It has been a very good year for tech in New York, and we’re talking about across all of the many verticals for which New York is known – and then some. Whether it’s AdTech, Fashion Tech, EdTech, FinTech, or HealthTech; IoT, Hardware, Apps, content or Big Data, New York is influencing technology and businesses all over town and around the globe.
We‘re a 24/7 business in a 24/7 town.
And then there are those people who seem to always be out there in overdrive and working overtime, who keep the city on the map and in the zeitgeisalleyt. They’re the people who are building companies and creating jobs. Connecting people and connecting the dots. They’re making things and making a difference, some in front of the cameras and others behind the scenes.
Meet the 2014 AW 100 Influencers who, directly or round aboutly, are helping us all get the job done.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 2014 AW 100
Founder’s note: As always this list is in no particular order nor is it a ranking. In fact, the =RAND() function on excel was used to determine order.
Before you check out the 2014 AlleyWatch 100:
Comerica Technology & Life Sciences. The resources to fuel innovation.
Comerica Bank’s Technology and Life Sciences Division is one of the nation’s leading technology banking practices, offering a wide range of financial services tailored to corporate customers, entrepreneurs and professionals. Comerica’s relationship managers provide credit and financial services to young, growing, venture-backed technology and life sciences companies, as well as their more mature counterparts. The Technology and Life Sciences Division serves all major U.S. technology centers from offices coast-to-coast and its headquarters in Palo Alto, California as well as an office in Toronto, Canada.
The New York office is managed by Kevin Urban. Comerica Bank is a subsidiary of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA), a financial services company that is among the 25 largest U.S. banking companies. For more information, visit . To learn more about Comerica’s commitment to innovators in Silicon Alley, contact Kevin by phone at (212) 590-9966.
NOW ON TO THE LIST: 2014 AW 100
David Pakman
Venrock, Partner
All David Pakman ever wanted was to be a VC. Before he got there, Pakman’s career revolved around the music industry and digital media. In 1995, Pakman became the Cofounder of Apple’s Music Group, and. co-founded the Macintosh New York Music Festival. The group came into the music industry right at a time when the internet and digital distribution were emerging, which led to Pakman’s becoming a pioneer in webcasting. His work in webcasting includes co-producing the 1997 GRAMMY Awards — the largest webcast at the time.
Pakman left Apple for N2K Entertainment, where he helped to create the first digital music download service.
Next, as Cofounder of Myplay, Inc., he revolutionized the music industry by creating the first digital music locker. In 2003, he became managing director of Dimensional Associates, a private equity firm which had acquired eMusic from Vivendi Universal and, in 2005, Pakman became the CEO, and eMusic became the second largest music retailer in the world (after iTunes).
Now he’s happily ensconced at Venrock. Where he does not invest in music startups.
Keep up with David:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: CC by TechCrunch
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Fred Wilson
Union Square Ventures, Cofounder
There are very few people who are so well known in their industry that they’re on a first-name basis with the world. Fred Wilson is one of those people. He has been an investor in New York tech since the early days of Web 1.0, with Flatiron Partners (founded in 1996), and a global figure in the VC world with , which he founded in 2004 with Brad Burnham.
Wilson was named the #1 Venture Capitalist by Heardable in its 2012 report on the Top 50 leading brands in venture capital and of course made the list of 50 VC and Angel Investors Every Entrepreneur Should Know.
Despite maintaining a very busy schedules, Fred still finds time to provide the world daily with candid insights and a unique perspective into the world of venture capital at his hugely popular blog – a must read for any entrepreneur.
That’s Fred.
Keep up with Fred:
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Linkedin
Blog
Image credit: CC by Lachlan Hardy
Anuj Desai
New York eHealth Collabortive, VP, Market Development
The (NYeC, pronounced “Nice”) is a not-for-profit organization, working to improve healthcare for all New Yorkers through health information technology (health IT). The goal of NYeC is that no patient, wherever they may need treatment within the State of New York, is ever without fast, secure, accurate, and accessible information and Anuj Desai is its tireless Vice President of Market Development. He’s the one who is responsible for developing and managing strategic relationships and alliances with the various vendors and partners that interact with NYeC. He also leads the that has led to $4.2 Million in strategic investments for eight tech companies and has launched 17 pilots at 23 large healthcare provider organizations. And counting.
He was named in Crain’s New York Business “40 Under 40” Class of 2013, is a recipient of Modern Healthcare Up and Comers Award (2013) and was named one of 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business (2013).
Keep up with Anuj:
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LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Steve Schlafman
RRE Ventures, Principal
A Principal at , Steve Schlafman refers to himself an accidental VC. Previously, he was a Principal at Lerer Ventures and prior to that, he was in the startup world as VP of Business Development at Stickybits Inc. / Turntable.fm.
He’s also author of the awesome , Parts 1 and 2, which is an absolutely must read for anyone in the community, or who wants to be a lot more informed about it.
Accidental VC? There’s no such thing as an accident.
Keep up with Steve:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: LinkedIn
Alexandra Wilkis Wilson
GLAMSQUAD, Cofounder & CEO
Gilt Groupe, Cofounder & Strategic Advisor
Wilson first became recognized as an innovative entrepreneur for her role as Cofounder of , one of the first and most successful flash sale sites in the US. Gilt has attracted over 9 million members since its launch in 2007, ships to over 180 countries and sells over 4,000 international brands. She has assumed multiple roles within Gilt and Gilt City during her time with the company, initially as Chief Merchandising Officer, and she continues to act as Strategic Advisor to Gilt.
Her latest venture is , an on-demand beauty service (via app) that brings the hair and makeup artists directly to the client. It’s giving salons a run for their money – and hey, since you can order just about everything else on line, why not, although in this case, we like to think of this as ‘me-commerce.’
Keep up with Alexandra:
Twitter
LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Liz Bacelar
Decoded Fashion, Founder & CEO
Liz Bacelar cultivates community and highlights fashion tech companies globally. A former Emmy-nominated CBS News producer, she brings together her considerable fashion Rolodex and tech founders – and the twain meet at , the top global event series focused on connecting emerging technologies and decision-makers in Fashion, Beauty and Retail. Its groundbreaking summits in New York, London and Milan are produced with top industry partners, including CFDA, British Fashion Council, IMG and Pitti Imagine. DF Meetups are hosted in 12 countries.
And then there’s the Fashion Hackathon. In February 2012, Decoded hosted the fashion world’s first large-scale hackathon, with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, inviting 650 technologists to New York to meet design and digital product challenges from a panel of fashion experts. The five finalists went on to present at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
Keep up with Liz:
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LinkedIn
Image credit: About.Me
Eric Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Managing Director
Eric Hippeau, Managing Director at , has successfully transitioned from publishing to investing. He worked at as publisher of InfoWorld Magazine until 1989, when he joined Ziff-Davis and became publisher of PC Magazine, for those who remember Spencer Katt.
Hippeau took over the company in 1994 after the Ziff family decided to sell, and continued running Ziff, even after it was acquired by in 1995, until it was sold in 2000. A native Frenchman, Hippeau established and globally expanded the international private equity funds at SoftBank Capital, where his language skills (French, Portuguese, English and some Spanish) came in handy.
Hippeau left SoftBank in 2006 after becoming one of the first businessmen to invest in , where he became a board member, and then CEO. After The HuffPo was sold to AOL in 2011, Hippeau joined the Post’s Cofounder, Ken Lerer, in his startup investment firm. He typically invests in 30 startups at $200,000 a year.
Keep up with Eric:
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LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Murat Aktihanoglu
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Managing Partner
Technologist, author, entrepreneur and investor, who in New York doesn’t know who you mean when you say the name, ‘Murat?’ He’s another one in tech in New York who’s easily identifiable by just his first name. Then again, very few people can pronounce his surname, phonetically, it’s ‘Aktihanaloo.’
Founder and Managing Director at , Murat is one of the true backbones – and moving forces – of the New York tech community.
Never mind that ERA has fostered 60+ early stage companies in its brief existence. The accelerator was inspired by Entrepreneurs Roundtable itself, a non-profit Aktihanoglu launched in 2007 to help entrepreneurs and investors in New York connect through monthly pitch events. The event expanded to Tokyo, Istanbul and Philadelphia. Over 17,000 entrepreneurs and investors worldwide have attended the events.
He’s an advisor to The Startup Foundation, and the MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC, a Partner for US State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, founder of the Turkish Technology Network, Cofounder of the Turkish Founders Club, a board member at Turkish American Business Forum, an advisor to the Turkish Women’s International Network and co-author of the book, “Location-Aware Applications.”
If the always-approachable Aktihanoglu sometimes seems like a hard man to pin down, it’s only because he’s frequently on the road (or rather, in the air), on his way to consult with some government or other on entrepreneurship.
Keep up with Murat:
Twitter
Linkedin
Blog
Image credit: Facebook
Fabrice Grinda
Angel Investor
With a focus on business productivity and e-commerce, Fabrice Grinda has founded and invested in companies on several different continents. He cofounded OLX, Inc. with his business partner Alec Oxenford in 2006, which quickly grew to be one of the world’s largest free local classified sites.
He was also founder and CEO of Zingy, Inc., which became one of the largest wireless media companies in the country. He eventually sold the business in 2004 for $80M.
Grinda has since gone on to become a very active investor on the NY scene, lending a helping hand to numerous growing companies. His current portfolio includes Airbnb, WeHostel, Betterment, Alibaba and FanDuel.
Keep up with Fabrice:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: CC by OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jeanne Sullivan
Starvest Partners, Founding Partner
Founding principal of , named by as one of the “5 Most Powerful Women Changing the World in VC and Entrepreneurship,” and 2013 recipient of the New York Angels’ for Outstanding Leadership, Jeanne Sullivan claims to have retired. Yeah, right.
Show of hands: who believes that one?
