Bill Gross — Idealab

Chairman

THE LATEST: Gross continues to innovate with recent projects focusing on renewable energy, transportation, robotics and more. Last year, Gross co-founded advertising technology company tvScientific Inc., while another company he co-founded, Elementary Robotics Inc., raised nearly $13 million in Series A funding. Meanwhile, Time named the HelioHeat technology created by Gross’ company Heliogen Inc. one of the top inventions of 2020.
BACKGROUND: Gross founded Pasadena-based Idealab in 1996. The long-running startup incubator has launched more than 150 companies and nearly 50 have been acquired or gone public. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, Gross launched his first company in 1985. Prior to establishing Idealab, he founded educational software publisher Knowledge Adventure. In 1998, he started early search engine GoTo/Overture, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo. Gross has been a member of the CalTech board of trustees for more than two decades.
YEARS ON THE LA500: 6
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