William Hockey

Co-founder & Co-CEO, Column; Co-founder, Plaid; Angel Investor at column

Reviewed Updated Apr 28, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Check Size $5K-$50K
Last Verified Investment Metronome (Early (acquired Jan 2026)) — ~2026
Social @williamhockey LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
fintech developer-tools infrastructure enterprise

Background

William Hockey was born September 21, 1989 in San Luis Obispo, California, where he grew up on a Central California farm 1. He attended The Thacher School and then Emory University, where he earned a BBA and majored in computer science and economics, graduating in 2012 1 2. While at Emory and during a summer internship at Bain & Company in Atlanta, he met his future Plaid co-founder Zach Perret 1 3.

Hockey co-founded Plaid with Perret in New York City in 2012-2013, when he was 21 1 4. The company initially aimed to build consumer financial applications, but pivoted to selling the underlying bank-data infrastructure to other developers after experiencing how hard it was to access bank data 1 4. Plaid raised a $2.8 million seed round on July 31, 2013, led by Spark Capital (with Mo Koyfman driving the deal) and including Google Ventures, NEA, Felicis Ventures, Homebrew, and Box Group 4 5. Hockey served as President and CTO and led engineering as the company scaled to power tools used by Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, and many others 1 2.

In June 2019, Hockey stepped down from his operational roles at Plaid (President, CTO, co-founder) and transitioned to a board director role 1 6. In January 2020, Visa announced a $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid; the deal was abandoned in January 2021 after a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit 1 7. A few months later, Plaid raised a $425 million Series D, valuing the company at $13.4 billion and making the founders newly minted billionaires on paper 1.

After leaving Plaid, Hockey “quietly built” what would become Column for nearly three years 6 8. In 2021, Hockey and his wife Annie Hockey purchased the small Northern California National Bank (Chico, CA) for approximately $50 million using their own capital, replaced its core technology and operations from scratch, and rebranded it as Column — a nationally chartered, OCC-regulated bank designed to provide banking infrastructure to fintech developers 8 9 10. Column emerged from stealth on April 21, 2022 8. By early 2026 the company was reported to have roughly 110 employees, ~$200 million in revenue (doubling year-over-year), $100M+ in annual free cash flow, and an estimated ~$6 billion valuation based on unsolicited investor offers — while remaining 100% founder- and employee-owned with no outside venture capital 11.

In parallel with operating Column, Hockey is a prolific angel investor in fintech and developer-tools startups, with a documented portfolio of more than 30 companies 12 13. He also serves on the boards of Plaid and Scale AI 13.

Stated Thesis

Hockey has not published a formal investing thesis. His public statements about what he looks for cluster around a few themes: builders solving real infrastructure problems, financial-services innovation requiring regulatory commitment, and durability over speed.

On building lasting infrastructure: “I wanted to build and work on something for the next few decades.” 14

On the inadequacy of pure software intermediaries in financial services: “What I realized actually is you can drive a huge amount of value if you actually jump in, be a regulated bank, and actually build it from scratch.” 15

On developer-first banking: “Everything that you can do at your bank, I want you to be able to do that with three lines of code.” 9

Signal by NFX summarizes his public investing focus as Pre-Seed and Seed in payments, e-commerce, consumer internet, and fintech, with a sweet-spot check of $25K and a range of $5K-$50K, geographic focus on the Bay Area 12. Crunchbase records his investment range at $5K-$50K with a $25K sweet spot 13.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on 10 verified angel investments where William Hockey’s participation is confirmed by a primary or contemporaneous press source (TechCrunch, business wire, company blog, etc.). Tracxn reports 33 portfolio companies and Crunchbase reports 38 investments 16 13, so the table below covers approximately 26-30% of the reported total. Percentages should be read as directional rather than statistically definitive at this sample size.

Sector distribution (10 verified investments): - Fintech / financial infrastructure: 6 of 10 (60%) — Stytch (auth for fintech), Spenmo (B2B payments), Maza (immigrant banking), Slash (banking for small businesses/Gen Z), Town (small-business tax), Jeeves (corporate cards) - Developer tools / data infrastructure: 2 of 10 (20%) — Metronome (usage-based billing), Goldsky (web3 data infra) - Identity / verification (also fintech-adjacent): 1 of 10 (10%) — Truework (income verification) - HR / workforce SaaS: 1 of 10 (10%) — Deel (global payroll, also fintech-adjacent)

The portfolio is overwhelmingly fintech and fintech-adjacent infrastructure (8 of 10 if Deel and Truework are counted as fintech-adjacent). This is consistent with Hockey’s identity as a fintech operator; he invests in companies building products that look like Plaid’s or Column’s customer base.