Anyone who knows her knows that the diminutive Sullivan is a force of nature. In fact, her ‘retirement’ so far consists of speaking engagements around the world. She’s also a strong supporter and frequent mentor of female entrepreneurs, so we’re happy to see that she’s taking her ‘retirement’ as seriously as we are. You go, girl!
Keep up with Jeanne:
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LinkedIn
David Rose
New York Angels, Founder & Chairman Emeritus
Gust, Founder
Crain’s called him “The Father of Angel Investing in New York.” According to Forbes, he’s “New York’s Archangel.” Red Herring called him “patriarch of Silicon Alley” and BusinessWeek called him a “World Conquering Rntrepreneur.” And consider this: as an angel investor, Rose has helped to fund over 90 startup, with acquisitions by companies including Facebook, Google, Intel, Amazon, and other industry leaders.
All well and good, but in our book David Rose, founder of the New York Angels and CEO of Gust is Mr. .
Oh, and speaking of books, he’s also author of “Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money & Having Fun Investing in Startups”.
Keep up with David:
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LinkedIn
Image credit: About.Me
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Avi Flombaum
Flatiron School, Founder & Dean
Avi Flombaum founded the to create a sustainable talent pipeline for the New York tech community – and to give passionate people the skills required to get really great jobs. So, he created a curriculum for a 16-week immersive program in web application development to prepare them to be junior developers. Flombaum also mentors the students through to graduation and job placement. As if that isn’t awesome enough, he also founded the NYC on Rails Meetup.
Keep up with Avi:
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Alexis Ohanian
Reddit, Founder
Angel Investor
Alexis Ohanian is all about making the world suck less. Here’s how the Reddit founder describes himself in roughly 140 words:
Alexis Ohanian is a startup founder and investor in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from UVA in 2005, Alexis and his Cofounder Steve Huffman started reddit, a top 50 US website. Now a reddit board member, Alexis focuses his time and energy to founding and investing in companies that fit his model of making something people love and making the world suck less.
Alexis helped launch hipmunk and ran marketing/pr/community before becoming an advisor and joining the fight against SOPA & PIPA.
He invests and advises over eighty tech startups. Today, he’s a partner at Y Combinator.
He created & hosted a show on The Verge called Small Empires about NY tech startups — the founders who create and the people who use these digital platforms. In 2013, he wrote a national bestselling book, Without Their Permission.
Along the way, Alexis spoke at TED, volunteered in Armenia as a Kiva Fellow, and was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list two years in a row (and then turned 30).
He proudly doodled the logos for all three of his startups and loves his cat, Karma.
Keep up with Alexis:
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LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Kevin P. Ryan
Gilt, Founder and Chairman
Kevin P. Ryan is the Founder and Chairman of , an innovative online shopping destination offering its members special access to the most inspiring merchandise and experiences every day at insider prices.
Ryan is also one of the leading Internet entrepreneurs in the United States having founded several New York-based businesses, including Gilt, Business Insider, and 10gen/MongoDB. He also helped build DoubleClick from 1996 to 2005, first as President and later as CEO, and led the company’s growth from a 20-person startup to a publicly traded global leader with over 1,500 employees.
Ryan serves on the board of Yale Corporation and Human Rights Watch, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Keep up with Kevin:
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Adam Neumann
WeWork, CEO & Founding Partner
‘’ is practically synonymous with coworking in New York, but did you know that it was not founder Adam Neumann’s first foray into entrepreneurship ? That distinction goes to , a line of clothing for infants and toddler that came about when Neumann got the great idea that the little rug rats could use knee pads to protect them in the crawling stage. He had has business partner take over the day to day, when he decided that baby startups and entrepreneurs needed space where they could comfortably work and grow.
It’s all connected, baby…
Keep up with Adam:
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LinkedIn
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Ed Zimmerman
GrapeArborVC, Founder & Co-Lead
Partner, Lowenstein Sandler
Ed Zimmerman, an investor who also chairs the tech practice at , where he represents start-ups and growth companies in raising money, selling the company or cashing out the founders, and depending on market conditions, public offerings. He puts his money where his mouth is: he has angel invested in more than 30 companies, and has invested as an LP in several venture funds.
He also founded a bunch of stuff including: , an accelerator for start-ups which doesn’t charge or take equity, the Tech Group at Lowenstein Sandler, AngelVineVC, HoopAPaluza (a charity for kids that he & his wife co-founded, which has given away a ton of cash and which enables parents to team up with their own kids to do hands-on charity work), and , through which he makes his angel investments .
Zimmerman also teaches VC & Angel Investing to MBA candidates at Columbia Business and has lectured at Har vard Business School, Wharton, and Paris-based Sciences Po.
He also pens a recurring VC/Startup blog for the Wall Street Journal.
Keep up with Ed:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit : LinkedIn
Nihal Mehta
ENIAC Ventures, Founding General Partner
Nihal Mehta is an entrepreneur with more than a dozen years of experience in innovating marketing technologies. He has founded five startups to date. Mehta is a founding general partner at the first venture fund to focus exclusively on mobile technologies.
Mehta is a noted expert in emerging mobile technologies for media properties and consumer brands. He was previously the CEO and Cofounder of (now Qualia), a company that helps marketers respond to real-time consumer intent. Before developing LocalResponse, he founded ipsh!, one of the first full-service mobile marketing agencies, in 2001.
He is also a founding partner of the India Internet Group, which invests in Indian startups, and is an active angel investor in dozens of companies.
Business Insider named him as one of the “25 People Every New Founder Should Meet in the New York Tech,” and he was included on the list of “Top 25 Up-and-Coming Startup CEOs in New York,” in 2012. In a 2010 New York Enterprise Report, he was one of the “Top 10 NYC Game Changers,” and one of AdAge’s “Top 20 Marketers in Their 20s,” in 2005.
Keep up with Nihal:
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LinkedIn
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Dave Lerner
Angel Investor
Columbia University, Director of Entrepreneurship
Dave Lerner is an angel investor with a knack for creating companies, and was recently named one of the Top 100 Angel Investors in NYC by Business Insider. He also the host of , where he interviews entrepreneurs and major players in the tech world. In addition to founding his current place of employment, he is also responsible for the , which maps early-stage investments and entrepreneurial ecosystems across the globe, as well as the healthcare company LLS, Inc.
He typically takes 5 to 7 projects a year, investing about $25,000 in each startup. Through , an investment firm he founded in 2001, Lerner’s investments have included Klout, WeHostels, Food52 and Warby Parker. He has also invested in e-commerce, travel, clothing, social media, skill-based gaming, ad-tech, fashion, food, SAS and the medical device sectors.
Lerner is also the director of Venture Lab at Columbia University Technology Ventures, where he manages the 80 companies in the current portfolio. He also launches 12 to 15 new startups a year through the Columbia Seed Fund.
Lerner is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate Schools of Business and Engineering.
Keep up with Dave:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Image credit: LinkedIn
Andrew Ackerman
DreamItNY, Managing Director
Angel investor, mentor and writer (for AlleyWatch, no less, his busy schedule permitting), Andrew Ackerman is Managing Director of , after assuming the day-to-day responsibilities earlier this year from now Managing Director Emeritus .
An angel investor whose passion has always been startups, he mentored at both DreamIt and before deciding to just get it over with and accepted his current position.
The obvious always escapes us.
Keep up with Andrew:
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LinkedIn
Blog
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Maria Gotsch
Partnership Fund for New York City, President and CEO
Maria Gotsch is President and CEO of the – the investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, which has raised over $100 million, and has built a network of top experts from the investment and corporate communities who help identify and support New York City’s most promising entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and non-for profit sectors.
Gotsch has also spearheaded the creation and operation of a number of the Fund’s strategic initiatives, including: FinTech Innovation Lab; New York Digital Health Accelerator; NYCSeed; BioAccelerate Prize NYC (proof-of-concept funding for university-based biomedical research); Arts Entrepreneurial Loan Fund (low cost loans for mid-size arts groups); and ReStart Central and Financial Recovery Fund (assistance and funding for small businesses impacted by 9-11).
Gotsch is also a member of the boards of Reach Out and Read of Greater New York (children’s literacy non-profit), the New York Venture Capital Association, and the Lang Fund.
Keep up with Maria:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Image credit: CC by Sparklabs Korea
Oliver Kharraz, MD
ZocDoc, Founder
Oliver Kharraz is COO and founder of , a site that empowers patients by making it quick, convenient, and free to find a doctor and book an appointment instantly. ZocDoc is also one of the fastest-growing companies in the US, and was recently named ‘Best Place to Work in New York City’ by Crain’s Business.
It all started when Kharraz suffered a burst eardrum, and the doctor couldn’t see him for four painful days. So he thought: If we could buy everything from hand soap to airfare with a swipe of the phone, why was healthcare so different? And why had we come to accept our powerlessness as patients?
One of the most successful online startups in New York was born.
Keep up with Oliver:
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LinkedIn
Image credit: ZocDoc
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Joanne Wilson
Gotham Gal Ventures, Founder
Joanne Wilson is an integral part of the New York tech startup community as an angel investor and advisor, especially for women looking to launch a startup.
After blazing her own trail as a female in the business and tech world through a variety of careers, including a Macy’s buyer, running a clothing industry company, and overseeing sales for the startup magazine Silicon Alley Reporter, Wilson is considered the go-to authority for female entrepreneurs in the industry.
70% of Wilson’s 70+ investments are in female-founded companies, like Admittedly, Hullabalu, Food52, Nestio, Lover.ly and DailyWorth. She encourages women to immerse themselves in family and work, and to push past the obstacles of being a woman in business and technology. In fact, she also cofounded the Womens Entrepreneur Festival.
Wilson chairs the board of , an organization that supports foreign-born and low-income women and men through a bakery project and training program, and Highline, a public park on the elevated rail line on Manhattan’s West Side.
She has been blogging about New York’s tech scene, food, art and other cultural events under the name Gotham Gal since 1994. Consequently, Wilson invests in many of the same interests she blogs about, which includes a variety of food, tech, publications, and fashion startups.
