Bill Mcaleer

Bill McAleer co-founded Voyager Capital in 1997 and serves as Managing Director. Voyager is one of the longest-running early-stage venture firms in the Pacific Northwest, with more than $565 million under management across five funds. Over its history the firm has backed 75-plus companies that have collectively created over $10 billion in market value, and McAleer himself has guided portfolio companies through roughly $5 billion in exit transactions, including several IPOs. He brings more than 35 years of combined investing and senior operating experience in the technology industry.

Before founding Voyager, McAleer spent three years as Managing Director of e.liance Partners, advising information-technology companies on strategy, venture financing, and corporate partnering. Earlier, he was VP of Finance, CFO, and Secretary at Aldus Corporation (the desktop-publishing pioneer behind PageMaker) from roughly 1988 to 1994, a period in which the company grew revenues from about $28 million to $240 million before its merger with Adobe. Earlier in his career, from about 1979 to 1987, he held senior finance roles at Westin Hotels, managing global corporate reporting and real estate finance.

McAleer holds both a B.S. (Cornell Class of 1973, Hotel Administration) and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He has been deeply involved with the university as a Cornell Trustee and has served on advisory boards for Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, e.Cornell, and the Center for Entrepreneurship. He is also a longtime supporter of the University of Washington's Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship (where he is a past advisory board chair) and lends his name to the McAleer Early Start Fund at UW's Foster School.

Beyond direct investing, McAleer founded the Seattle program of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), a global deep-science and seed-stage accelerator, and serves on the board of the Seattle Symphony. He has sat on the boards of 29 companies, including 25 Voyager portfolio companies.

• Invests at the early stage — pre-seed, seed, Series A, and Series B — with checks typically ranging from roughly $100K to $5M and a sweet spot near $1.5M.
• Sector emphasis on AI-enabled solutions, cloud software and infrastructure, SMB/business software, and digital media/content — areas where he and Voyager have deep operating and board experience.
• Strong Pacific Northwest geographic thesis: Voyager is built around backing Seattle- and Portland-area technology companies, leveraging local networks of operators and follow-on capital.
• Values founders he can partner with at the board level; McAleer's track record is one of hands-on board involvement (29 board roles) and guiding companies all the way to large exits and IPOs.
• His operating background as a CFO (Aldus) and finance executive shapes a thesis that prizes disciplined growth and a credible path to scaled revenue, not just product.