Bill Tai

Th e “K ite Gu y” of Sil ico n Va lle y

By Paul Lang and Ryan Riccitelli

L ike many kiteboarders out there,

Bill Tai is passionate about the sport.
He was one of the early regulars at
Third Avenue in San Francisco Bay, a spot
famous for its proximity to Silicon Valley. His
enthusiasm for the sport has attracted many of
his friends and colleagues to kiteboarding and
he has introduced hundreds of kiteboarders
to the sport through his annual kite camps
in Maui that he organizes with Susi Mai. All
in all, Bill is just like the rest of us addicts,
kiting every possible opportunity and talking
about the sport enough that some know him
as the “Kite Guy” in Silicon Valley, but what
separates Bill from most of the rest of us kite
bums is what he does for a living.

Bill is a partner at Charles River Ventures. He

is a VC, which stands for Venture Capitalist.
This means that Bill looks for people with
great ideas and helps them build those ideas
into companies that make lots of money.
Many of the people that he has introduced
to the sport are executives or founders
of Silicon Valley companies. Mai Tai kite
camps are not only about kiteboarding,
but they are also about networking for the
aspiring kiteboarders, many of whom also
work in the high-tech industry. His story
is a great example of one of the reasons
kiteboarding is so great: The interesting
mix of people doing the sport. On any given
day at Third Avenue, you might be sharing
a session with someone who lives in his
van and someone like Bill who has been
involved in 16 startups that have gone on to
become publicly listed companies. It goes
to show that a sport like kiteboarding can
bring together a wide range of people who
become friends because they all have one
thing in common: Their love for the sport.
Bill Tai poses with Susi Mai at the 2009 Mai Tai Kite Camp
in Maui. This camp has become the place to be seen for
kiteboarders from Silicon Valley. Photo Christopher Michel

