Serial entrepreneur Bill Liao began his journey as a self-taught hardware engineer in Melbourne, fixing computers while he and his wife worked dead-end jobs. A transformative personal development course and his wife’s involvement with the Hunger Project inspired a leap of faith: Bill left his job, moved into sales, and ultimately built two highly successful companies. Motivated by both personal growth and a passion for making a difference, he went on to co-found global initiatives such as CoderDojo, which empowers young coders worldwide, and WeForest, a nonprofit now responsible for growing over 110 million trees. Bill’s story is defined by values of kindness, curiosity, and impact, showing how a commitment to purpose and embracing opportunity can spark movements that advance both technology and diversity.

1. For people who may not be aware, what was your origin story before you became an entrepreneur?

I started out as a self-taught hardware engineer, I used to fix people’s computers for companies like Canon in Melbourne. Both my wife and I were in fairly dead-end jobs and she got called into her boss’s office. Her boss said ‘I’ve done personal development work, and I’ll pay for you’. We did the course and came out of it learning that if you want a better life thenyou can get there much faster by doing what you love. My wife then went to the Hunger Project in Melbourne in the days following this. At this point she’s pregnant and we were in debt, living in my parents’ rented out house. 

The Hunger Project was incredible – they empower women to take control of their lives and create opportunities for themselves and their families. My wife told me she had already pledged $5000 to them. I went to them and said that unfortunately we don’t have that kind of money to pledge at the moment. I met one of the country directors, and she explained that a pledge is different from a cheque. She did a thought experiment with us and asked us to think forward 2-3 years. How will you have become successful to fulfil that pledge? and I imagined myself holding a big novelty cheque—I wanted to be that guy. 

That led me to quit my job, I then went into sales and taught other engineers how to sell. I started my own company and the company was eventually sold for $1.2bn. I created another company and that ended up selling for about $2.5bn. (Although I did well out of the deals, I did not personally receive all of that amount of money). I moved to Ireland and joined SOSV ventures. I then met James Whelton. He had identified a problem I had while building my businesses – there aren’t enough coders in the world (still aren’t). I had met several start-ups who said there’s amazing founders, great marketing and sales teams but we’re outsourcing our coding. To me, it’s like saying I’m going to open a world class restaurant without a Chef and outsourcing creating food to McDonalds.

James had a start-up and he said I have three full time developers that he had taught himself. He had a coding club in school but because he had graduated and the teachers lacked the skills to continue it the club was shutting down. All schools taught were the European Computer Driving Licence, which was for Microsoft Office-type products outside of coding. I said what if you continued the club outside the school. We got to 127 Dojo’s in 25 countries in 2 years without having a bank account. Now it’s 250 Dojo’s operating in 69 countries worldwide and with the work we’re doing with RaspberryPi Foundation, it has an $715 million endowment.

2. You first came to prominence in Ireland as the co-founder of CoderDojo. What led you to co-founding the charity and can you explain why it became such a phenomenal success?

I’ve built more than 1 global movement. CoderDojo was designed to spread and built with scalability in mind. I think that anything that is built well with a good team and fulfils a need in a beneficial way, has a better chance of succeeding. It would have been a surprise to me if it didn’t take off. Neither of us got paid. We were purely trying to cure a real problem. One of the things I love about it is that everyone can be themselves. In one of the Dojo’s I overheard a young kid say “I love that my wheelchair is invisible here”.

3. CoderDojo’s ‘Coolest Project’ competition often highlights creative work in DEI. What standout projects have you seen in this space, and how do you think AI is changing the landscape for these young innovators?

There are many projects it’s hard to pick just a few. I’ve seen a 15 year old start a commercial business selling enterprise software to major companies. I’ve seen others solve a special need that they or their community have or others that are solving an everyday problem. Just seeing the joy in any person starting things that work and seeing the process and change they go through from the start of the project to the end is just incredible. Post-Covid we did a lot of work in rebuilding the clubs. Covid had a real effect on all organisations that run club-style programs. If you look at the likes of Men’s Shed for example they had the same problem of getting people back into the sheds.

I’m also interested in longevity. Socialising with people is better for your health than quitting smoking. It does more for your health than giving up the top three things that can kill you. Parents have to get kids out of bedrooms and get them socialising with others. It’s beneficial not only for the child, but for society and the mental health of everyone around them too. I applaud organisations like the GAA that bring people together, but that’s not for everyone. We need to be physically together and also mentally together too. That’s why I think it works because we fulfil a need and tap into an interest that brings people together. 

To answer the second part of the question; AI is tremendous for making certain tasks easier, and terrible for other tasks, creative tasks for example. It won’t be replacing coders any time soon. It makes subtle bugs that won’t be found until the code is tested. If you test for AI coding, the test is does the code run? It can’t decipher the crap in the code if the code runs. The AI only learns that the code runs or not and it cannot find subtle bugs like security flaws because  the code still runs even though it could be riddled such critical flaws. It’s a benefit and a hazard. Hazards are subtle, benefits are obvious. Proper coders need experience and skill to get really good, AI will likely never be there.