Stage distribution (10 verified investments): - Seed (including pre-seed): 8 of 10 (80%) — Stytch, Spenmo (early), Maza, Slash (combined seed/A), Town, Jeeves, Goldsky, Truework - Series A and later: 2 of 10 (20%) — Spenmo Series A (later participation), Deel - The check size and stage profile align with NFX’s $5K-$50K Pre-Seed/Seed designation 12.

Founder profile patterns: Hockey gravitates toward technical, infrastructure-focused founders — particularly those building APIs, ledgers, or developer-distributed financial products that mirror the Plaid/Column playbook. Stytch, Goldsky, Metronome, and Slash are all developer-/API-distributed infra products 17 18 19 20.

Geographic patterns: Heavy San Francisco Bay Area concentration. Stytch, Truework, Persona, Deel, and Metronome are all SF-based; Maza is LA; Town is SF; Spenmo is Singapore; Jeeves is Miami; Goldsky is global.

Co-investor patterns: Across the verified portfolio, frequent co-investors include Y Combinator (Slash, Jeeves), NEA (Slash — also a Plaid investor), Andreessen Horowitz (Maza, Jeeves), Box Group (Maza, Plaid alum), Felicis Ventures (Goldsky, Plaid alum), Dragonfly Capital (Goldsky), Benchmark (Stytch lead), Index Ventures (Stytch), First Round Capital (Town lead), and a recurring set of operator-angels — Elad Gil (Goldsky, multiple), Dylan Field (Stytch), Adam D’Angelo (Town), Immad Akhund (Town), Christina Cacioppo (Town), and his Plaid co-founder Zach Perret (Goldsky). The pattern is operator-heavy syndicates investing in fintech/infra alongside institutional leads.

Notable alignment between behavior and identity: Hockey’s portfolio reflects the universe of Plaid’s and Column’s downstream customers — neobanks, payments rails, identity/auth APIs, and embedded finance. The strongest predictor of a Hockey check appears to be whether a startup is building a developer-distributed product that he, as a fintech infrastructure operator, would understand instantly.

Notable absence: Despite his Plaid and Column billionaire status, Hockey’s check sizes ($5K-$50K, $25K sweet spot) are an order of magnitude smaller than typical “operator-angel-billionaire” checks. He behaves as a high-volume small-check angel rather than a concentrated growth-stage angel.

Portfolio

This table includes 10 verified angel investments with primary or contemporaneous press citations. Tracxn reports 33 total companies; Crunchbase reports 38 16 13 — this represents approximately 26-30% of the reported total.

Company Year Stage Source
Plaid (founder, not angel) 2013 Seed (Spark led) 4
Stytch 2020 Seed (Benchmark led) 17
Jeeves 2020 Seed 21
Goldsky 2022-09-13 Seed (Felicis & Dragonfly led) 18
Slash 2023-05-04 Seed + Series A (NEA led) 20
Boom 2023-05-31 Seed 22
Maza 2023-06-28 Seed (a16z led) 23
Spenmo ~2022 Series A (Salesforce Ventures et al.) 24
Truework ~2020-2022 (exited via acquisition) 16
~unknown Deel undisclosed angel Early
Metronome undisclosed angel Early (acquired Jan 2026) 16 25
Town 2025-03-16 Seed (First Round led) 26 27

Years marked with ~ are approximate where exact investment date is not confirmed in a primary source. Plaid is included as his founding company, not as an angel investment.

In Their Own Words

On why he and his wife built Column from a chartered bank rather than as a software layer: “What we did is we went out and we actually bought a bank, took on that regulatory heft, and we think that’s really the only way to actually truly innovate in financial services.” 15

On durability and patience in company-building: “I think companies can be built much more slowly than people think.” 15

On bootstrapping Column: “I have a high risk tolerance for betting on myself. Most people pretend they’re good at it, but they’re not.” 11

On the ambition behind Column: “Our ambition is not to dominate sponsor banking in Silicon Valley. That’s f***ing boring. What’s happening is that the world is dollarizing, and we want to be the operating system for that.” 11

On details and execution: “The little stuff adds up all the time, and compounds a ton. What makes us better? It’s 9,000 API fields, it’s clearing payments 50% faster across a border.” 11

On durability as a competitive advantage: “I don’t think that people think a lot about durability, and we do.” 11

On the centrality of financial services: “Financial services are the glue that holds the entire global economy together.” 11

On his motivation: “I’m petrified of being bored.” 11

On Plaid’s purpose, articulated while still CTO: “We don’t directly build applications for consumers. Instead, we create the building blocks for other people to build amazing things on.” 2

