Bill Trenchard

Partner

“I started my first two businesses as an undergrad: I led one to $100M in sales and the other was acquired by Microsoft. Now, I look for pre-product-market fit founders who think ‘inside out’ instead of ‘outside in’ — eager to break down incredibly complex problems to the smallest unit and build unconventional solutions to them.”

2

Companies founded (both acquired)

$100M

Revenue scaled to as founder of LiveOps

90+

Companies invested in

The best founders go unreasonably deep. They don’t just study a problem — they break it down to its atomic unit and live inside it. They obsess over the mechanics that others overlook, uncovering hidden leverage in the smallest details. Those are the founders I love working with — the ones who geek out on the nuances, and see what no one else sees until it’s obvious in hindsight.

Bill Trenchard started his first two businesses as an undergrad. He led LiveOps, a cloud contact center, to $100 million in sales and hundreds of employees. Jump Networks, a web calendar and personal organizer, was acquired by Microsoft.

Bill has helped dozens of companies launch, manage through hyper growth and win. As an angel investor and Partner at Founder Collective, Bill made investments in category killing companies including Uber, IronPort (acquired by Cisco), Adroll, PowerSet (acquired by Microsoft), Lending Club, HomeRun (acquired by Rearden Commerce), Tapulous (acquired by Disney), Slide (acquired by Google), and Chegg. At First Round since 2012, he’s backed companies such as Looker (acquired by Google), Verkada, Flexport, EvolutionIQ (acquired by CCC Intelligent Solutions) and Together AI.

When he’s not engaged with founders, he’s feeding his obsession with metabolic health. Bill has a Bachelor of Arts in science and technology studies from Cornell University.

SOME OF THE COMPANIES BILL'S INVESTED IN:

• ipo Uber\ \ Imagine if you could get a ride from your phone in minutes.
• acquired Looker\ \ Imagine if everyone within a company could easily understand the data that drives the business.
• Verkada\ \ Imagine if buildings protected the people inside using consumer technology.
• Flexport\ \ Imagine if we could simplify global trade by connecting everyone in the supply chain.
• acquired EvolutionIQ\ \ Imagine if improving disability insurance claims processing with AI helped more people return to work.
• acquired Superhuman\ \ Imagine if we could speed through our inboxes twice as fast.
• Rillet\ \ Imagine if high-growth companies could automate accounting and make zero day close a reality.
• Serval\ \ Imagine if companies could automate their IT help desks.
• Assort Health\ \ Imagine if you could answer every patient's call, without putting anyone on hold.
• Dyna\ \ Imagine if robots could perform any task you wanted them to.
• Manifest\ \ Imagine if the software supply chain could automatically be secured.

HEAR MORE FROM BILL:

• \ \ Review Article\ \ The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise Billions in Follow-On Capital \ First Round's Pitch Assist program helps founders raise follow-on capital. Here's a preview of some of the important fundraising lessons we share.](https://review.firstround.com/the-fundraising-wisdom-that-helped-our-founders-raise-18b-in-follow-on-capital/)
• \ \ Review Article\ \ 70% of Time Could Be Used Better - How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day \ First Round Partner Bill Trenchard on how the best CEOs in tech get the most out of their time.](https://review.firstround.com/70-of-time-could-be-used-better-how-the-best-ceos-get-the-most-out-of-every-day/)
• \ \ Podcast\ \ Bill Trenchard on Manager Meetings with Capital Allocators \ Bill Trenchard on the evolution of First Round.](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/first-round-capital/)