William Hockey was born on 21 September 1989 in San Luis Obispo, California. He studied computer science and economics at Emory University. He met Zach Perret while both interned at Bain.
Hockey and Perret co-founded Plaid when Hockey was 21. They first tried consumer budgeting tools, then moved to a banking API. Hockey served as CTO.
In June 2019, shortly after Plaid reached a $2.65B valuation, TechCrunch reported that Hockey was leaving his day-to-day role. He stayed on Plaid's board.
In April 2022 he launched Column, a nationally chartered bank built for fintech developers. Column came from acquiring Northern California National Bank, a community bank in Chico, California, which was later renamed Column National Association.