You go, Gotham Gal!
Keep up with Joanne:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: Sit with Me
Angela Lee
37 Angels, Founder
,is a community of women investors who are passionate about investing in early stage companies (male and female-led). With Angela Lee at the helm, the group sources high potential, cross-sector deals and coordinate due diligence for its Angels and Angels-In-Training to invest in.
That’s a lot of angel power!
Keep up with Angela:
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LinkedIn
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Bre Pettis
Markerbot, Founder
At this point, who doesn’t know Bre Pettis? Or MakerBot? The former school teacher was early in (2009) in the 3D printing world. Founder and CEO of MakerBot, the company was acquired by Statasys.
He next founded Bold Machines, the innovation workshop at Stratasys, so no worries: Pettis is still front and center and very much part of the NY 3D Printing world.
And in case you didn’t know it, he was also founder of and cofounder of , a hacker collective with a shared space located in downtown Brooklyn. We meet regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community. He’s been a fixture in the NY tech community for quite some time now…
Keep up with Bre:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Image credit: LinkedIn
Payal Kadakia
ClassPass, CEO & Cofounder
Payal Kadakia is an entrepreneur with one foot in the dance world, and one foot in the startup world, so it makes perfect sense that she would be cofounder of , a membership program that allows you to take fitness classes across multiple gyms and studios. $99/month gets you unlimited classes at any participating gym.
Always nice to have a choice, especially when you’re a busy entrepreneur who’s always running around to meetings, and who knows when you might want to take a fitness break midday, and you’re no where near your native gym (ok, so we just made up the term). ClassPass lets you take any class you’d like at any participating gym – and you can attend each studio, up to three times a month. Or cancel any time. But don’t do that. Not if you’re serious about staying in shape.
Kadakia is also founder of The Sa Dance Company, a contemporary Indian dance company that has enjoyed sold out performances, celebrity endorsements, and positive reviews from The New York Times and MTV.
She also earned her degree in Operations Research and Economics from MIT.
It’s all enough to keep anyone on her toes. Or pirouetting off to the nearest fitness class for a mental health break.
Keep up with Payal:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Image credit: ClassPass
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Dawn Barber
New York Tech Meetup, Cofounder
Dawn Barber is the Cofounder of , a growing, 40,000+ member non-profit industry organization that supports and promotes the New York technology community, and is the largest meetup in the world. She has extensive experience in planning and organizing conferences and events in and around the New York technology community, having been one of NYNMA’s directors from 1998-2001, and since then producing the for the past three years, and , among others before that.
Barber was one of the first fellows, and sits on the boards of and , and the NYC Advisory Board.
She serves on the Alliance for Downtown New York Leadership Council, as well as the NYC Entrepreneurs Council, a recently-formed affiliate of the non-profit Partnership for New York City.
Keep up with Dawn:
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LinkedIn
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Esther Dyson
Angel Investor
HICCup, Founder
Esther Dyson was named the most powerful women in American business by Forbes magazine. She is a prolific investor as well as an entrepreneur, journalist, author, philanthropist, government adviser and tech analyst.
Dyson is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology and what challenge does Esther Dyson not take on? Most lately, that includes private aviation and space as well as in health care (as a director of 23andMe, a consumer genetics company).
She is also founder of at – Way to Wellville, the first project of HICCup.co [Health Initiative Coordinating Council]]. It’s a contest to create and measure the impact of broad community-wide health-production programs (not just “care”) in five small communities across the US. The premise is that interacting, critical-density programs will have a visible impact that one-off interventions don’t achieve.
She does spend a lot of time traveling – occasionally into space – but New York is world headquarters.
Keep up with Esther:
Twitter
LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Joshua Kushner
Thrive Capital, Founder
Oscar, Cofounder
He may be one of those Kushners (his father, Charles Kushner, founded Kushner Companies, the diversified real estate investment company, in 1985, where Joshua is a principal director), but there’s a reason why this Kushner has been featured in Forbes’ as well as Vanity Fair’s “Next Establishment.” Founder of social gaming company Vostu and , an early-stage firm that invests in media (brother Jared is publisher of the New York Observer) and Internet, the firm made a name for itself by investing in Instagram – and “doubling its money in 72 hours” (Forbes).
He is cofounded , a health insurance startup “focused on utilizing technology, design and data to humanize healthcare.” Since the company’s launch last year, Oscar has enrolled thousands of New York customers and has realized tens of millions of dollars in annualized revenue. Not to worry – he’s still very much an active investor. And a good one to know…
Keep up with Joshua:
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Alexa Von Tobel
Learnvest, Founder & CEO
Alexa Von Tobel started her career at Morgan Stanley but left the job and invested $75,000 to start , believing financial planning should be affordable, accessible, and even delightful.
LearnVest focuses on helping people develop good financial habits early on in life.
Since founding the company in 2009, she has raised over $72 million in financing and authored Financially Fearless, which was a New York Times bestseller.
Keep up with Alexa:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jonathan Stein
Betterment, Founder & CEO
Jon Stein, founder & CEO of , came from banking and the financial world and found that it was just too slow to change, and the whole process poorly designed. As an engineer, he needed to change all that and now there’s Betterment, the largest, fastest-growing automated investing service, helping people to better manage and grow their wealth through smarter technology.
He’s also former editor of the Let’s Go guides.
Ok, so he gets around.
Keep up with Jon:
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LinkedIn
Image credit: Twitter
Dwight Merriman
MongoDB,
Chairman & Cofounder
chairman and Cofounder Dwight Merriman has a long and esteemed history in New York tech, having co-founded DoubleClick with Kevin O’Connor back in 1995. Ten years later, the company was sold for $1.1B to Hellman and Friedman LLC, and Merriman stepped down as CTO. In 2008, Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1B.
After leaving DoubleClick, Merriman and O’Connor founded AlleyCorp, a network of affiliated internet companies, including MongoDB, ShopWiki, Business Insider and Gilt Groupe.
Rumor has it Merriman still writes code. And contributes to the MongoDB project blog as well.
Keep up with Dwight:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Kelsey Falter
Poptip, Founder & CEO
Kelsey Falter is a Techstar. She literally went through the program under then NY Managing Director David Tisch, but she had to leave college to participate. No bigs. Poptip, a platform that provides instantaneous feedback for businesses through polls conducted on social networks, analyzing and synthesizing social conversations in real-time to enable brands to understand people’s opinions, was founded in 2012 – and acquired by Palantir earlier this year.
Yes, that was quick, but then, Falter has been coding since she was ten.
She was named one of this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 in Tech; one of Business Insider’s 25 and Under in NY Tech 2012 list and received the L’Oreal Women in Digital Award in 2013. Falter has spoken at Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit, Northside Festival, SXSW, and is a NYC Venture Fellow.
Keep up with Kelsey:
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Image credit: Twitter
Alex Taub
Social Rank, Cofounder & CEO
So, who are your most engaged followers? If you’re a brand, that’s important information, and that’s what is doing – finding your most valuable, and your most engaged followers – which is not the same thing. Or rather, the same person, necessarily. See? You want to know the difference, and why it’s important. SocialRank is the easiest way to identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter. And that goes for publishers, too, btw.
Alex Taub is the Cofounder of SocialRank and is active in the NY tech scene as the creator of the BD Meetup and an advisor to early-stage companies. He has been featured in Business Insider as one of the “Top 20 Under 25” in the NY tech scene. Alex writes a popular blog called Alex’s Tech Thoughts,
Keep up with Alex:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Hayley Barna
Cofounder & Co-CEO
Like the name says, it’s a monthly birch box, filled with personalized beauty, grooming, and lifestyle samples, tailored to one’s profile and preferences – and catering to men as well as to women.
Founded by Harvard Business School grads Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, BIrchbox was a relatively early monthly subscription service (2010), and they’ve come a long way from the box of sample cosmetics they started with.
We know that they didn’t invent the model and yes, we do remember the days of 10 CDs for a penny (remember CDs?), but these two gave the whole subscription service model – ok, we’ll say it – a makeover.
Keep up with Hayley:
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Brian O’Kelley
AppNexus, Cofounder & CEO
It was 2012 when Brian O’Kelley made Crain’s list of 40 Under 40 (he’d actually still be eligible for the list today), having co-founded and built online ad exchange AppNexus into a world leader in real-time display advertising, offering a highly scalable ad technology platform upon which other companies build their ad businesses.
But never mind 40 Under 40. O’Kelley is also credited with having created the first lucrative ad exchange, as CTO for Right Media, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $850 million, at which point he himself became a millionaire – and he was under the age of 30.
O’Kelley is also an active investor in and early-stage advisor to dozens of adtech companies, including Invite Media (bought by Google), MediaMath, Media6Degrees and Solve Media.
Oh, and in case you missed it, AppNexus raised a $60 Million Series E this past year.
Fun fact: He used to be in a band.
Keep up with Brian:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Alex Iskold
Techstars NYC, Managing Director
By his own admission, Alex Iskold likes to keep it simple, so we will, too. That way, we’ll all have time to do more, fasters:
Managing Director, NYC @ Techstars
Helping create next generation of amazing startups & valuable companies in New York City
Helping build global network of entrepreneurs around the world
Advisor to Jukely, weeSpring and Kanvas
Angel investor
What he has worked on in the past:
Founded GetGlue – a leading social TV network. (acquired by i.tv, 2013)
Created one of the most exciting startups in NYC, backed by Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures, TimeWarner Investments, Rho Ventures
Won 2011 Mashable Breakout Startup of the Year (awesome)
Named to Hollywood Reporter 2012 Digital Power 50 (surreal)
Started a company called Information Laboratory (acquired by IBM, 2003)
Built new grid computing technology at DataSynapse (acquired by TIBCO, 2009).
Contributed hundreds of articles to influential technology blog, ReadWriteWeb.
