Bill Maris
Person
Bill Maris is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur best known as the founder and former CEO of Google Ventures (GV). He is also the founder of Section 32, a California-based venture capital fund focused on technology and healthcare.
What Bill Maris has said on podcasts
27 statements
Funds below $750 million average higher returns than funds above $1 billion.
“funds smaller than 750 million, average return of 4.76x and funds larger than a billion 2.42x”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
AI will transform the world by orders of magnitude.
“With the advent of AI, the world is going to change by orders of magnitude.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Properly applied computer science produces correct answers to suitable problems.
“If you apply the right kind of computer science at the right time to the right problem, you will get to the right answers.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Section32 should prioritize financial returns over other investment metrics.
“We're going to invest for a financial return. Any other metric is impossible to measure and therefore won't succeed.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
A $7 billion fund targeting 3x returns needs $210 billion in exit value.
“if you have a $7 billion fund and we do the same math, you've got to return 210 billion”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Small venture funds outperform large venture funds.
“small funds outperform large funds.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Venture funds at the 75th percentile lose money.
“the 75th percentile of venture loses money”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Funds below $750 million represented 95% of top-decile performers.
“funds below 750 million across that time period represented 95% of top decile performers”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 0:02
Late-stage companies may benefit from going public sooner.
“it would have might be better to go public sooner”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 13:24
Major Google price cuts would severely pressure OpenAI and Anthropic business models.
“the compression and the pressure on those other businesses goes super critical.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 15:00
Google should drastically reduce AI token prices to gain market advantage.
“If I were Google, that's what I'd do.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 15:22
Certain large private companies could triple in value from current levels.
“Could they go 3x from here? Sure.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 16:30
Venture funds realize paper gains only by selling shares to other buyers.
“they have to sell that stock to someone else. Otherwise it's just on paper.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 18:20
- on Public-market company valuationsNeutralJun 9, 2026· All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Public companies must justify valuations through discounted future cash flows.
“you've got to make a business case in the public market that can show that this business is worth the discounted value of its future cash flows.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 18:20
Ambient computing will emerge as AI develops.
“There will be ambient computing”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 19:10
AI will experience gaming-industry-scale development over the next five years.
“What's happened to the gaming industry from the 80s to today is going to happen in AI, but in the next five years.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 19:10
AI will advance from its Atari stage to a PlayStation 10 stage within five years.
“we're going to get to the PlayStation 10 stage in the next five years.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 20:48
Identifying a promising therapeutic compound represents only about 5% of development work.
“if you find a compound and you think you've got something that's like 5% of the work, there's still all kinds of titrating and safety testing that needs to go on.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 22:06
Realistic computer simulations of human cells would accelerate therapeutic development.
“if we can achieve a realistic simulation of a human cell in silico, then you will see that accelerate as well.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 22:06
Human-therapeutic development will not accelerate exponentially as hoped.
“I don't think it's going to go quite as exponential as we would all like it to.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 22:06
US cuts to CDC and NIH funding are driving scientific talent and attention abroad.
“the gutting of the CDC and the NIH and anti science vibe that has now pervades this country has driven a lot of mindshare elsewhere as funding is drying up for basic research.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 23:05
Countries prioritizing speed over human safety incur additional deaths.
“other countries are indexed in the opposite direction which costs lives.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 23:05
Pushing out H-1B holders makes scientists more likely to leave the United States.
“the pushing out of H1B holder, there's so much happening now that it's causing. It's just easier to go elsewhere. That's not good for science.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 24:15
AI is making deep-tech development more tractable by accelerating progress.
“Absolutely, because things are moving so much faster.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 24:54
Human biology and healthcare probably have the world’s largest total addressable market.
“human biology and healthcare. It's probably the largest TAM in the world.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 24:59
Venture-capital incentives are currently broken and will eventually reverse.
“the incentives are broken in all those ways and the pendulum will swing back.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 26:45
- on Late-stage-only venture strategyNegativeJun 9, 2026· All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
A late-stage-only venture strategy will not work over the long term.
“I don't think just staying late stage and waiting to sniper at larger companies will be a long term.”
Open the episode · Bill Maris: How Google Could Crush AI Competitors, Why Small Funds Win, and AI's Atari StageListen at 26:45
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
