Founder & Chairman, Idealab
Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur who has started more than 150 companies in his career, resulting in more than 45 successful IPO’s and mergers and acquisitions. 7 of those companies grew to be more than billion-dollar companies.
Bill created Idealab, modeled after Thomas Edison’s lab, after attending Caltech, in Pasadena, California, 23 years ago. Idealab is the longest-running technology incubator, focused on world-changing technologies including search, ecommerce, robotics, mobile monetization, renewable energy and climate change.
Bill holds more than 30 patents, and is the inventor of novel forms of energy storage, solar concentration, and of paid search, the business model that powers the internet.
Bill is a frequent speaker on technology and entrepreneurship all over the world, at TED, TechCrunch, Business Mastery, DLD, CES, XPrize, Verge, Davos and more.
Bill graduated from Caltech in 1981 and serves on the Caltech Board of Trustees and on the Board of the Art Center College of Design.