Invented software analysis and visualization tool called Small Worlds
Taught award-winning undergraduate software engineering class at NYU
Contributed to development of innovative visualization technology called Thinkmap
Engineered large-scale financial applications for D.E.Shaw & Co. and Goldman Sachs
Keep up with Alex:
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LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: Techstars
Ellie Wheeler
Greycroft, Principal
A principal at , Ellie Wheeler focuses on investment opportunities across the digital ecosystem, with an emphasis over the last few years on B2B and B2C commerce innovation, marketplaces, and mobile applications.
Prior to joining Greycroft, Ellie worked in a similar role during business school, evaluating investment opportunities at Lowercase Capital with investor Chris Sacca. Before working with Lowercase, Ellie worked at Cisco in Corporate Development doing acquisitions, investments, and strategy within the communications, collaboration, enterprise software, and video sectors. While at Cisco, she was involved in multiple acquisitions and investments, including PostPath, Jabber, Xobni, and Tandberg.
If you want to know a bit more about Wheeler – and how to get a meeting with her – it’s all right here.
Keep up with Ellie:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Liza Kindred
Third Wave Fashion, Founder & CEO
Liza Kindred helped put fashion tech on the map, and publishes a monthly report that details the current state of fashion tech. In 2011, she founded to bring her in-depth knowledge of technology to the world of fashion.
She was previously Managing Partner of a successful open source software company, , where she worked with clients like Martha Stewart and MTV UK and helped to grow that company from two guys, to a team of 50 people.
Kindred is obsessed with technology and how it’s shaping the future of commerce – and the world of fashion. So obsessed, in fact, that she sat down and wrote the book on it: .
Keep up with Liza:
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Adam Quinton
Lucas Point Ventures, Founder & CEO
Founder and CEO of Lucas Point Ventures, Adam Quinton is an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies, with over 25 years of investing and management experience. He also sits on a number of for profit and not for profit Boards, including the Astia East Coast, and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs.
Quinton is a Board member at Thrive Metrics. He serves on the Advisory Boards of executive search firm RSR Partners, and San Francisco-based SwoopTalent. He is a member of and/or advisor to several angel groups, including Astia, where he is a founding Angel and sits on the Astia Global Advisory Board.
Astia supports high growth women led companies in the US and abroad.
Keep up with Adam:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Rachel Haot
New York State Chief Digital Officer
Rachel Haot has served as Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Secretary for Technology of New York State since January 2014, developing products, programs and policy that modernize NY, and connecting the government and tech community. In fact, she recently unveiled the state’s new and updated website and for the record, it’s the website’s first overhaul since 1998.
Haut also served as NYC’s Chief Digital Officer for three years (2011-2013) under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where she overhauled the City’s website, and spearheaded the We Are Made in NY campaign and the Reinvent Payphones challenge that was precursor to the universal municipal Wi-Fi in NYC. She also championed the dot NYC TLD.
Keep up with Rachel:
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Mark Peter Davis
Interplay Ventures, Founder & Managing Partner
Mark Peter Davis is a serial founder and investor. His most recent undertaking combines both, in fact: he’s the Founder of , an incubator/investment hybrid which founds, funds and incubates companies, which makes MPD a Cofounder of DevSpark, Founder Shield, Nomad Financial, Morrow Lane, Truman James, TwentyPine, and Venwise.
Davis has been named by Business Insider as one of the 100 Most Influential Digital New Yorkers; included in CVC30 – a list of the 30 most interesting members of the Columbia University startup community – and somehow finds the time to write a widely-syndicated blog.
Keep up with Mark:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Charlie O’Donnell
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Founder & Partner
When Charlie O’Donnell, Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, a seed and early stage investment firm, isn’t competing in triathlons or biking to work, he is leveraging his vast connections in the startup community to help his portfolio companies with business development, public relations and recruiting.
The firm, founded by O’Donnell in January of 2012, typically invests $200,000-$300,000 in each of its companies.
O’Donnell has venture experience from two of the top firms in the country, Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital. He sourced First Round’s investments in GroupMe, which sold to Skype in 2011, and SinglePlatform, which sold to Constant Contact in 2012. His other investments include Refinery29, chloe + isabel, Backupify, Salescrunch and Docracy. As part of the investments, he was also a board member or board observer for each of the companies.
O’Donnell’s own blog, This is Going to be BIG!, is ranked #6 among the top VC bloggers. He has been listed on Alley Insider’s 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech 5 times.
Besides being one of New York Tech Meetup’s first 100 members, he also served on its original board.
He is also the cofounder and a board member of Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse, a free kayaking program on the East River.
Keep up with Charlie:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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Thatcher Bell
Gotham Ventures, Venture Partner
Cornell Tech, Investor-in-Residence
Yes, that is Thatcher Bell whom you see often see at the New York Tech Meetup (who said a good investor’s hard to find?). He’s Venture Partner at , and no stranger to the New York tech community.
He is also Investor-in-Residence at Cornell Tech, working with the students, faculty and administration to productize academic research.
Before joining Gotham, he was a Senior Analyst at North Hill Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Capital One Financial, and prior to that, he worked at two different start-ups: enterprise software vendor OpenPages (acquired by IBM) and SharkTank, an online marketplace connecting lawyers and potential clients.
Warning: he’s a Red Sox fan.
Keep up with Thatcher:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Rafat Ali
Skift, Cofounder & CEO
is a travel intelligence media company that delivers news, data and services to its readers, and Rafat Ali has quite a history, when it comes to producing content in NYC. He was Editor in Chief at Silicon Alley Reporter before he left to found Paid Content, which was acquired by the Guardian Media Group.
Now there’s Skift, which in its short existence has become the lingo and destination in the travel industry, and is now a daily tool used by the top strategists, technologists, and marketers in travel.
Keep up with Rafat:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Vayner Media, Cofounder & CEO
Vayner/RSE, CEO & Partner
Gary Vaynerchuk has been a businessman since he was 8-years-old, beginning with the seven lemonade stands he managed in a single neighborhood. A few years later, he started selling baseball cards, and in high school, he became a wine connoisseur and marketer while working at his family’s liquor store.
While in college, Vaynerchuk recognized the importance of e-commerce, which pushed him to launch Winelibrary.com in 1997. He was still working at his family’s store and, with this development, helped grow the business from $3 million to $45 million by 2005.
In 2006, Vaynerchuck created Wine Library TV – his high-tech equipment consisted of a flip camera and a NY Jets bucket. He was soon boasting over 100,000 “Vayniacs,” a label coined by his fans, who were attracted by his straightforward wine reviews that have a knack for debunking wine myths. He also started the flash sale website Cinderella Wine, which sells one wine per day for an extreme discount.
With the help of his brother, AJ, Vaynerchuck co-founded VaynerMedia, a social media brand consulting agency, whose clients include Green Mountain Coffee, PepsiCo and the NY Jets, among others.
He is also CEO and partner at Vayner/RSE, his investment firm.
Vaynerchuk has also found time to write, publishing three best-sellers: , , and Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World.
Vaynerchuk is also a prodigious investor, but then, he’s working toward owning the New York Jets.
Keep up with Gary:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Matt Salzberg
Blue Apron, Founder & CEO
is one of the companies that is changing the way people cook at home, by delivering a weekly subscription box filled with everything you need to make your own meals – fresh, properly proportioned ingredients and recipes included, with no subscription fee required.
In fact, the company recently announced that it is delivering over a million meals per month to customers across the country.
For the curious: ‘Blue Apron’ refers an age-old French tradition for young chefs to wear a Blue Apron while they master the art of cooking.
And did you know that Salzberg is also the founder of petridish.org, the largest crowdfunding website dedicated to science and research projects? There you go.
Keep up with Matt:
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Scott Belsky
Behance, Cofounder
Adobe, VP Products, Mobile & Community
Founders Collective, Founding Partner
Scott Belsky believes that the greatest breakthroughs across all industries are a result of creative people and teams that are especially productive (in fact, the title of his book is Making Ideas Happen).
Belsky is Adobe‘s Vice President of Products-Community and Head of Behance, the leading online platform for creatives to showcase and discover creative work, which he co-founded in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired the company in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries.
Over the years, Behance has pursued other projects to help organize and empower the careers of creative people, including 99U, Behance’s think tank and annual conference devoted to execution in the creative world.
Belsky actively advises businesses that cross the intersection of technology and the creative industries and help empower creative people and independent careers. He is an investor and advisor in Pinterest, Uber, Shyp, ManagedByQ, Paper, Paddle8, Warby Parker, as well as several others in the early stages, and works closely with Founder Collective as one of their founder partners.
Keep up with Scott:
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LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Pavan Bahl
Open Source Fashion, Founder
New York is been a town driven by fashion long before the first week Fashion Week in 1943. In fact, according to a report by the Global Language Monitor, New York was named the Fashion Capital of the World in 2014, and Pavan Bahl is one of the innovative thinkers and more importantly doers who is leading the movement of fashion into the digital generation. He has built a global community through , a platform that brings together a community of helpful innovators working within fashion, retail, and technology. In addition, to regular events OSFashion hosts a unique twice a year that brings in the luminaries from all over the fashion tech world.
He has now teamed up with Andrew Young to launch a global Startup Weekend Fashion battle, with competitions in New York, London, Milan and Paris.
Keep up with Pavan:
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Image credit: Albert Cheung Photography
Kyle Kimball
New York City Economic Development Corporation, President & CEO
Kyle Kimball has served as President of the (NYCEDC) under Mayor Bill de Blasio since January 2014. As President, Kimball leads NYCEDC’s continued efforts to position New York City as the global center for innovation and to increase economic empowerment and mobility for all New Yorkers. Including those in tech.
In fact, Kimball has played a key role in shaping the historic Applied Sciences NYC initiative, leading to the creation of four new applied science and engineering campuses, including one being developed by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on Roosevelt Island, a campus being developed by a consortium led by NYU in Downtown Brooklyn, focusing on the challenges facing cities, a new institute for data sciences at Columbia University, and a program focusing on the intersection of art and technology being developed by Carnegie Mellon University in Brooklyn.
