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Bill Trenchard
Partner at First Round Capital
Bill Trenchard is a prominent entrepreneur, investor, and technology executive. Here are some key details about his background and career:
Professional Experience
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Co-founder and Board Member of LiveOps, a company he helped grow to $100 million in sales as the leading virtual call center company.12
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Currently a Partner at First Round Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.12
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Previously served as a managing director at idealab!, where he worked with portfolio companies as a board member and interim CEO.12
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Founder and CEO of Jump Networks, a web calendar and personal organizer company acquired by Microsoft in 1999.12
Investments and Board Positions
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Angel investor in several high-tech companies, including IronPort Systems (acquired by Cisco for $830M), PowerSet (acquired by Microsoft), and XoopIt (acquired by Yahoo).12
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Serves on the boards of companies like ReadyForce, LiveOps, Samasource, HomeRun, and Fina Technologies.12
Recognition
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Named one of BusinessWeek's Best Young Technology Entrepreneurs in 2006.12
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Featured in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and USA Today.12
Education
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Bachelor of Arts degree in science and technology studies from Cornell University.12
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Serves as Vice Chairman of the Entrepreneurship@Cornell council and the Cornell eLab business incubator.12
Bill Trenchard is known for his expertise in technology entrepreneurship and venture capital, with a strong track record of founding, leading, and investing in successful companies.
Highlights
In just 90 days since their Series A, @getserval has grown revenue by 500%, tripled headcount, and raised another round at a $1B valuation. This team is moving at a pace I’ve rarely seen in all my years @firstround.
I've known @jakeserval since his product building years at Verkada, so it’s been a special privilege to partner closely with him and the team right from the very beginning of Serval’s journey.
IMO, it’s the customer love that’s driving this wild momentum. Companies like Perplexity, Mercor, Clay, and Together AI are now able to automate 50%+ of IT tickets with zero human touch, something that would have been unthinkable just a year or two ago.
And Serval’s already catching on beyond IT, with HR using the platform to automate onboarding, finance rebuilding procurement, and legal spinning up NDAs straight from Slack.
Very proud of this team, and very much looking forward to what the next 90 days will bring.

I’m kicking off a search for a Chief of Staff to join me @firstround in San Francisco.
This is a role we’ve had at First Round for more than a decade. It’s a rare opportunity for someone who’s interested in both startups and investing to learn about both from the inside. You’ll be my right hand in everything I do, from running customer references before we invest to supporting founders after we do.
Former Chiefs of Staff have gone on to lead operations at a venture firm (@natewcollins), build at a breakout startup (@juliagovberg), invest full-time (@almostcmb), and everything in between.
I’m looking for someone who’s a learn-it-all, unreasonably organized and proactive, as well as unusually high-agency. They should be able to manage me more than the other way around. This person should also consider themselves a “work enthusiast,” as one of our founders likes to say.
I’d really appreciate getting the word out and anyone can apply below.
Application is here: https://t.co/AeXtHBOykQ

