He’d met Patrick Sewall the summer of 1979 during freshman orientation at Johns Hopkins University. When Bill took his seat in the small auditorium, he had found himself seated next to a handsome dark-haired kid from Northern California. Patrick Sewall exuded the palpable confidence of a star high school quarterback, but he’d been far from it. He was captain of the debate team and a diver on the swim team. Bill had never met anyone so comfortable in their own skin. Patrick was double-majoring in biology and chemical engineering, and he planned out his day in fifteen-minute increments.

For the next four years, Bill acted as Patrick’s short and flabby shadow. Though he hit the books hard, Bill, an economics major, was just able to keep his GPA above a C average. Meanwhile, between dating a new girl every other week and taking six more credits than Bill each semester, Patrick was somehow able to coast his way to summa cum laude.

After graduation, Patrick headed back to Northern California to pursue an MBA at Stanford. Bill moved back in with his parents in New Hampshire and took a job as a loan officer at a nearby bank.

After three years at the bank and little to show for it, Bill packed up his car and drove cross-country to reunite with his best friend. He and Patrick shared an apartment on the outskirts of Silicon Valley. Bill soon found employment in one of the valley’s increasing number of banks, while Patrick spent his days working in a lab doing biomedical research and his nights wooing Trisha, a Stanford graduate student as well as a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader.

Two years later, Patrick and Trisha married. Bill was best man at the wedding and gave a teary-eyed speech. When, two years after that, the couple gave birth to a son, Bill was named godfather.

By 1994 the Silicon Valley boom was underway. Bill took a job with search engine pioneer Netscape, and Patrick, with a background in biochemistry and a master’s in business, was looking for funding to start his own lab. Within a year, Patrick had raised two million dollars from venture capitalists and launched Belippa Pharmaceuticals.

The lab consisted of just six employees, but within three years they had developed a groundbreaking medicine to treat HIV.

As Patrick’s new company gained traction, Bill, too, was finding success, both in the workplace and in his personal life. He’d recently taken a job at a new start-up called Netflix that had plans to upend the DVD rental market. And he’d recently gotten engaged to a girl he’d met on Match.com—Bill was one of their first beta customers.

Bill and Martha married in late 1999. Sadly, Patrick was preparing for the launch of the Belippa IPO and was unable to attend their wedding.