On what motivates him as a founder: “What really pushes me is when I see all of these developers creating businesses off of what we do. Tens of thousands of applications have been built off it now. One percent of them are going to be successful, but that one 1% are going to totally change how the world operates.” 2

On financial stress as a problem: “Financial stress: It’s the largest stress point in people’s lives. For most people, it’s more stressful than their own health.” 2

On the largest pain point in fintech (at Column launch): “The largest pain point in building in financial services and fintech is the supply chain it’s built on.” 8

On Column’s positioning: “[Column is] a nationally chartered bank but have built every facet of the technology from scratch. We are both the bank and the technology provider.” 8

On running Column with his wife Annie: “It’s a two-person job. I am good at building software. And she is good at other things apart from building software.” 14

On founder brand strategy in fintech: “The financial brands that we think of are changing… the idea of these large banks that are going to service a consumer cradle to grave I don’t think is going to happen.” 15

On founders raising venture capital and ceding control (Column is bootstrapped): “It bothers me, and I think it’s wrong” — Hockey on investor control of startups 11

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials specifically describing William Hockey as an angel investor were located in the time budget for this profile. Brex co-founder Pedro Franceschi has publicly praised Column as a banking partner — “I think folks underestimate the depth of what he’s building” — but this is about Column’s product relationship, not Hockey’s behavior as a check-writing angel investor 11.

Spark Capital’s Santo Politi, reflecting on the early Plaid years, wrote that the founders demonstrated “extraordinary technical abilities with a deep understanding of product design and consumer needs” and “grew from first-time founders to skilled company builders, transcending any and all problems with high integrity” — this is an investor’s comment about Hockey as a founder, not a portfolio founder’s comment about Hockey as an investor 7.

Connections

  • Co-founder, Plaid (2012-2019) — Built the company with Zach Perret from a Bain consulting friendship; remains on Plaid’s board as a director 1 7
  • Co-founder & Co-CEO, Column (2021-) — Co-founded with his wife Annie Hockey, who serves as Co-CEO; Column is 100% founder/employee owned 8 9 14
  • Board member, Plaid — Continued board director role since stepping back from operating roles in June 2019 1 6
  • Board member, Scale AI — Listed on Scale’s board on Crunchbase 13
  • Plaid seed investor relationship: Spark Capital / Mo Koyfman — Mo Koyfman led Plaid’s $2.8M seed round in July 2013 from Spark; David Haber was also part of the early Spark relationship 4 5 7
  • Frequent co-investor with Plaid co-founder Zach Perret — Both participated as angels in Goldsky’s 2022 seed 18
  • Frequent co-investors (angel deals) — Y Combinator (Slash, Jeeves), NEA (Slash; also Plaid investor), Andreessen Horowitz (Maza, Jeeves), Box Group (Maza), Felicis Ventures (Goldsky), Dragonfly Capital (Goldsky), Benchmark (Stytch), First Round Capital (Town) 17 18 20 23 26
  • Operator-angel circles — Recurring co-angels include Elad Gil (Goldsky, others), Dylan Field (Stytch), Adam D’Angelo, Immad Akhund, Christina Cacioppo, Helen Min, Soleio Cuervo (Town syndicate) 17 18 26
  • Major Column customers — Brex, Mercury, Ramp, Wise, Bilt are listed as Column customers; the Brex relationship is publicly the longest-standing 11
  • Prior employer: Bain & Company (Atlanta office) — Met Zach Perret there; left to found Plaid 1 3

Sources

  1. William Hockey, Wikipedia, accessed April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hockey↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Emory Business Magazine, “Meet the Entrepreneur: William Hockey 12BBA,” November 20, 2020, accessed April 2026. https://www.emorybusiness.com/2020/11/20/meet-the-entrepreneur-william-hockey-12bba/↩↩↩↩↩

  3. FinTech Magazine, “Lifetime of Achievement: Zach Perret,” accessed April 2026. https://fintechmagazine.com/articles/lifetime-of-achievement-zach-perret↩↩

  4. TechCrunch, “Plaid Raises $2.8M To Make Banking Data More Developer Friendly,” September 19, 2013, accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/19/plaid-funding/↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Shai Goldman, “Plaid, the non-obvious unicorn,” January 14, 2020, accessed April 2026. https://shaigoldman.com/2020/01/14/plaid-the-non-obvious-unicorn/↩↩

  6. Open Banking Expo, “Plaid co-founder launches Column bank for developers,” April 2022, accessed April 2026. https://www.openbankingexpo.com/news/plaid-co-founder-launches-column-bank-for-developers/↩↩↩

