William F. von Meister (February 21, 1942 – May 18, 1995) was an American entrepreneur who founded and participated in a number of startup ventures in the Washington, D.C., area.

These included The Source, an early online service and CompuServe competitor, and Control Video Corporation, a predecessor to AOL.

[4][5] After leaving Georgetown in 1973, von Meister started a wholesale liquor company, but found it "boring" and decided to move into consulting.

[8][7] In 1982, von Meister was working on a project called the Home Music Store, which was to be beamed by way of the Westar IV communications satellite to cable television companies all over the United States, who would then provide it to their subscribers.

The company originally ran the GameLine dial-up service for the Atari 2600,[7] which Meister claimed to be able to handle up to 100,000 users.