4. One of your most successful NGOs WeForest, now has over 110 million trees growing. How did you get involved in that company and what have been some of your best experiences with the company?

It started with my daughter saying “Daddy we broke the planet, you’d better fix it”. I then found out that the fastest way to increase the carbon in the atmosphere is to increase cloud cover. The best way to do that is by increasing the forestry in the world. Everyone thinks that it’s rainforest that absorbs rain, it’s not. The rainforest produces the rain. It’s a far more powerful cooling force than CO2. With less CO2 the climate can cool and we can slow down climate change and improve the planet. It can enrich humanity and enrich people from poverty.

If you go on the website weforest.org you can see all of the programmes and the statistics of the impact that we have had. I have a WhatsApp feed and every day I get those images and see women that tackle problems and improve their lives and the lives of the people in their villages. I always say that women are usually the agents of change. If you want to get things done, find the women that are going to help you succeed in that mission.

5. In 2016 you and your the Managing Director of SOSV Ventures is Sean O’Sullivan wrote an article for ThinkBusiness.ie where you said there are 5 key areas in building a business:

A good team

A strategy

Customer traction

A differentiated product

Commitment

Do you still think this or are there any other factors involved in building a business today?

I think all of those are true today. The one that I would include now is visibility. It’s getting harder and harder to be seen in today’s fractured media environment. You really have to put some effort into being seen and getting your message out there. I would also advise everyone working in a company, not just the marketing team or the CEO, to start learning how to use AI to increase the visibility of the company. This will mean that they connect with others that have similar interests and then their users can start to get free advertising from that. Start talking to staff about AI and get the staff to teach you things they are expert in and your product’s name will magically reappear in feeds. It’s easy to do and currently it’s free.

7. In your global ventures and investments, how do you ensure DEI is embedded in organisational culture from the start?

I would not prescribe that. I think that what you have to do is that don’t discriminate on the wrong things like  race, religion, gender. In fact if other people are discriminating against women or immigrants then the smart move as an investor is to focus there as thats going to be  an under represented source of great returns!. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because you may get the best company because others aren’t looking at the potential investment the same way you are. Most of the best companies in the world are started by an immigrant or 1st generation immigrant. I have experience of being discriminated against because I was an immigrant and lots of those people that discriminated against me have missed out because of their bias, and that’s been replicated around the world. 

8. You have previously said your core values are: 

Kindness 

Curiosity 

Getting shit done 

Family

Civilisation. 

How do these values show up in your investment life and can you give any examples of specific companies you’ve invested in based on those values?

All of the companies I invest in are based on those core values. I’m an ethical investor in that I don’t invest in gambling or munitions companies. Anything that doesn’t have positive benefits to civilisation and people. To reject investment because you think that the founders are too good natured, is a terrible way to miss out on good people. 

9. Recently your portfolio has seen a huge amount of investment in AI. Generally what do you think the impact of AI will be on society and how can it benefit the DEI area such as people with disabilities?

AI has its benefits and hazards. If it’s a benefit it’s not my problem. Someone with Dyslexia can find AI is hugely beneficial because it can summarise lots of complex hard to read information into more accessible information. It gets new ideas into formats people can understand. It can be a game-changer for them. AI are trained on human publication – they have a white male bias because of the volume of information. So while the people may be getting more accessible information that information will be biased because that’s the information the AI has been trained on coming through in real life.

10. Famously you’re not a college graduate, do you think it’s harder or easier to get started without a college degree now? What should businesses be doing to attract more people without a college degree to their companies?

It’s harder now if you’re unskilled and don’t have something you can do well, it’s harder to get there without a degree. If you’re Tech savvy or have a skill that’s marketable it’s easier. For example if you’re a skilled trades person like a carver, it’s never been easier to get started online. Have a few creations, build a website, start a Shopify store and there’s your marketplace. If you’re not good at anything, it’s really hard to get your head above the noise and make yourself stand out. Most apprenticeships have been destroyed, how do you get that skill if there’s no one to teach or mentor you?

There has been a very dumb change in laws making them unattractive. The laws were brought in because the lawmakers said it was having a negative effect and exploited vulnerable people. Now the jobs don’t exist anymore. Menial tasks have been or are about to be replaced by AI.

That said even if you do a degree, chances of employment aren’t as good as they were previously. And there are entirely new careers too. 20 years ago there were no Youtubers. 20 years from now there will be industries that we haven’t even seen yet.

11. Are there any other people, companies or programmes in the area of DEI in Ireland or abroad that you are a big fan of?

I haven’t engaged with programmes in DEI. I really respect some great thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari on how the universe works. Biology and ecology monocultures are extremely fragile. At WeForest we are heavy on the diversity of permaculture. You can’t have 1 monoculture talking about a problem and get to the best answer.