Ev Williams: From Blogger and Twitter to Obvious Ventures

Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, an angel investing community where aspiring and active angels learn from Hustle Fund’s approach, review curated deal flow, and connect with peers.

Evan “Ev” Williams is a technology entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Blogger, Twitter, Medium, Obvious Ventures, and Mozi. His public roles span investing, publishing, and social technology. Obvious Ventures reports that Williams is a co-founder of the firm and chairman of Medium. In 2024, he also co-founded Mozi.

What does Ev Williams do now?

Obvious Ventures lists Williams as a co-founder of the firm and chairman of Medium. His public title at Obvious is co-founder.

Williams also co-founded Mozi with Molly DeWolf Swenson in 2024. The firm’s Mozi announcement describes it as a private social network designed to help people see their friends in person.

His company history spans more than two decades, from co-founding Pyra Labs in 1999 to co-founding Mozi in 2024.

From Blogger to Mozi: Ev Williams’s career

Williams’s career moved through five recognizable chapters, each involving collaborators and a distinct company.

Pyra Labs and Blogger

Williams co-founded Pyra Labs in 1999. In his own account, he and two friends launched Blogger that year, giving people a more accessible way to publish on the web. Google acquired Pyra Labs in early 2003.

Blogger was Williams’s first company in this chronology. His documented venture-investing work came later with Obvious Ventures.

Odeo and Twitter

Williams co-founded the podcasting company Odeo in 2005. In 2006, Obvious Corp gave rise to Twitter, which Williams co-founded.

Twitter’s public filing records Williams as chief product officer from February to October 2008, then president and CEO from October 2008 to October 2010. He also served as chief financial officer for part of that period. These records document his roles and dates. They do not make Williams the platform’s sole creator.

For the investor side of Twitter’s early growth, our profile of Peter Fenton’s Twitter investment follows the Benchmark partner who backed the company when it was still small.

Medium

Williams introduced Medium publicly in August 2012 as a new place to publish online. A decade later, he announced that he would hand over the CEO role and remain involved as chairman of the board.

Obvious Ventures now reports that Williams is chairman of Medium. For investors assessing the sector, our guide to investing in media companies explains why media economics often look different from software economics.

Obvious Ventures

Williams restarted Obvious Corp with Biz Stone and Jason Goldman in 2011. That company and Obvious Ventures are separate organizations. Williams co-founded Obvious Ventures in 2014 with James Joaquin and Vishal Vasishth.

Obvious Ventures is the professional venture firm in Williams’s career chronology. His company profile names Branch, Beyond Meat, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Nest among his investments.

Mozi

Williams co-founded Mozi with Molly DeWolf Swenson. He described the product as a way to help friends spend more time together in person.

Mozi’s design centers on private plans for real-world connection. The company is still young, and its outcome remains uncertain.

Ev Williams’s investments and Obvious Ventures

Williams’s best-documented investment work sits inside Obvious Ventures. The firm describes its thesis as backing “world positive” entrepreneurs who are tackling large human and environmental problems. That investment thesis gives the team a stated filter for deciding which markets and founders fit.

Obvious’s current portfolio identifies Beyond Meat as a firm investment that later went public. Williams’s company biography says his investments have included Branch, Beyond Meat, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Nest. Those public examples establish historical involvement. They do not reveal his check size, ownership, role in each decision, or current holdings.

The firm remains active. In January 2026, Obvious announced its fifth core fund, OV5, at $360,360,360. A 2025 regulatory filing lists Williams as a managing member of that fund’s general partner, a legal fund role. His public team title remains co-founder.

Mozi shows why firm and personal evidence need careful labels. Williams co-founded the company, while Obvious announced that the firm led its seed round with a $4 million investment. That amount is the firm’s stated investment, and the announcement does not give a verified total round size or personal Williams check. Conflating founder involvement, a firm investment, and a personal holding would tell three different stories as if they were one.

Hustle Fund’s investor lens: three lessons from Williams’s career

Williams’s history can sharpen an investor’s questions. It cannot prove that a founder, market, or fund will succeed. Startup outcomes depend on timing, execution, luck, and events that no diligence process can predict.

1. Founder perspective changes what gets noticed

Williams has documented operating roles at Pyra Labs, Twitter, and Medium, followed by professional venture investing at Obvious Ventures and a 2024 co-founding role at Mozi. That chronology does not establish why he chose each later role. For investors, documented experience belongs in diligence, while a causal story about that experience needs its own evidence.

As our co-founder and General Partner Elizabeth Yin writes in Democratizing Knowledge, “Investors use their life perspective to assess. For this reason, we need more funders with more varied life perspectives.” Your operating experience can help you form sharper questions about a customer problem. It can also create blind spots, which is why a varied investment team can improve the discussion.

For a founder with deep experience in a problem, ask what they learned that an outsider would struggle to know. Then ask what evidence could prove their interpretation wrong. Both questions belong in the same diligence process.

2. A thesis should change the decisions you make

Obvious’s world-positive thesis names a desired kind of impact and a category of problem. The useful test is whether the thesis helps the firm decline deals that sit outside it, compare deals that fit, and explain what the team expects to learn.

An angel can apply the same discipline on a smaller scale. Write down the customer, market, stage, geography, and founder qualities you understand. Add the risks you are willing to accept and the evidence that would make you pass. A thesis earns its keep when it narrows choices.

3. Judge the process separately from the outcome

A famous founder’s later investment still deserves a fresh decision. Brand, prior exits, and a familiar market may improve access or context. They do not remove product risk, market risk, or price risk.

Our co-founder and General Partner Elizabeth Yin offers direct process advice: “The more disciplined you are in your thought process/rubric, the more you can improve over time.” Record your expectations before investing. Revisit the memo when the company reports progress, misses a target, or changes direction. Over time, you can see whether your reasoning improved even when luck shaped the outcome.

Early-stage investing is risky, and many startups fail. Use one company profile to inform your questions. Build a decision process that works across a portfolio.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Ev Williams?

Ev Williams, whose full name is Evan Williams, is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Blogger, Twitter, Medium, Obvious Ventures, and Mozi, and previously served as Twitter’s president and CEO.

What does Ev Williams do now?

Obvious Ventures currently lists Williams as its co-founder and as chairman of Medium. He also co-founded Mozi with Molly DeWolf Swenson in 2024.

Which companies did Ev Williams co-found?

Williams co-founded Pyra Labs, the company behind Blogger; Odeo; Twitter; Medium; Obvious Ventures; and Mozi. He also restarted Obvious Corp with Biz Stone and Jason Goldman in 2011. These businesses involved different teams and should not be presented as solo projects.

What is Ev Williams’s connection to Obvious Ventures?

Williams co-founded Obvious Ventures in 2014 with James Joaquin and Vishal Vasishth. The firm lists him as a co-founder, and regulatory filings identify him as a managing member of the general partner for its fifth core fund.

Turn a founder story into a better investment process

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Disclaimer: This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Startup investments are speculative, illiquid, long term, and may result in total loss. Past outcomes do not guarantee future results.