Where does William Hockey work?

William Hockey is Co-founder & CTO of Plaid and Co-founder and Board Director at Plaid.

What check size does William Hockey write?

William Hockey typically writes checks of $5K – $50K.

What boards does William Hockey sit on?

William Hockey holds tracked board seats at Plaid.

Where did William Hockey go to school?

William Hockey studied at Emory University (Computer Science).

What podcasts and interviews feature William Hockey?

Tracked appearances include "Column CEO William Hockey On Brex, Bootstrapping, China", "Why the Brands that Win in Fintech Will Not Be Financial Services Brands".

William Hockey

InvestorUnicorn founder

Co-founder & CTO at Plaid

San Francisco, CA

Writes $5K – $50K checks · typically $25K

FoundedPlaid$13.4B

30 Under 30 2015 · Enterprise Technology

Find your path to William

154 people in our graph share verified history with William — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Sundeep PeechuunlockedWilliam: together at Plaid (2013–2026)

×6William: together at Scale AI

×5William: together at Plaid

About

William Hockey co-founded Plaid in 2013 and built the API layer that connects fintech apps to bank accounts — then did something no other fintech founder had: he bought a bank. He left Plaid's CTO seat in 2019, spent Plaid shares on Northern California National Bank for roughly $50 million, and turned it into Column, the developer-first nationally chartered bank now powering Brex, Mercury, Ramp, Wise and Bilt. Column has taken no outside capital at all: Hockey owns about 90% of a business doing roughly $200 million of revenue and over $100 million of free cash flow, and says investor offers have valued it near $6 billion. He studied computer science and economics at Emory and met co-founder Zach Perret as a Bain consultant in Atlanta.

Likely emails· guessed from name + firm domain, not firm-published

w•••@plaid.comreveal80% confident
w•••@plaid.comreveal75% confident

Beyond investing

Founded: Co-founded Plaid with Zach Perret in 2013 after the two met as Bain consultants in Atlanta; he was CTO until stepping back in June 2019 and remains on the board. Built Column by buying Northern California National Bank of Chico for roughly $50 million in 2021, financed by selling Plaid shares — an OCC-chartered, FDIC-insured bank rather than a partner-bank arrangement. Hockey co-founded the financial services company Plaid with Zachary Perret when he was 21, in New York City. Hockey founded Column, a nationally chartered bank that provides banking infrastructure for fintech developers, launched in April 2022.
Education: Studied computer science and economics at Emory University.
Family: Hockey was born in San Luis Obispo, California.
More: Column has taken zero outside capital and is founder- and employee-owned; Hockey holds about 90%. Column powers Brex, Mercury, Ramp, Wise and Bilt and is among the largest US originators of real-time payments. Visa agreed to buy Plaid for $5.3B in January 2020; the Justice Department sued and the deal was abandoned a year later.

Mentioned above: the Emory University mafia → · the Plaid mafia →

From published sources — common ground for a warm intro.

Co-founder & CTO at Plaid

Intro paths

→

In turn, William can intro founders to Plaid's investors below.

Plaid's investors · 32

Co-founders at Plaid

Zach PerretCo-founder & CEO

Experience

ColumnCEO and foundercurrent2020 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
Scale AIBoard Directorcurrent2021 — present
PlaidCo-founder and Board Directorcurrent2012 — present
Bain & CompanyAssociate2011
OpenStudyEngineering2010

Investments

Board seats

Plaid

Per curated public sources.

Podcasts & interviews

featuring William Hockey

Column CEO William Hockey On Brex, Bootstrapping, China

Upstarts Media · upstartsmedia.com

Why the Brands that Win in Fintech Will Not Be Financial Services Brands

20VC · thetwentyminutevc.com

Colleagues at Plaid

Dave Munichiello

Investor at GV (Google Ventures)

Phil Venables

Venture Partner at Ballistic Ventures

Prantik Mazumdar

Investor at Good Startup

Santo Politi

Investor at Spark Capital

Zach Perret

Co-founder & CEO of Plaid; co-founder of Mischief

Network5

Aatif AwanScout

Founder, Managing Partner at Indus Valley Capital

Ankur NagpalScout

Founder at Vibe Capital

Ben GormanScout

Principal at F-Prime Capital Partners

Ezra GalstonScout

Investor at Starting Line

Teddy HimlerScout

Founder and General Partner at Optimist Ventures

Investors connected to William in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.

Frequently asked questions

Who is William Hockey?: William Hockey co-founded Plaid in 2013 and built the API layer that connects fintech apps to bank accounts — then did something no other fintech founder had: he bought a bank. He left Plaid's CTO seat in 2019, spent Plaid shares on Northern California National Bank for roughly $50 million, and turned it into Column, the developer-first nationally chartered bank now powering Brex, Mercury, Ramp, Wise and Bilt. Column has taken no outside capital at all: Hockey owns about 90% of a business doing roughly $200 million of revenue and over $100 million of free cash flow, and says investor offers have valued it near $6 billion. He studied computer science and economics at Emory and met co-founder Zach Perret as a Bain consultant in Atlanta.
Where does William Hockey work?: William Hockey is Co-founder & CTO of Plaid and Co-founder and Board Director at Plaid.
What check size does William Hockey write?: William Hockey typically writes checks of $5K – $50K.
What companies did William Hockey found?: William Hockey founded Plaid.
What boards does William Hockey sit on?: William Hockey holds tracked board seats at Plaid.
Where did William Hockey go to school?: William Hockey studied at Emory University (Computer Science).
What podcasts and interviews feature William Hockey?: Tracked appearances include "Column CEO William Hockey On Brex, Bootstrapping, China", "Why the Brands that Win in Fintech Will Not Be Financial Services Brands".