You can thank Kyle Kimball for all of that.
Keep up with Kyle:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Shana Fisher
High Line Venture Partners, Cofounder & Managing Partner
As the Cofounder of , Managing Partner Shana Fisher brings over a decade of investing experience – not to mention a shrewd eye for spotting successful business ventures – to the world of angel investments. Most notably, Fisher put herself on the map by investing in in January of 2010—just one month after development of the site had begun.
After earning her BA in sculpture, philosophy and linguistics from Hampshire College and her MA through NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, Fisher became a program manager for Microsoft. She eventually moved on to serve as vice president and director of media and technology, mergers and acquisition, and corporate finance for . Prior to launching High Line, Fisher worked in various capacities at IAC.
Keep up with Shana:
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Haithem Elembaby
Katalyst Live, Founder & CEO
Entrepreneur in Residence / Event Producer at AlleyNYC
Haithem Elembaby has worked with everyone from students and aspiring entrepreneurs to athletes and celebrities to startups and Fortune 500 companies, from the shakers to the movers. He recently launched , a portal into the world of technology and innovation through special events and integrated marketing/PR campaigns with the world’s leading media, technology and entertainment brands.
Speaking of which, at , he maintains key relationships within the community, producing and promoting special events and providing marketing support and relevant experiences for entrepreneurs, connecting them with key influencers within business, culture & technology. In plain English: He’s a connector who has been known to throw some of the coolest events at some of the hottest venues in NYC.alley
As if all of this isn’t enough to keep a body busy, he is also Director of Corporate Partnerships at the NYC Data Science Academy, where the next generation of data scientists and data visualization professionals are being trained – and New York needs plenty of those !
Named one of AlleyWatch’s Top 20 People to Know in NY Tech, Elembaby maintains key relationships within the community collaborating with key influencers within business, culture and media.
Oh, he is earning an MBA degree from NYU Stern School of Business, serves on the Board of the NYU Entrepreneurs Network, and remember his party on the boat? It was one of the largest NYC startup networking events, maybe ever.
Keep up with Haithem:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Ori Allon
Compass, Founder & Executive Chairman
Ori Allon is the person behind the Orion Search Engine that earned praise from Bill Gates – among others – for its ability to return pages based not just on the keyword entered, but also pages with content that is strongly related to the keyword. Google bought the exclusive rights to use the search algorithm in 2006, and fully incorporated the Orion Search technology and algorithm in 2009.
In 2010, Allon left Google and became the Founder & CEO of Julpan. In 2011, Julpan was acquired by Twitter. In 2012, Allon left Twitter and became the Founder & Executive Chairman of Compass, a real estate platform that empowers agents and clients to collaborate on a home search platform that is easy and smart.
Then again, look who’s behind it.
Keep up with Ori:
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Ken Lerer
Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Cofounder & Manager
Ok, he’s Ken Lerer and who doesn’t know , where he’s manager of the fund. He was the Chairman and Cofounder of The Huffington Post, is Chairman of Betaworks and Buzzfeed, and Vice-Chairman of Bedrocket. He is also a member of Pilot Group LLC, a private investment firm.
He’s also Chairman Emeritus of the Public Theater in New York City and serves on the boards of directors of several nonprofit organizations, including Association to Benefit Children (ABC), and the Bank Street College of Education. In 2008-09, Mr. Lerer served as the Hearst New Media Professional-in-Residence at Columbia Journalism School.
What can you say? He’s Ken Lerer, and he’s all over content.
Keep up with Ken:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Aaron Holiday
645 Ventures, Cofounder & Partner
Cornell Tech, Managing Entrepreneurial Officer
There was a time when was a fixture at AlleyNYC, where he held office hours while he working as an associate for Gotham Ventures – and he’d always take the time to say hello, which is about all he ever had time for, back then. Now the experienced early stage investor (and technologist) is not only Cofounder and Partner at , an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on e-commerce, data analytics, online marketplaces, SaaS software, and other disruptive platforms including bitcoin, IoT, and mobile. He is also Managing Entrepreneurial Officer at , were he has been Instrumental in pioneering Cornell Tech’s Studio Culture.
FYI: CT’s Studio and Engaged Learning culture is where masters students, PhDs, and postdocs build real technologies and leading tech companies;, and where top quartile venture capitalists and successful startup founders collaborate with the Cornell Tech community to innovate, rapidly prototype, and access talented pioneering technologists.
We know. We don’t know where he finds the time, either.
Keep up with Aaron:
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Matt Harris
Bain Capital Ventures, Managing Director
Matt Harris, Managing Director of in New York, is always on the lookout for investment opportunities in payments, specialty lending, fin tech, asset management, trading systems and insurance. Most of Harris’ investments aim to increase penetration of non-financial institutions into the financial services industry.
Just so you know.
In his spare time, Harris preoccupies himself with military history and several non-profits, specifically the Williamston Theatre Festival.
Keep up with Matt:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: Bain Capital Ventures
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
John Ason
Angel Investor
John Ason is something of a rarity. He has been a professional angel investor for about 17 years and has funded over 40 startup companies, the majority of which were pre revenue or user traction or both, with many consisting of one or two people in a kitchen or garage.
And in about half of the companies, he was the lead angel. Maybe it was because he has a big company background (AT&T), but people made fun of him when he transitioned to investing and one of his first investments was a company called Diapers.com. People had a hard time believing that anyone would be fool enough to buy diapers online. Until the company was bought by Amazon for $545M. Nice! He also invested in Bikini.com, which he attributes to his midlife crisis. And that was just the beginning.
Oh, and if you plan on sending him that gorgeous deck you slaved over to make sure that every slide was a standalone work of art, wrong guy. If you can’t tell him what you’re doing in one page that he can look at on a mobile device, don’t bother. One page, that’s it, and he like a lot of white space.
And ideas that he hasn’t heard before.
And wine (in fact, he invested in a winery out in California).
And poker.
And women in tech.
He mentors female entrepreneurs through Astia and Springboard and women angel investors as well, within Pipeline Fellowship, Topstone Angels, and 37angels. He has funded 11 female-founded companies. Awesome!
Keep up with John:
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Ben Lerer
Thrillist, Cofounder
Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Managing Director
Ben Lerer is the Cofounder and CEO of , a daily email targeted to men, and which also includes Thrillist Rewards and , an online ecommerce store.
Of course, he’s also Managing Partner at .
Lerer was among Ernst & Young’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winners, Vanity Fair’s Next Establishments, Crain’s “40 under 40”, Forbes list of “Most Powerful CEOs Under 40”, AdWeek’s “Young Influentials,” Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 5 Entrepreneurs of the Year” – and Silicon Alley Insider’s “100 Coolest People in Tech” for six years running (full disclosure: Lerer Hippeau are investors in SAI).
He chairs the Board of Directors for the East River Development Alliance, a New York non-profit organization, and is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) and an active mentor for NYC Venture Fellows, TechStars and E[nstitute].
Keep up with Ben:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Matt Turck
FirstMark Capital, Partner
seems to be everywhere and involved in every facet of the tech community – and where does he find the time and energy? We’ve personally been in the room to catch his very informed opinions at Entrepreneurs Roundtable, Ultralight Startups’ Investor Feedback Forum, Global Innovators and Orrick Total Access –for starters.
A partner at FirstMark Capital and the previous Managing Director at Bloomberg Ventures, Turck is a mentor at Techstars NYC, DreamIt New York, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, First Growth Venture Network and NYC Venture Fellows. He also organizes two large monthly tech community events, and .
Did we mention that he’s an angel investor as well?
Keep up with Matt:
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Linkedin
Blog
Image credit: FirstMark Capital
Andy Dunn
Bonobos, Founder & CEO
RedSwan Ventures, Founder
Andy Dunn is the young Stanford Business School grad (and former Lands End employee) who took from an online-only pants-selling business to a company selling a full menswear line. What set Bonobos apart was the fit: they launched with khakis that eliminated the “Khaki Diaper Butt.” Yeah, that’ll put you on the map and in the zeitgeist. Now Bonobos sells a full line of (properly fitting) menswear, online, at Bonobos kiosks, and in Nordstrom.
Dunn is also Founder of , which invests in early stage, customer-centric, disruptive companies, like Birchbox, Warby Parker, Harry’s and Chloe+Isabel. Of course, he has a penchant for ecommerce disruptors.
Keep up with Andy:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Zach Weinberg
Flatiron Health, Cofounder
is the healthcare IT company whose mission it is to improve cancer research by organizing the world’s real-world oncology data on a shared technology platform.
The company was founded in 2012 by Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner, the founders of Invite Media, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Noticing that most cancer centers, physicians and researchers were deprived of even the most basic of data and analytical tools that other industries take for granted, they decided to found Flatiron Health. Oh, and while Flatiron is currently in beta with a number of cancer care facilities across the country, they raised $130+M this year. Something must be looking very promising!
Weinberg is also an angel investor, and invests in 10-15 startups per year.
Keep up with Zach:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Angelist
Image credit: Twitter
Lori Cheek
Cheekd, Founder
With her fabulous Southern drawl (Kentucky) and infectious energy, everyone knows Lori Cheek – and probably at least one or two of you out there have been at one point or another. If you’re single, that is. In a perfect world.
The former architect is founder of cheekd, a reverse online dating site where subscribers buy a buy a deck of cards, complete with cheeky, ice breaking come on lines, and a unique link to the giver’s online profile. The hopefully interested parties first engage offline, then connect online, where the receiver will get more information about his/her potential paramour.
Thanks to the new Cheekd, you’ll never miss a connection again. Using your device’s bluetooth signal, Cheekd will detect potential nearby missed connections. And hope you’ll love it!
It might not have gotten the love when she pitched on ABC’s Shark Tank, but we heart Cheek – and that’s why they’re called sharks. But Cheek is not one to give up on love, or helping other people in the New York startup community to find love, No ris she someone who is likely to give up on her venture any time soon. Be sure to check out the new Cheekd. Available in the App Store..
