# William Hockey

> William Hockey co-founded Plaid - the invisible rails that power Venmo, Coinbase, and thousands of fintech apps - then quietly bought a bank. As co-founder and co-CEO of Column, he built the only nationally chartered bank designed for developers, processing 40% of Bay Area fintech money movement with a 110-person team generating $200M in revenue and $100M+ in free cash flow. No outside investors, no VC dilution, just a former farm kid from Central California who learned that the best way to fix broken financial infrastructure is to own it.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Column
- **Organizations:** Column, Plaid, Scale AI
- **From:** San Luis Obispo, California, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** High School Diploma, The Thacher School, BBA, Computer Science and Economics, Emory University (Goizueta Business School)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Plaid, the API infrastructure connecting 12,000+ financial institutions to apps used by millions, Negotiated $5.3B Visa acquisition of Plaid in January 2020 - one of the largest fintech deals ever, Built Column into a nationally chartered bank generating $200M revenue and $100M+ free cash flow with 110 employees

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Summer intern at Bain & Company in Atlanta; meets Zachary Perret at a rock climbing gym
- **2012** — Co-founds Plaid with Zach Perret in New York City, age 21, immediately after graduating Emory
- **2013** — Wins TechCrunch Disrupt NYC with 'Rambler' app; secures seed funding from Spark Capital, NEA, Google Ventures; moves to San Francisco
- **2013-2014** — Signs Venmo as Plaid's first major customer through an engineering friend
- **2014-2019** — Serves as CTO and President of Plaid, building all technical infrastructure; raises $300M+ from Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, a16z
- **2019** — Steps down from day-to-day operations at Plaid at age 29; begins quietly building Column
- **2020** — Visa announces $5.3B acquisition of Plaid; Hockey and Perret briefly become fintech's newest billionaires
- **2021** — DOJ sues to block Visa-Plaid merger; deal terminated; Plaid raises $425M Series D at $13.4B valuation; Hockey begins Column in earnest
- **2022** — Column publicly announced in April; acquires Northern California National Bank for ~$50M, rebranding as Column National Association
- **2022** — Joins Scale AI Board of Directors (March 2022)
- **2024** — Column forms strategic partnership with Mercury; revenue grows to ~$200M
- **2025** — Column launches Realtime payments product in the US; rolls out three new credit products; co-authors Hegemoney newsletter with Chief Economist Jess Hoversen
- **2025** — Makes angel investment in Town (March 2025)

## Achievements

- Co-founded Plaid, the API infrastructure connecting 12,000+ financial institutions to apps used by millions
- Negotiated $5.3B Visa acquisition of Plaid in January 2020 - one of the largest fintech deals ever
- Built Column into a nationally chartered bank generating $200M revenue and $100M+ free cash flow with 110 employees
- Column processes approximately 40% of all fintech money movement in the Bay Area tech ecosystem
- Bootstrapped Column entirely using personal Plaid equity (pledging $1B+ as collateral) - zero outside investors
- Acquired a national banking charter (NorCal National Bank, ~$50M) to build developer-native banking infrastructure
- Won TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2013 with 'Rambler', providing Plaid's first external validation
- Made 38+ angel investments with focus on fintech infrastructure, compliance AI, and enterprise software
- Serves on Scale AI's Board of Directors
- Achieved 85% gross margins at Column - extraordinary for a financial institution
- Named Bloomberg Billionaire following Visa deal announcement in January 2020

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Major profile published by Upstarts Media covering Column's $200M revenue, 40% Bay Area market share, and Hockey's geopolitical views on fintech
- **2025-10** — Column launched three new credit products enabling clients to build lending programs
- **2025-10** — Column formed strategic partnership with Mercury
- **2025-06** — Hockey posted on X about Column's novel Stock Appreciation Rights employee equity structure
- **2025-05** — Column launched Realtime payments product in the United States
- **2025-03** — Made angel investment in Town (Seed Round)
- **2025-01** — Co-authored Hegemoney newsletter launch with Column Chief Economist Jess Hoversen

## Links

- Website: https://www.hegemoney.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-hockey-04536710/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/williamhockey
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whockey

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/william-hockey
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-30