Ev Williams

Co-Founder at Obvious Ventures · Joined 2014

View Live Interactive Profile →

Biography

Ev Williams co-founded Blogger, sold it to Google, then co-founded Twitter and later founded Medium, building three of the internet's most consequential publishing platforms before turning to venture capital. He co-founded Obvious Ventures in 2014 with James Joaquin and Vishal Vasishth on a specific, non-obvious premise: that companies solving humanity's biggest problems profitably, not through charity, would become the most valuable businesses of the coming decades. That thesis, organized around planetary health, human health, and economic health, produced an early 9% stake in Beyond Meat ahead of its 2019 IPO, a 2015 investment in Planet Labs ahead of its 2021 SPAC listing, and a Series A bet on Recursion Pharmaceuticals. Williams remains Chairman of Medium while continuing to co-lead Obvious, which has playfully closed its five funds at mathematically significant numbers, from $123,456,789 to Euler's number, $271,828,182.

Previous Experience

Notable Investments

Beyond Meat BYNDPlanet Labs PLRecursion Pharmaceuticals RXRX

Board Seats

Career Timeline

2003
Co-founds Blogger, which Google acquires the same year.
2006
Co-founds Twitter, later serving as CEO.
2012
Founds Medium.
2014
Co-founds Obvious Ventures with James Joaquin and Vishal Vasishth in December, built around 'world positive' investing.
2019
Beyond Meat completes its NASDAQ IPO; Obvious holds a 9% stake at the time.
2021
Planet Labs completes its SPAC merger; Recursion Pharmaceuticals completes its NASDAQ IPO.

Sources & References

Obvious Ventures - Ev Williams ↗TechCrunch ↗