Venture Capital, was an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2012 by Mike Rothenberg. It invested in more than 100 companies, including Bustle, Robinhood, Revel Systems, and SpaceX, and focused its investments on virtual reality and other frontier technologies. As of January 2021, the firm's status with the California Franchise Tax Board is "forfeited".
Alteryx, Inc. is an American computer software company based in Irvine, California, with a development center in Broomfield, Colorado, and offices worldwide. The company's products are used for data science and analytics.
CoderDojo is a global volunteer-led community of free programming workshops for young people. The movement began in 2011 as a grassroots organisation with each individual clubs acting independently, with one founding principle: One Rule, Be Cool. Supporters of CoderDojo believe it is part of the solution to address the global shortage of programmers by getting young people more involved with ICT learning. The movement has seen significant growth since its founding. The CoderDojo Foundation estimates 1,250 Dojos spread across 69 countries, with a growth rate of several new Dojos every week.
ClassDojo is an educational technology company. It connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages. It also enables teachers to note feedback on students' skills and creates a portfolio for students, so that families can be aware of school activities outside of meeting with teachers.
Wefarm was a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing social network for smallholder farmers in the developing world. The network enabled users to ask and answer questions and share tips about agriculture and business, via SMS or online, enabling farmers in rural areas without internet access to share information. Wefarm claimed to be the world's largest farmer-to-farmer network. It raised more than $10m in venture capital before going out of business in 2022.
Jens Hilgers is a German entrepreneur who works in the esports industry. He was the founding CEO of the esports production company Electronic Sports League (ESL), and is a co-founder and the CEO of Bayes, an esports data company based in Berlin. In 2014, he co-founded G2 Esports together with Carlos "Ocelot" Rodriguez, and currently serves as its chairman. He is also the founding general partner of BITKRAFT Ventures, a global early and mid-stage investment platform for gaming, esports, and a new technology named Web3. He has been credited as an early pioneer of the esports industry.
Michael Eisenberg is an American-born Israeli businessman, venture capitalist, and author.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)23. Forests – Reasons to be Hopeful – Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.