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Can you tell us a little bit about who Bill Tai was growing up? I was a typical tech-geek
when I was young. I was taking apart TVs in fourth grade and by junior high I was stripping
radio shack kits to build circuit boards to fool pay phones with signal tones to make free calls.
I loved physics and chemistry and was captain of my high school Mathletes team. Somehow I
also managed to be involved in sports year round and was always known as a good athlete even
though I was a science geek. I ended up majoring in Electrical Engineering and graduated with
honors from the University of Illinois before going on to Harvard for a Masters in Business.
What led you to get into kiteboarding and how has your life changed since? Other
water activities led me to kiteboarding. I started sailing in the mid 80s; Later on a visit to Maui
I saw guys doing loops off waves on windsurfers and said to my friend, “Hey, how awesome
is that! We can do that!” and converted to windsurfing on that trip. It took me another ten
years to get good at it! I saw kites for the first time on a wave sailing trip in 2000 to Punta San
Carlos, Baja. Aaron Gershenberg of Silicon Valley Bank got me to go on a trip where Sierra
Emory and Ricker Alford (then owner of Extreme Sports Maui) brought two-line Wipika
Kites. When I saw them ride I had the same reaction - “How awesome is that! We should be
doing that!” That winter a kite found its way to me. It was a 9.5 Naish AR5, one of the first
four-line kites on the market. It had belonged to Laird Hamilton, who passed it on to a friend
in Los Angeles, who passed it on to a mutual friend in San Francisco named John Murray (an
investment banker I windsurfed with), who passed it on to me. In April 2001 I was launching
that kite on a field at Coyote Point to teach myself to kite. Since then, as the sport’s popularity
has increased over time, kiteboarding has helped me stand out in the tech community in Silicon
Valley. While I was definitely not the first kiter in the valley, I was lucky to have been in the
early wave of folks to try kiting here.
Many people in kiteboarding only know your name because of the Mai Tai Kite
Camps you organize. Can you briefly describe what you do for a living? While
I started my career as a chip designer, I’ve been a venture capitalist for the past 18 years.
What I do for a living today is quite fun. I work with creative, passionate people every
day to help them start technology-based startup companies. I provide funding to help
entrepreneurs start, launch, build, and scale their ideas into sustainable enterprises if there
is a chance to build one. Sometimes they don’t work out, but I’ve been fortunate to have
been doing this long enough that over a dozen startup projects I’ve touched have grown to a
point that they could become publicly listed companies on Nasdaq.
If you find out that the head of a company you are looking at is also a kiteboarder,
does that increase their chances of doing business with your firm? It definitely
increases the probability of a first meeting. Thereafter the people and ideas have to stand
on their own merits, but the fact that someone kites or is willing and interested to learn
tells me something positive about that person’s personality. Anyone willing to kite is likely
going to be high energy, confident about their ability to handle complex environments, and
not afraid to take calculated risks. If they have been kiteboarding for a while, they are likely
folks that are well balanced and have learned not to take stupid risks either, as we all know
what happens when you do that!
Do you get many fellow kiteboarders pitching business ideas to you at the beach
because they know you are a VC? Absolutely. Much of the networking that happens in the
Valley occurs in informal venues. Open, continuous discussion and testing of ideas are seminal
part of the culture of Silicon Valley. There are very few secrets here and as a result, ideas get
vetted pretty well before, during, and after they are put to practice. There’s no way to put
dozens of passionate tech people within 100 feet of each other and not have people constantly
testing ideas out on one another. The continuous dialog, entrepreneur to entrepreneur,
entrepreneur to VC, and vice versa is part of what keeps the Valley competitive, fresh, and
leading edge.
How does kiteboarding fit into your schedule? Do you get to kite more or less
because of your job? A super good week for me is probably two hours on the water – a
Friday afternoon hour session
and an hour on either Saturday
or Sunday during the windy
season. It probably only adds
up to around 30 hours a year
on the water at Third Avenue.
In addition to that, I almost
always hit a warm, windy
location during vacation and
will snow kite a weekend or
two in the winter.
Do the thrills you get in
the business world rival
g so much that the ones you get on the
Bill loves kiteboardin
makes him water? The thrill of victory
even pumping up a kite
smile. Photo Susi Mai
32 t h e k i t e b oar d e r .com
at
Pete Cabrinha and Bill
the 2009 Mai Tai Kite
Camp.
r Mic hel
Photo Christophe
and the agony of defeat feel similar in many ways but they
differ in timeframe and scope. The company building
process is a super long cycle where feedback from the
market is measured in months or years. In kiting you get
instant feedback on whether or not you are making real
progress. The thing that is common to both is that they are
constantly evolving – nothing stays static in either world
so they both keep you on your toes. You can never get too
comfortable or cocky in either or you will get something
handed to you for sure.
You are based in the San Francisco Bay area. What was
it like learning to kiteboard there? How does the kiting
there compare to other places you have traveled? I
suppose if I had not been windsurfing in the cold currents of
the Bay Area first, it would have been more difficult in the
sport’s earlier years when the gear was not as conducive to
easy relaunching and staying upwind. Now that the gear is
so user friendly, kiting in the Bay Area is not that different
than warm water places so long as you own a comfy wetsuit.
If there are key differences, I’d say that the variety here is
tremendous compared to most places. Within a reasonable
drive are flattish areas to jump and practice tricks like Third
Avenue, wave riding at Waddell, and super interesting and
variable conditions at Crissy Field and Ocean Beach among
other spots.
I’d also say that the while kiting communities are fun
and interesting everywhere I have been, the Bay Area kiting
community is unusual in its composition. It’s very reflective
of the population base in the Silicon Valley – full of people
from all over the world that have dropped everything in
life to move to a place where they can most easily pursue
their passion and vision around innovation and technology-
based businesses. People who pursue startups or kiteboard
are usually interesting people that are full of passion and
persistence, and who have a willingness to step forward into
the unknown and unproven with vigor. Kiting and startups
appeal to a distinct personality type.
Third Ave. is unique because there is an interesting
mix of people who ride there, from the average
kite-bum living in his car to the wealthy founders of
Silicon Valley tech companies. Does this mix create
any tension, or does everyone get along because of
their passion for the sport? Silicon Valley is too expensive
a place for true kite bums to live out of a car for very long! But
seriously, this question highlights another similarity between
kiting and the culture of Silicon Valley. They are both very
egalitarian, probably for different reasons, but they share
an ethos. The opportunity set the Valley presents can turn
any regular tech geek into a financial success overnight, so
class lines, if they exist, are very blurred. People here are not
necessarily judged by the size of their savings. Rather, they are
judged by their thought processes and their ability to lead or
contribute to a group’s success.
Kiting fits this ethos very well because it is so community
driven. Kiting builds community because kiters are dependent
on one another in a way that participants in other sports are
 Kiteboarding is an insanely interesting sport with great
visual appeal. Lots of folks that see kiting are drawn to it
immediately and can imagine themselves doing it. Similarly,
successful tech startups have universal appeal to the business
press. Almost everyone has the dream of being in the role of
a super successful entrepreneur who has beaten conventional
wisdom with the power of innovative thinking to launch a
successful breakaway company. They are similar in that respect
and massively appealing to the overlap of those communities
as a result. I think that because of the subject matter and the
types of people that come on our trip, many of whom come
from high profile startups, that the business press sees an
appealing story that needs to be told.

