Meet Bill

He is the founder or principal owner of over twenty companies and nonprofit enterprises. He is now focusing his energy, expertise, and experience on turning The Launch Box into a value-creating machine for other entrepreneurs.  

In 2004, after a decade at Deloitte, Bill started the innovation consultancy, Kalypso, with friend and colleague George Young. The two of them and their partners grew the firm to operate on a global scale with over 300 people delivering on the promise of innovation for the world’s most successful companies across multiple industry sectors. As one of the founders and the managing partner for the firm’s first decade, Bill defined the strong set of core values that created and nurtured the culture of this wildly successful venture. In 2020, the firm was sold to Rockwell Automation and the team continues to help clients innovate in a digital world.

Bill is a proud graduate of Pearland High School, Texas State University, and the University of Texas, which granted him a master’s degree in business administration and cursed him to Longhorn fandom. He did not make the interview list when Deloitte came to campus and had to fight his way onto the schedule. Story has it that the vote on the decision to hire him was nine against and one in favor. He is eternally grateful for the one.  

Bill found his true vocation when he launched the nonprofit Stelos Alliance in 2008 with longtime friend, Melinda Keller. The mission of the alliance is to help extraordinary young leaders at the collegiate level reach their potential through financial assistance and educational programs. Stelos awards numerous scholarships annually to deserving student leaders. It is also home to the Housley Principled Leadership Program which Bill teaches with passion and purpose to dozens of young people each year at Texas State.

Bill returned to his roots in the hospitality business in 2013 with the start of Muy’Ono, a resort management business in Belize. Under the leadership of good friend and CEO, Cortney Lebens, Muy’Ono manages a portfolio of resorts, islands, and related businesses. The firm leads the industry in Belize with innovative marketing strategies and an “adventure in luxury” approach to creating guest experiences.

Along the way, Bill has served as a director on multiple corporate and nonprofit boards including the Texas State University Development Foundation and Alumni Association, Hornblower Group, and Equity Estates. He has taught, mentored, and guided the careers of hundreds of successful professionals as a business leader, coach, teacher, advisor, and friend. Bill’s businesses have been recognized with countless awards and accolades for their relentless focus on values, professional development, and philanthropy.

His latest business venture is The Launch Box, a platform for starting and growing professional service firms that enables founders to focus exclusively on selling, serving clients, nurturing talent, and growing the business. The business offers strategic advice, investment capital and a comprehensive set of turnkey services that sets founders up for success with income support and growth capital while eliminating the burdens of establishing and managing complex business systems.   

Through his family investment firm, Kianalei Capital, Bill is the principal investor in several startup companies, real estate ventures, a wine business, a charter boat, a good fantasy fiction trilogy, a bad feature-length comedy, and an island or four. His passion for exploration and adventure keeps him moving around the world in search of more extreme forms of hiking, SCUBA diving, snow skiing, boating, and all types of fishing.

Bill keeps his “well north of fifty” body in condition with a punishing exercise regimen and a crazy diet that includes lots of really good wine. While he lives with a “no fixed address” mentality, he feels at home in Austin, Telluride, Belize, Hawaii, Napa, the Texas Hill Country, or wherever his boat happens to be.