williams-college
(7)
Jason Langheier and the question behind the grocery bill
He grew up outside Buffalo, worked his first job at a supermarket and founded the company that became Foodsmart. Fifteen years later, Jason Langheier changed his title while keeping his place in the work.
Ben Springwater
Ben Springwater is the Co-Founder and CEO of Matter, a beautifully designed reading app that consolidates articles, newsletters, and emails into one distraction-free experience. A Stanford MBA and former Nextdoor product lead, Ben built Matter through Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch and raised $9.15M from Google Ventures and others. Known for his philosophy that 'the details add up,' he steers Matter toward slow, steady growth for discerning readers rather than chasing scale - a conviction tested and hardened by personal health challenges in 2024 that led him to reimagine both his company and his life.
Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins (Charles M. Collins) is a Harvard-trained lawyer, MIT city planner, and former real estate developer who spent nearly two decades as President and CEO of YMCA of Greater San Francisco, transforming it into an organization serving more than 42,000 children annually across three Bay Area counties. Born in San Francisco's Fillmore district in 1947 and raised as one of the first Black families in Mill Valley, he brings a lifetime of crossing boundaries to his work at the intersection of community, equity, and opportunity. Now a Presidential Fellow at USF's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service, he continues to shape the region's civic life.
Conor Smith
Conor Smith is the CEO of Campus Connect Group, a Miami-based EdTech holding company that acquires, operates, and scales mission-critical software and services for higher education institutions. With an MBA from MIT Sloan and a background in entrepreneurship spanning Southeast Asia and North American software markets, Smith has built Campus Connect into a multi-product platform spanning financial aid, student information systems, enrollment management, and campus operations — serving colleges and universities across the United States.
Jill Chase
Jill Chase is a General Partner at CapitalG, Alphabet's independent growth-stage venture capital fund, where she leads investments in AI/ML, data infrastructure, and enterprise technology. A former startup founder (Y Combinator S17) and private-equity-backed CEO turned investor, she joined CapitalG in 2020 with a deliberate AI-first thesis - years before the sector exploded - and has since backed category-defining companies including Rippling, Physical Intelligence, LangChain, Baseten, and Canva. In January 2026, CapitalG promoted her to General Partner, the first such promotion in the firm's history.
Rob Ward
Rob Ward is the co-founder and General Partner of Meritech Capital Partners, one of the first venture funds built exclusively around growth-stage technology investing. Since co-founding the firm in 1999, he has led investments in some of the most defining enterprise and consumer technology companies of the past 25 years, including Snowflake, Salesforce, Tableau, Fortinet, and Roblox. A repeat Forbes Midas List honoree, Ward focuses on analytics, data services, infrastructure, and enterprise applications, typically investing $5M-$25M at Series B with a sweet spot around $12M. Beyond capital, he tutors algebra at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto and was added to the Buffalo Bills ownership group in December 2024.
Tom Morgan
Thomas W. Morgan is a 30-year private equity veteran who pioneered the GP stakes investing category when he founded Hycroft Capital in 2015, the first firm dedicated solely to minority, non-control investments in private equity management companies. His career arc spans First Boston, Bain Capital during its formative 1990s growth, and 15 years at New Mountain Capital (raising $15B+ AUM). After merging Hycroft into Magnetar Capital and co-founding Aviditi Advisors (acquired by Piper Sandler in 2024), he now manages Greylock Capital Partners, his family office with interests in franchise concepts, commercial real estate, and private investments, from Manhattan's Upper East Side.