Keep up with Lori:
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Image credit: K Preston Photography
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Elias Roman
Songza, Founder & CEO
Elias Roman, founder of both and Amie Street, is two for two. Amie Street, Inc. is a media company that has created both social music properties: Songza.com and AmieStreet.com. AmieStreet.com, which allows independent artists to network and sell to their fans, was acquired by Amazon. Songza, a music streaming and recommendation service offering curated playlists based on the time of day or a user’s mood or activity, was acquired by Google back in July.
Keep up with Elias:
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Image credit: Digital Media Summit
Matt Brimer
General Assembly, Cofounder
Daybreakers, Founder
Matt Brimer is another one of the Fab Four who founded (along with partners Adam Pritzker, Brad Hargreaves and Jake Schwartz, and for the record, it was originally called SuperConductor). He’s still very much involved with the GA, which has pivoted to an education platform.
But it seems Brimer just can’t sit still. Literally. Now he’s doing Daybreakers, a self-described ‘morning movement that will start your day off unlike anything else,’ and ‘movement’ is the operative here. It’s an early morning (7 am) party where revelers dance the early morning rush hour away. No alcoholic beverages are served, so expect a virgin screwdriver, aka orange juice, straight up. It’s a great idea and hell of a lot more inspiring than dragging yourself to the gym for your morning workout.
Daybreakers are currently in five cities (NYC, LA, SF, ATL and London), with a lot more coming soon.
Keep up with Matt:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Kathryn Minshew
The Muse, Founder & CEO
It started as The Daily Muse, but things change fast in this town. It’s now simply – the trusted destination for career advice for Millenials- and founder Kathryn Minshew is still Chief Muse.
She’s also a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, a Y Combinator alum a Forbes 30-under-30 and an INC 15 women to watch in tech. How could she not make our list as well?
Keep up with Kathryn:
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Jason Saltzman
AlleyNYC, Cofounder
After the real estate crash in Miami, moved to New York City, where Saltzman founded , a co-working space in Midtown that frequently hosts hackathons; a speaker series featuring people involved in technology who want to address budding tech entrepreneurs; parties; and investors who hold office hours in the space.
Saltzman is also cofounder of Seamless Docs, an Entrepreneurs Roundtable accelerated company that offers a cloud-based suite to make it easy for users to create forms, share documents and contacts, and manage projects.
Saltzman is also a member of the United States Department Speaker and Specialist Program, receiving a 2014 grant from the program to participate in an entrepreneurship seminar in Kuwait City, where he presented the idea of entrepreneurship to a nation where ninety percent of workers are employed by the government.
He’s the consummate showman – and host – and he helped to change the coworking landscape.
Keep up with Jason:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jared Hecht
Fundera, Cofounder & CEO
As a shooting star in the startup world, Jared Hecht has “always had a proclivity for straying from the common path.” And like a shooting star, Jared has been opening eyes from the very beginning of his young—and rather impressive—career. Armed with a degree in Political Science from Columbia University, Jared first made a name for himself in his senior year, when he acted as managing director and publisher for the university’s student-written guidebook, Inside New York. Taking the publication into the 21st century, his leadership and experience landed him his first post-grad gig as Business Development Manager at a little startup called tumblr. You may have heard of it.
After getting a taste for the tech world, Hecht partnered with software engineer Steve Martocci to try his hand in the then-emerging world of social networking. The pair co-founded the group messaging app , in May 2010. What began as a quick and simple way for friends to stay connected in areas with unreliable phone service grew overnight into a buzzing social networking app—prompting $10.5 million from investors, and $80 million one year later, with the acquisition of the company by Skype.
Since then, Hecht has become an active Angel investor, investing in a variety of startups and tech companies, including Codecademy and AngelList.
In September 2013, Hecht co-founded and raised $3.4 million for , a loan marketplace for small businesses. Acting as CEO, he aims to provide solutions to small businesses that are denied bank loans, despite having a healthy and successful business. If there’s a foreseeable problem, Jared Hecht knows how to fix it, and make everyone money in the process.
Keep up with Jared:
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LinkedIn
Website
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David Eisenberg
Floored, Founder & CEO
Floored builds software to automatically turn chaotic 3D data into clean, beautiful, interactive virtual worlds – and the technology is amazing. Founder and CEO David Eisenberg certainly knows his way around the New York startup scene and no doubt quite a few offices in the city. He’s also a partner at Red Swan Ventures and former Chief of Staff at Bonobos.
Keep up with David:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Howard Lerman
Yext, Cofounder & CEO
Howard Lerman is CEO and Cofounder of , a geomarketing company that provides businesses with a way to update business information, including addresses and phone numbers, to multiple channels, such as landing pages, listings, and social pages, from a single source, the Yext GeoMarketing Cloud.
Lerman is also Cofounder and Chairman of , an app which allows professionals to send one another messages that are untraceable, not unlike Snapchat, but for the business world.
Lerman’s three previous ventures were all successful exits: he founded and sold his first startup, JustaTip.com from his dorm room at Duke University; he then co-founded Intwine, a technology consulting firm that was acquired by Datran Media (Lerman became COO of Datran); and Yext sold Felix, its pay-per-call division, to IAC in 2012.
Keep up with Howard:
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Scott Anderson
Control Group, Partner & Chief Strategy Officer
Scott Anderson, a Founding Partner of , a technology and design company that has built a spectrum of capabilities that enable more automated, personalized and integrated experiences across digital and physical environments. And they’ve done some very cool things, like built those “On the Go” digital information kiosks that you might have seen in the subway, that simplify wayfinding and communication for the largest public transit system in the Americas. Over ninety installations have been placed at top New York City subway stations throughout this year.
Anderson is also on the Board of Directors for the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association. He also holds numerous leadership and advisory roles for local organizations, including the Leadership Council and Board of Directors of openhousenewyork, Music Director and Board Member of the The Wassaic Project, member of the Lower Manhattan Tech Committee and Marketing Sub-Committee for the Alliance for Downtown New York (ADNY), City Poly Advisory Board, and a representing member for Control Group for the Association for a Better NY (ABNY) and New York Tech Meetup.
Keep up with Scott:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
David Teten
ff Venture Capital, Partner
It’s true. He really is a Parkour legend, so don’t mess with David Teten. Not that you’d have any reason to. He’s a partner at , a New York-based venture firm which has made over 200 investments in over 70 companies across the US, Canada, UK, and Israel since 1999. He is also Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York, the second-largest angel network in New York and cofounder of the Venture Capital Access Program, which helps women and minority entrepreneurs raise venture capital from members of the HBS Alumni Angels network. He is a Mentor at Founder Institute in New York and Singapore, Dreamit Ventures, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Lean Startup Machine, and Startup Leadership Program.
Teten also co-authored The Virtual Handshake, which is available as a free download.
Keep up with David:
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Linkedin
Personal Blog
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Mark Birch
Angel Investor
Enhatch, Chief Revenue Officer
Mark Birch is an enterprise software tech entrepreneur, sales executive, early stage investor, and moped helmet-wearing metalhead based in NYC. He’s also Chief Revenue Officer for , an enterprise mobile platform that lets businesspeople quickly create fully branded, easy to use mobile apps focused on the needs of salespeople and marketers – no coding or technical expertise required – thus reducing time to market and cost.
He is also co-organizer of the NY Enterprise Sales Meetup. a community for sales people selling into enterprises to share, learn, and network with industry peers.
In his non-working hours, he is a fund raiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and hits the open-mic circuit playing his guitar. In his spare time, he can be found trawling the narrow streets of Chinatown leading intrepid food explorers on tours to hunt down the best dumplings and Chinese snack foods around town.
Although, we’re not sure if that explains the helmet…
Keep up with Mark:
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LinkedIn
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Nick Beim
Venrock, Partner
In 2011, Nick Beim made Forbes Elite 8: Who to Watch for in Venture Capital. Beim became a venture capitalist in 2004 and by 2006, JBoss, a company he invested in, was sold to RedHat for $350 million. Beim led the initial venture investment in such companies as the Gilt Groupe, The Ladders, Intent Media, Conductor, JBoss, and OatSystems.
According to his blog, he likes to « invest early in companies I think have significant disruptive potential and can be big and help these companies develop their product and business strategies and build out their teams. This is the time where I feel I can add the most value to these companies. Most of the companies I invest in have less than 10 employees, and most have not yet launched a product. I’m happy to invest however much an entrepreneur needs, and my initial investments generally range from $500K to $15m. »
Speaking of his blog, here’s the partner’s take on The Rise and Future of the New York Startup Ecosystem
Keep up with Nick:
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Jalak Jobanputra
FuturePerfect Ventures, Founding Partner
Jalak Jobanputra is Managing Partner at , an early stage venture capital fund that is looking to fund “diverse group of entrepreneurs who are building applications combining relevant data and collective knowledge for the seven billion people in the world.”
And she has invested all over the world: NYC, Silicon Valley, Boston, India, Africa, Europe. Investments include Outside.in (sold to AOL), TxVia (prepaid card processing platform, sold to Google), Thumbplay (mobile music, sold to Clear Channel), NextG (microcell towers, sold to Crown Castle), Datasynapse (enterprise grid/cloud computing, sold to Tibco), Viacore (enterprise partner integration, sold to IBM), Demantra (demand chain mgmt, sold to Oracle), Yodlee (IPO, online banking), Zinio (ereader).
She also spearheaded formation of NYCSeed in 2008, was the Senior Vice President at the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF), and the Director of Mobile Investments at (established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), where she created projects all over the world (Africa, Latin America, and India). It’s not always easy to…
Keep up with Jalak:
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LinkedIn
Quora
Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Rameet Chawla
Fueled, Founder
is the founder of , a design and development company based in New York, London, and Chicago that produces award winning apps and websites for startups like QuizUp to big brands like Barneys. Since the company’s launch in 2011, over half a billion dollars worth of ecommerce transactions have taken place on Fueled apps.
