Bill Hambrecht is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 investment banker and chairman of W.R. Hambrecht + Co. which he founded in 1998. He helped persuade Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

 to use an Internet-based auction for their initial public offering

Initial public offering

An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...

 (IPO) in 2004, instead of a more traditional method using banks and other financial companies to find buyers. He is credited with popularizing this "OpenIPO

OpenIPO

OpenIPO is an innovative auction process pioneered by the investment bank WR Hambrecht + Co for distributing stock in an initial public offering to individuals and institutions through an efficient and equitable process. It is a modified Dutch auction process which allows shares of an initial...

" model, using Dutch auction

Dutch auction

A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined reserve price is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price...

s to allow anyone, not just investing insiders, to buy stock in an IPO, potentially raising more money for startups. Some of the companies he has helped have an IPO like this include Overstock.com

Overstock.com

Overstock.com , also known by its shortcut, O.co, is an online retailer headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, near Salt Lake City. Founded in 1997 by Robert Brazell, under the name D2: Discounts Direct, it was a pioneering online seller of surplus merchandise which, upon its failure in 1999,...

, Ravenswood winery and Salon.com

Salon.com

Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

.

Hambrecht is also credited as one of the first major investors to recognize the value of technology and biotech companies, helping to take Apple Computer

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

, Genentech

Genentech

Genentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...

 and Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...

 public in the 1980s with his earlier San Francisco-based company Hambrecht & Quist

Hambrecht & Quist

Hambrecht & Quist was an investment bank based in San Francisco, California noted for its focus on the technology and internet sectors. H&Q was founded by William Hambrecht and George Quist in California, 1968....

, which he founded in 1968 and which also backed the IPOs of Netscape

Netscape

Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...

, MP3.com

MP3.com

MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...

, and Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

. The firm was bought by Chase Manhattan in 1999. In 1997, he sponsored the foundation of BOOM

BOOM

Founded in 1997, BOOM Securities Limited 有限公司), is a fully licensed Broker / Dealer regulated by Securities and Futures Commission and headquartered in Hong Kong....

 Securities (H.K.) Limited.

In 2007 he was in the news for planning a professional football league, the United Football League, to compete with the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. Along with AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

 CEO Tim Armstrong

Tim Armstrong (executive)

Tim Armstrong is CEO and Chairman of AOL, Inc. Previously, he was President of Google's Americas operation. He replaced the outgoing Randy Falco as current CEO as of March 12, 2009....

, Hambrecht pledged $2 million to start the league up, and lured its first owner, billionaire Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....

. In the 1980s Hambrecht was a minority investor in the Oakland Invaders

Oakland Invaders

Oakland Invaders was a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League from 1983 through 1985.-In reaction to the Raiders relocating to Los Angeles:...

, a charter member of the failed United States Football League

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

.

He is a 1957 graduate of Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

. He has been listed as one of the top political donors in the country, giving mostly to Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 candidates, and credits Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...

, whom he met in the 1970s, with inspiring him to get involved in politics.

William Hambrecht is on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut

American University of Beirut

The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...

, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

. He was also on the AOL Inc. Board of Directors from Dec. 2010 to Feb. 2010.

United Football League

Hambrecht invested in the upstart United Football League. It was announced on August 11, 2009 that Hambrecht was stepping forward to be the owner of the Las Vegas Locomotives

Las Vegas Locomotives

The Las Vegas Locomotives are a professional American football team based in Las Vegas, Nevada who play in the United Football League. The team plays its home games in Sam Boyd Stadium, home field for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Jim Fassel is the franchise's head coach, president, and...

franchise.