
07/04/2023
Bill Gross has discovered one factor that stands out from the others — and surprised
even him. Bill has founded a lot of startups, and incubated many others — and he got
curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from
hundreds of companies, his own and other people's, and ranked each company on five
key factors. Bill Gross is the founder of Idealab, a business incubator focused on new
ideas. (He's now the chair and CEO.) He helped create GoTo.com, the first sponsored
search company. He also created the Snap! search engine, which allows users to
preview hyperlinks.
Gross has been an entrepreneur since high school, when he founded a solar energy
company. In college, he patented a new loudspeaker design, and after school he
started a company that was later acquired by Lotus, and then launched an educational
software publishing company. Now, he serves on the boards of companies in the areas
of automation, software and renewable energy.
Bill Gross has discovered one factor that stands out from the others — and surprised