In 2013, Chawla opened The Fueled Collective, a very cool shared workspace in downtown Manhattan that is home to 35 of New York’s fastest growing startups. He is also a founding member of The Summit Mountain Project and General Assembly.
Chawla was part of the NYCEDC 2013 venture fellows class and has participated in delegations with Bloomberg to foster collaboration between New York and Israel’s technology ecosystems. In 2013, The Next Web named Rameet one of the “50 NYC Tech Entrepreneurs You Need to Know About. ”
Earlier this year, he launched Lovematically, a mobile app and social experiment into the psychology of the “Like.” Lovematically was quickly shut down by both Facebook and Instagram.
A contributor to Forbes, Inc., The Next Web, VentureBeat and UX Magazine, the New York Post named him “The Most Stylish Man in High Tech.”
Keep up with Rameet:
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Minerva Tantoco
City of New York, Chief Technology Officer
“As a girl from Queens and the Bronx High School of Science, it is truly an honor to be the first ever CTO of New York City,” said Minerva Tantoco as she took the stage at the September New York Tech Meetup, where Mayor Bill De Blasio announced the appointment. “Thinking back to what drew me to technology, it was its ability to transform and empower and ultimately drive change in all aspects of life. It’s a great field for optimistic creative people who like to solve problems,” she said. “Our goal is to make New York City the most tech and innovation-friendly city in the world.” As a start, Tantoco said the city would be gathering feedback from the public on Twitter using the hashtag #forwardnyc.
She’s got street cred: the Vassar grad hold four patents.
Keep up with Minerva:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
David Tisch
Box Group, Cofounder & Managing Partner
Yes, he is one of those Tischs, from the real estate family, and you have to give him a lot of credit: David Tisch is not only a very active investor, which makes him hugely supportive of the New York startup community: he was Cofounder of before he decided to found with Adam Rothenberg. With a focus on early stage technology startups, Tisch’s typical investment ranges from $50,000 to $250,000.
He also recently launched , an ecommerce company, with his brother, Alan.
Keep up with David:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
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Albert Wenger
Union Square Ventures, Managing Partner
Albert Wenger is currently Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, and bet you didn’t know that he was was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo.
Wenger has previously founded or co-founded five companies, including a management consulting firm (in Germany), a hosted data analytics company, a technology subsidiary for Telebanc (now E*Tradebank), an early stage investment firm, and most recently (with his wife), DailyLit, a service for reading books by email or RSS. His investment activity includes angel investments in Etsy and Tumblr.
As far as his background in technology, he won the German national computer science competition at age 18 and holds a Ph. D in Information Technology from MIT.
Keep up with Albert:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Alessandro Piol
AlphaPrime Ventures, Partner & Cofounder
Alessandro Piol has been involved in the technology industry for over 30 years, first as a software developer, then as a marketing and business development executive at both a large corporation and in a startup, and finally as an investor. As a venture capitalist, Piol has been focused on software, new media, communications technologies and infrastructure. He’s a big fan of new technologies and new ideas, and an even greater fan of working with brilliant engineers and talented managers.
An angel investor, mentor and advisor to a number of companies in the New York area, he also co-authored the book, , about the birth of Silicon Alley and its entrepreneurial ecosystem. He should know: he was one of the driving forces who helped to launch this community!
He recently launched , an early stage fund investing in big data and enterprise software.
Keep up with Alessandro:
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Kelly Hoey
Cuurio, Chief Marketing Officer
You might have attended one of Kelly Hoey’s Founders Breakfasts. Or one of her “Meet The Innovators” evenings that she hosts at the Apple store in Soho. Or tuned in for a segment or two of her #womenwhotech Google+ hangout on air series. If not, you need to: she always says something worth hearing.
As if that isn’t enough, Hoey is also the CMO of , an index of startups and an ideation platform that connects brands and agencies with emerging technology to create breakthrough partnerships.
She is a mentor for several startup accelerators (JuiceLabs, Straight Shot, Tampa Bay Wave, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator); she sits on the advisory boards of Levo League, Lion’esque Style, Best Fashion Friend, Notorious, BuzzTarget, xtgem, Glimpse and , and advisory boards of organizations/groups promoting the advancement of women and girls (SUNY Levin Institute’s Women Entrepreneurs & Investors Program, Girls Who Code, Hastings Leadership Academy) and was recognized by Forbes both as “One of the Five Women Changing the VC World” as one of “40 Women to Watch Over 40.” Fast Company’s “25 Smartest Women on Twitter,” Business Insider’s “100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter,” and of course, AlleyWatch’s “20 Awesome People In The New York Tech Scene You Need To Know About.”
Keep up with Kelly:
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the J in J. Kelly
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Barry Silbert
Founder, SecondMarket
Founder, Bitcoin Investment Trust
Barry Silbert is an expert when it comes to making the right investments. He is best known for being the founder and CEO of , a platform that enables companies, community banks and loan issuers to raise capital, provide liquidity and communicate with their stakeholders. Since its creation in 2004, SecondMarket has been the beneficiary of numerous prestigious accolades, including being named Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, as well as being recognized by the likes of Forbes, Fast Company, Deloitte and many others.
Silbert is also well known for creating the , a private, open-ended trust that is invested exclusively in bitcoin and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. It enables investors to gain exposure to the price movement of bitcoin without the challenge of buying, storing and safekeeping the currency.
He is also one of the most prolific angel investors in general, and in the Bitcoin space via his Bitcoin Opportunity Corp, with over 30 Bitcoin-related Bitcoin investments in companies including BitPay, Coinbase, CoinLab, Gyft, BitPremier, Coinsetter, itBit, Ripple Labs, Korbit, UnoCoin and BitPagos.
Keep up with Barry:
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LinkedIn
Image credit: CC by hackNY.org
Marc Michel
Metamorphic Ventures, Managing Partner
Marc Michel is Managing Partner of , a seed and early stage fund focused on transactional media representing the convergence of digital media and transaction processing, and has more than 20 years experience as an investor, having been involved in both private equity and venture capital.
Michel has been involved in many successful companies including Coinstar, Mountain Union Telecom, CADIS Software, FrontierVision, Open Development Software, Precyse Solutions, Telemundo, Robb Report, Reiman Publishing, Alaska Native Wireless, Tritel PCS, Triton PCS, Wireless One, Brooks Fiber, Bresnan Cable, and Peapod.
And if perchance you notice that he’s speaking somewhere on a panel, go! His advice and the feedback he proffers is invaluable – and he’s a very active investor in NYC-based companies.
Keep up with Mark:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Ben Kaufman
Quirky, Founder & CEO
His entrepreneurial journey started during his senior year of high school. with a second mortgage on his parents’ house and the founding of an iPod accessory company called mophie. Shortly after mophie won “Best of Show” at MacWorld 2006, Ben Kaufman discovered his passion for involving people around the world in the development of new consumer products. The rapid growth of the mophie brand led to its acquisition in August of 2007, which allowed Kaufman to focus his efforts on bringing his idea of ‘social product development’ to the next level. After two years of research and development on the unique technology platform that became the foundation of his future work, the young entrepreneur publicly launched in 2009.
Quirky brings new consumer products to market by enabling interaction between the online global community – who designs and chooses which potential products should see the light of day – and Quirky’s product design staff.
Quirky used to have a television show – but were too busy making the products themselves to continue it. Nothing like success, what, eh?
Keep up with Ben:
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Zach Sims
Co-Founder & CEO, CodeAcademy
Bowery Capital, Venture Partner
is the first truly net native education platform, and the easiest way to learn to code – by doing. Codeacademy has been helping millions of learners around the world obtain the skills they need to succeed in today’s digital world – all in a way that’s fun, free, and accessible anywhere, and unlike traditional education. In fact, CA are much more likely to take their cues from Facebook and Zynga rather than the classroom to create engaging educational products.
As for co-founder and CEO Zach Sims, he’s been pretty busy in the startup world since graduating from Columbia in 2008. He has worked in product and business development/strategy capacities at GroupMe (sold to Skype) and drop.io (sold to Facebook). He also has experience in the venture capital industry, having worked at AOL Ventures, the venture capital arm of AOL. He’s now a Venture Partner at Bowery Capital.
Sims was also name to both Inc Magazine’s and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 lists, and The City of New York named him a New York City Venture Fellow in 2013.
Keep up with Zach:
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LinkedIn
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jonah Peretti
BuzzFeed, Founder & CEO
It’s everyone’s favorite site for listicles, and not founder and CEO Jonah Peretti’s first time at the carnival. is a media company focused on delivering news and viral content across subject areas, detecting what’s trending on the web, and connecting people in realtime, with content that’s of the moment.
Peretti previously co-founded the Huffington Post.
Keep up with Jonah:
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Neil Blumenthal
Warby Parker, Cofounder & Co-CEO
There is no one in the company named – the name comes from two characters that appear in a journal by Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouak – despite the fact that there are four WP founders – Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider – and probably as many stories as to what inspired the bespectacled quartet to found the company. The problem was simple: the eyewear industry is dominated by a single company that has been able to keep prices artificially high in the name of reaping huge profits from consumers who have no other options. Warby Parker was the fashionable, cost-effective alternative.
Because a billion people worldwide do not have access to prescription glasses, they also partners with non-profits like VisionSpring (where Blumenthal once worked) to ensure that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need.
Keep up with Neil:
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jukay Hsu
Coalition for Queens (C4Q), Founder
Ah, Queens, borough of dreams… It is according to founder Jukay Hsu and just so you know, he’s a former Army Captain (who earned a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq), so you might want to listen up: C4Q fosters the Queens Tech ecosystem to increase economic opportunity and to transform the world’s most diverse community into a leading hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.
And for all that he’s doing for Queens, including literally putting it on the tech map, Gold Star!