Describe your dream session on your dream set-up.

Winds in the mid 20’s with a Cabrinha Switchblade or Naish
Cult and my 130 cm twin tip from Cabarete Kiteboards.
Solid, steady, boosty wind and warm, clear water in a lagoon
or river mouth opening up to an ocean with waves.

Anyone that hangs out with you can’t help but feel
Bill took this self-portrait on a wave in Tarifa.
Photo Janet Lightbody
your genuine excitement or “stoke” for kiteboarding.
What is it about this sport that really flicks your
switch? I believe that people feel the most alive when
not. Three years ago, it was not uncommon for me to have they are learning something new and pushing themselves forward mentally, physically, and
to speed dial a dozen people on my way to Third, hoping to emotionally. Kiteboarding is a sport that constantly gives you a sense of growth if you want
convince a single person to kite at the same time so that we to stay on that curve. In addition to that, variety is the spice of life. Kiting never gets boring
could both have someone else there to launch and land. That because every day is different, even if you kite in the same spot from day to day. There are
need at Third is high because it is a narrow spot surrounded by so many variables it never really gets routine and it’s forever stimulating. It’s hard to find any
rocks. Compared to other ‘extreme’ sports, there is no other sport that can make you feel as alive on a consistent basis.
activity that requires you to befriend as many people. If you
kite, you need as many friends as possible to get that twelve What is the best advice you can give anyone who is thinking about getting into
seconds of help when you launch or land. Without that, the this sport? Stop thinking about it and give it a shot, NOW! It’s an amazing sport filled
experience is more difficult and much more dangerous as we all with really interesting people. There’s a great sense of community around the sport as well.
know. With help, and with the bonding that occurs in getting The shared sets of experiences you will feel with others who kite will bring out parts of
to know people that help each other out, life is just richer. your personality that are good for you. Your empathy for others will increase, as will your
selflessness whenever you see someone who needs help. Also, it’s not as hard as it looks, but
Is it true that you are responsible for getting a number definitely take lessons from a qualified instructor because you will save yourself a lot of time
of high-ranking Silicon Valley executives into kiting? I and avoid a lot of mistakes.
have definitely become a facilitator for many people that have
wanted to learn, including founders and executives from high What do you think the kiteboarding industry could learn from looking at Silicon
profile tech companies. I have always been super enthusiastic Valley businesses? I don’t know that there is much to learn there, but the pace of
about the sport and in my earlier years would get dozens of innovation in the kiteboarding industry at this point mirrors the Valley for sure. Silicon
people to give it a try every season. Over time that energy Valley businesses are primarily known for their ability to move ahead rapidly to disrupt
institutionalized itself in my annual camp with Susi Mai. older businesses with new technology. There is a huge
There have probably been several hundred folks from around amount of innovation that occurs
the world that have come to experience kiting and learn to constantly and some of it works at Third
You can sometimes find Bill kiting
kiteboard with Susi and me. and some of it doesn’t. People Avenue in San Francisco Bay, the
closest kite
n Stewart
are not afraid to experiment. The spot to Silicon Valley. Photo Austi
Where did the idea come from to start the Mai Tai kiteboarding industry is similar
camp on Maui? Mai Tai evolved very organically. It grew out – constant innovation and lots of
of an annual windsurfing trip I did on Maui with a number excitement. I hope it lasts!
of tech execs. A group of us would windsurf out of Ken
Goldman’s place at Sugar Cove. Once I converted to kiting Would you ever consider
with Aaron Gershenberg, one by one I got the whole crew to investing in a kiteboarding
try kiting. Over several years, others from the Valley would business? Historically I have
come because the trip became known as “the trip” to give invested in technology from the
kiting a try and to network with interesting folks from ‘ground up’ so to speak. Computer
Silicon Valley. chips, leading to systems level
In 2002 or so, I had introduced a very successful tech hardware, to the software that
startup founder to kiting named Bill Lee, who went on to runs on hardware, to internet
set up Extreme Hotels in the Dominican Republic as a infrastructure, and lately consumer
side hobby. When my Maui trip became too large for me to web. If there has been a constant,
handle on my own he connected me with instructors and it’s been technology based
professional riders like Susi, and Mai Tai as we know it was businesses that are horizontal in
born. He had always wanted me to meet Susi because our nature – meaning applications of
names really are “Mai” and “Tai.” technology that might become
super high volume in usage. If any
The Mai Tai Kite Camps have been featured on segments that touch kiteboarding
CNN, MSNBC, and Forbes.com. Why do you think can fit that model, it’s not out of the
the media is so curious about what you are doing? range of possibilities.

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