# William “whurley” Hurley

> William “whurley” Hurley is an Austin-based American entrepreneur, investor, and author who founded Strangeworks and co-founded Chaotic Moon Studios and Honest Dollar. His career connects software engineering, open source communities, quantum computing, and efforts to widen participation in technology, including EQUALS and the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Strangeworks
- **Organizations:** Strangeworks, Chaotic Moon Studios, Honest Dollar, Ecliptic Capital, EQUALS, CERN & Society Foundation, IEEE, Apple, IBM, BMC Software, Symbiot, Qlusters, Goldman Sachs
- **From:** Manassas, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** High school graduation, Temple High School, Temple Junior College
- **Known for:** Named an IBM Master Inventor., Co-founded Chaotic Moon Studios, acquired by Accenture in 2015., Co-founded Honest Dollar, acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2016.

## Career timeline

- **1994** — Moved to Austin to work at Apple, according to the biographical account; later worked in research and development.
- **1997** — Joined IBM; was named an IBM Master Inventor.
- **2003–2005** — Co-founder and CTO of security management company Symbiot.
- **2005–2007** — CTO at systems management company Qlusters.
- **2006** — Co-founded BarCamp Austin.
- **2007–2009** — Chief architect of open source at BMC Software; also co-founded iPhoneDevCamp in 2007.
- **2010** — Co-founded Chaotic Moon Studios with Ben Lamm and Mike Erwin.
- **2015** — Honest Dollar publicly launched; Accenture acquired Chaotic Moon in July.
- **2016** — Goldman Sachs announced its Honest Dollar acquisition agreement in March. EQUALS launched with ITU and UN Women in September.
- **2017** — Began chairing the IEEE Quantum Computing Working Group.
- **2018** — Strangeworks debuted at SXSW; Quantum Computing for Babies was published; supported the first CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme.
- **2019** — Co-founded Ecliptic Capital with Mike Erwin; CERN & Society Foundation announced him as its first official ambassador.
- **2023** — Strangeworks announced a $24 million Series A; co-authored Quantum Computing For Dummies with Floyd Earl Smith.
- **2025** — Strangeworks acquired Quantagonia on August 20.
- **2026** — Strangeworks introduced Aura and announced collaborations with Nauticus Robotics and Davidson.

## Achievements

- Named an IBM Master Inventor.
- Co-founded Chaotic Moon Studios, acquired by Accenture in 2015.
- Co-founded Honest Dollar, acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2016.
- Eisenhower Fellow.
- Founded the IEEE Quantum Computing Standards Working Group.
- First official ambassador of the CERN & Society Foundation.
- Co-author of Quantum Computing for Babies with Chris Ferrie and Quantum Computing For Dummies with Floyd Earl Smith.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Strangeworks announced a quantum optimization collaboration with Davidson on August 11, including a planned proof of concept for mission planning.
- **2026-08** — Strangeworks and Nauticus Robotics announced an exploratory collaboration on planning undersea fiber-optic sensing networks on August 4.
- **2026-07** — Strangeworks introduced Aura on July 21, describing a system for operational optimization and decision processes.
- **2025-08** — Strangeworks announced its acquisition of German optimization company Quantagonia on August 20.

## Links

- Website: https://whurley.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whurley
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/whurley
- GitHub: https://github.com/whurley
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/whurley
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whurley/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whurley

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/whurley
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26