Will is a serial entrepreneur and three-decade participant in the global VC ecosystem. He has been investing in startups since 1997 and developed wisdom beyond his years as he navigated the downturns of 2000 and 2008. He made Applied AI a core focus for Capria just days after ChatGPT launched in 2022, and is unabashedly optimistic about what AI can do for founders and professionals alike.
Will is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Capria Ventures, where he also serves as the firm’s Chief AI Evangelist. His first institutional venture fund was raised for Capria’s predecessor, Unitus Ventures, in 2012. He and his partners together manage over USD 200M AUM in companies across high-growth markets. Their latest fund, Capria India Fund III, is anchored by investors including Raj and Indra Nooyi (former Pepsi CEO), Bill Gates (via his family office), Godrej Industries (a prominent Indian industrial family office), and Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0 of DPIIT, managed by SIDBI.
Will is also the co-author of a soon-to-be-released Penguin book, Flourishing with AI, a pragmatic guide for professionals and leaders looking to navigate the turmoil and opportunity of the new age of abundant intelligence. You can learn more about Will’s current thinking on his Substack.
In his big tech career, Will was a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, leading several business lines, including the $13 billion Windows client business. After that, he led the company’s efforts to tailor products for mass-market customers in emerging markets.
Will’s career began with founding two startups at the dawn of the PC era, growing a USD 200M business line early at Sun Microsystems, and pioneering e-commerce at eShop, which he co-founded in 1991 and Microsoft acquired in 1996.
Will serves as a strategic advisor to African health systems transformer VillageReach, and as an emeritus board member of blended-finance leader Convergence Finance. He is also a Managing Director of The W Fund, a Seattle-based tech and life-sciences fund affiliated with the University of Washington. He is also an Independent Director on the board of NSE-listed CMS Info Systems. In partnership with Ravi Venkatesan, Will co-founded Social Venture Partners India in 2012; the organization is thriving and growing beyond expectations.
Will lives in Seattle and is married to Janet Levinger, a tireless innovator in private and public education, board governance, and other social causes in the Pacific Northwest. They have two grown children who live in Seattle and San Francisco.