  7. Spark Capital (Medium), Santo Politi, “Congratulations, Plaid!,” January 2020, accessed April 2026. https://medium.com/@sparkcapital/congratulations-plaid-2835ea8acbcf↩↩↩↩

  8. TechCrunch, “Plaid cofounder’s next venture: A bank to power fintech apps,” April 21, 2022, accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/21/plaid-cofounders-next-venture-is-a-bank-to-power-fintech-apps/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Crowdfund Insider, “Plaid Co-founder Buys Small California Bank, Renames It Column, Pursues Fintech Update,” April 21, 2022, accessed April 2026. https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/04/190120-plaid-co-founder-buys-small-california-bank-renames-it-column-pursues-fintech-update/↩↩↩

  10. Sacra, “Column revenue, funding & growth rate,” accessed April 2026. https://sacra.com/c/column/↩

  11. Upstarts Media, Alex Konrad, “Exclusive: Column CEO William Hockey On Brex, Bootstrapping, China,” February 25, 2026, accessed April 2026. https://www.upstartsmedia.com/p/profile-column-william-hockey-fintech-china↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. Signal by NFX, “William Hockey’s Investing Profile - Angel,” accessed April 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/william-hockey↩↩↩

  13. Crunchbase, “William Hockey - Co-CEO @ Column,” accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/william-hockey↩↩↩↩↩↩

  14. American Banker, “De novo Column Bank gives partners a ‘sandbox’ to build banking tools,” July 2022, accessed April 2026. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/de-novo-column-bank-gives-partners-a-sandbox-to-build-banking-tools↩↩↩

  15. Deciphr.ai (transcript), “20VC: Plaid and Column Co-Founder, William Hockey on Why the Brands that Win in Fintech Will Not Be Financial Services Brands,” accessed April 2026. https://www.deciphr.ai/podcast/20vc-plaid-and-column-cofounder-william-hockey-on-why-the-brands-that-win-in-fintech-will-not-be-financial-services-brands-what-us-banking-can-learn-from-china–why-companies-can-be-built-slower-than-people-think↩↩↩↩

  16. Tracxn, “William Hockey - 2025 Portfolio & Founded Companies,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/william-hockey/__OB-gsdhF3_zp4Q1R8dfkzEvmjK-KXVrlCFhkTyponJ4↩↩↩↩

  17. Stytch blog, “Announcing our seed round,” accessed April 2026. https://stytch.com/blog/announcing-our-seed-round/↩↩↩↩

  18. TechCrunch, “Goldsky raises $20M to bring real-time, on-chain data to crypto companies,” September 13, 2022, accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/13/goldsky-crypto-data-infrastructure-blockchain-startup-funding/↩↩↩↩↩

  19. TechCrunch, “Metronome raises $30M to help software companies shift to usage-based pricing models,” February 1, 2022, accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/01/metronome-raises-30m-to-help-software-companies-shift-to-usage-based-pricing-models/↩

  20. WebWire / Slash, “Slash Raises $19M from YC, NEA, Tinder and Plaid Founders, Among Others, to Build a Bank for the Hustle Economy,” May 2023, accessed April 2026. https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=30448↩↩↩

  21. Andreessen Horowitz, “Investing in Jeeves,” accessed April 2026. https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-jeeves/↩

  22. FinTech Global, “US-based rent reporting platform, Boom, secures $4.5m in seed funding round,” May 31, 2023, accessed April 2026. https://fintech.global/2023/05/31/us-based-rent-reporting-platform-boom-secures-4-5m-in-seed-funding-round/↩

  23. TechCrunch, “No SSN, no problem, says Maza, a fintech startup aimed at undocumented immigrants,” June 28, 2023, accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/28/no-social-security-number-no-problem-says-maza-a-fintech-startup-that-just-raised-8m-led-by-andreessen-horowitz/↩↩

  24. FinTech Futures, “Fintech Spenmo raises $34m in Series A round,” accessed April 2026. https://www.fintechfutures.com/fintech/fintech-spenmo-raises-34m-in-series-a-round↩

  25. Boring Business Nerd, “William Hockey,” investor profile, accessed April 2026. https://www.boringbusinessnerd.com/investor/william-hockey↩

  26. Town blog, “Town Raises $18M to Make Taxes Painless for Small Businesses,” March 17, 2025, accessed April 2026. https://www.town.com/blog/seed-announcement↩↩↩

  27. FinTech Global, “Town secures $18m to revolutionise tax support for small businesses,” March 17, 2025, accessed April 2026. https://fintech.global/2025/03/17/town-secures-18m-to-revolutionise-tax-support-for-small-businesses/↩