Keep up with Jukay:
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Brian Cohen
New York Angels, Chairman
Brian Cohen is not only Chairman of the . He’s also considered the father of science and technology communications, having founded tech PR agency Technology Solutions, Inc. in 1983 (and bought by the McCann Erikson Worldgroup in 1997). And he’s been supporting startup tech companies, primarily in New York, ever since.
He is also author of , and can frequently be found on one investor panel or other dispensing pearls of wisdom, and make sure to listen to what he has to say:
Cohen has long been the Ambassador of Tech in NYC.
Keep up with Brian:
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Image credit: Get Funded by Angels
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Andrew Young
Swill, CoFounder
We are not sure where to start when it comes to describing Andrew Young. He’s a busy man who’s working on a number of different things and often has a seemingly endless list of other projects in the pipeline. By day, Young is the Cofounder of the NYC startup , a delivery service for alcohol, which alone makes him awesome and popular. Young is also staple on the startup event circuit and is the lead organizer for the various NYC Startup Weekends – and is a global facilitator representing our fair city. He also teamed up with OS Fashion’s Pavan Bahl to launch a global Startup Weekend Fashion battle, with competitions in New York, London, Milan and Paris.
He is also an ambassador for WeWork and leads the NYC Reddit Meeetup.
Young can often be found letting loose in a banana suit that is now his signature and has become a part of the NYC startup culture.
Keep up with Andrew:
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Jonathan Lehr
Work-Bench, Venture Director
Jonathan Lehr is Venture Director at Work-Bench, an enterprise technology growth accelerator that provides community and workspace, connecting enterprise startups that have funding, a product, and early traction to Fortune 500 buyers. With their own $10 million fund, they also back enterprise startups. That’s where Lehr comes in.
He’s certainly no stranger to the enterprise space.
In early 2012, he started the – the first Meetup
group in NYC focused exclusively on enterprise technology company presentation – and which is not always the easiest ticket to nab. It’s no wonder: the group has over 3,000 members, including Fortune 500 technologists, enterprise entrepreneurs, investors, and students.
The cool apps and wearables and Tinders-of-whatever aside, at the end of the day, New York is very much an Enterprise technology town, and Lehr is very much at the center of it.
Keep up with Jonathan:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
David Karp
Tumblr, Founder
Founder and first ever Tumblr blogger David Karp is one of the feathers in New York publishing’s crown, having sold to Yahoo! for a very cool $1.1B in an all cash deal. Nice! And talk about Keep It Simple, Stupid, he accomplished this by creating a microblogging platform/social networking website and making it dead easy for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff – and then share it. Or not.
Karp is New York born and bred and despite his company’s sale to the search giant, he’s here to stay. Then again, ask him feels about Silicon Valley some time.
Keep up with David:
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Ian Sigalow
Greycroft, Cofounder & Partner
Here’s a great snapshot of Ian Sigalow:
Lead investor on companies that were acquired for over $1.7BN in proceeds:
Buddy Media (Acquired by Salesforce: NYSE: CRM)
Braintree (Acquired by Paypal: NASDAQ: EBAY)
Vizu (Acquired by Nielsen: NYSE: NLSN)
OggiFinogi (Acquired by Collective).
Prior entrepreneurial experience:
Founded a technology start-up in June 2004, led engineering and product design, raised seed capital from Columbia University and angels.
Future goals: Building tomorrow’s Fortune 500.
And since he’s Cofounder and Partner at one of New York’s leading digital media venture firm, he’ll do it. He’s already well on his way.
Keep up with Ian:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: Greycroft
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Natalia Oberti Noguera
Pipeline Fellowship, Founder & CEO
Dubbed “The Coach” by Marie Claire, Natalia Oberti Noguera (aka Ms. Oberti Noguera) is Founder and CEO of Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women that’s changing the face of angel investing and creating capital for women social entrepreneurs. She has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Mashable, Reuters Money, TechCrunch, The New York Times, and Fast Company’s Co.Exist Change Generation series.
Oberti Noguera was also named to the Forbes list “Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter,” as well as Latina.com’s “25 Latinas Who Shine in Tech.” Women’s eNews recognized her as one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century for 2012 and Business Insider included her on its 2013 list “The 30 Most Important Women in Tech under 30.”
Fellow list member Kelly Hoey, Dawn Barber and Angela Lee are all Pipeline Fellowship alums.
Keep up with Natalia:
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Kirill Sheynkman
RTP Ventures, Senior Managing Director
After having founded three Silicon Valley software companies – Plumtree Software, Elastra Corporation and Stanford Technology Group – Kirill Sheynkman invested in a variety of IT, SaaS and cloud software startups, including Fab, RingCentral, Inc. and Tinfoil Security.
Sheynkman left the Silicon Valley in hopes of founding new tech ventures in the less tech-saturated New York City, and is the senior managing director of , a global venture firm where he focuses on developing the firm’s $750 million U.S. fund, based in New York. RTP Ventures is the U.S.-based branch of ru-Net Holdings, one of Russia’s largest Internet and technology investors.
Welcome to NY and happy to have you here !
Keep up with Kirill:
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Blog
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The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Jessica Lawrence
NY Tech Meetup, Executive Director
Jessica Lawrence is the Executive Director of NY Tech Meetup (NYTM), the largest Meetup in the world and a non-profit organization helping to build a sustainable and diverse technology industry in New York. In 2013, she co-founded The Work Revolution Summit, a conference on the future of work. Prior to her work with NYTM, Jessica was the CEO of Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council in Southern California, where she supported a community of 75 staff, 5,000 volunteers, and 15,000 girls.
Lawrence was one of only 15 women selected to participate in Seth Godin’s Female Entrepreneur MBA (FeMBA) in 2010. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Girl Scouts of the USA Frances Hesselbein Award for Excellence in Management in 2007, was selected as one of The Daily Muse’s 12 Women to Watch in 2012, and as one of the Crain’s New York Business People to Watch in Silicon Alley 2013. Jessica’s writing has been featured on the Harvard Business Review blog, Forbes.com, The Next Web, The Huffington Post and in a weekly column in The Press-Enterprise. She also speaks frequently on technology startups, the New York technology community, women in tech, organizational development and culture, the future of work, and non-profit management.
And remember: the one question that one is never permitted to ask at the NYTM is…what’s your business model. You will be booed.
Keep up with Jessica:
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Brad Hargreaves
General Assembly, Cofounder
Maveron, Venture Partner
Brad Hargreaves, Matt Brimer, Adam Pritzker and Jake Schwartz all started together – and suddenly, coworking was cool. It wasn’t long before they expanded to other cities and countries – not to mention a second location in New York City. But ever the innovators, it was long after that before they pivoted into the education space. Of course, it isn’t your typical educational institution: all of the teachers are entrepreneurs and/or people who’ve worked in the startup space.
Nothing institutional about that – and as it should be.
School is now in session in 18 locations in 12 cities around the world.
While Hargreaves is still involved with GA, he recently joined GA lead investor as a venture partner and returning to my passion for early stage companies.
Keep up with Brad:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Image credit: LinkedIn
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Alan Patricof
Greycroft LLC, Founder & Managing Director
With over 40 years of venture capital experience and a variety of successful investment firms, Alan Patricof has become one of the country’s leading authorities on public and private venture capital, which is why he is often revered as the industry’s “Founding Father of Venture Capital.”
The pioneering venture capitalist founded one of the world’s leading venture firms, Patricof & Co. Ventures, in 1969, which later became Apax Partners. Patricof was instrumental in the early stages of numerous major global companies like Apple and AOL, facilitating their start with seed funding. After years of large-scale investments, Patricof is now concentrating on a smaller investment business model.
Patricof founded Greycroft Partners in 2006, a venture capital firm focused on the digital media sector, making investments of about $500,000 to $5 million, in digital media startups.
Keep up with Alan:
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Image credit: Greycroft
Kay Koplovitz
Springboard Enterprises, Founder
As if founding USA Networks wasn’t enough, Kay Koplovitz then launched the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy Channel – whatever), bringing smiles to the faces of techies everywhere. Next up: Koplovitz created Springboard Enterprises to raise venture capital specifically for women entrepreneurs. And may we add that companies selected and represented by Springboard have raised over $5.5 billion and have had positive liquidity events for investors, including IPOs.
For the record, it was Koplovitz who launched major professional and collegiate sports on cable television by negotiating the first contracts and creating first cable coverage for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.
Keep up with Kay:
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LinkedIn
Blog
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Howard Morgan
First Round Capital, Managing Partner
Managing partner at First Round Capital, Dr. Howard Morgan spent quite a bit of time in academia as Professor of Decision Sciences at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Computer Science at the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania, Visiting Professor at the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School. As a result of his early participation in the internet, he advised many corporate and government agencies on the uses of electronic and voice mail, implementing it throughout the Wharton School in the mid 1970s.
In fact, he’s currently a consultant for HBO’s hit show Silicon Valley.
Morgan was also the director and founding investor of Idealab in the ’90s, nurturing early stage companies and taking them from seed stage through initial public offerings
Keep up with Howard:
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Image credit: CC by Joi Ito
Anand Sanwal
CB Insights, CEO & Cofounder
We remember when Anand Sanwal launched Chubby Brain – and their awesome Funding Recommendation Engine. It has morphed into CB Insights, your personalized gateway to smarter, faster, friendlier intelligence on high growth private companies – and a must read for the private equity, venture capital, corporate development, investment banking, corporate innovation & strategy, angel investment, and consulting crowd.
Not a bad readership to have, and kudos to Sanwal, who had previously managed a $50M innovation fund for American Express, and prior to that, worked for one of the most famous Web 1.0 bubble startups ever: Kozmo.com, which received the largest amount of funding in NYC history for a tech startup, then was gone in a New York minute.
CB Insights is a National Science Foundation-backed software company doing amazing things with data, and was recently rated as one of NY’s top emerging enterprise companies.
Keep up with Anand:
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Image credit : CleanTech Open
The 100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know is presented by Comerica Bank: Technology & Life Sciences Division.
Brad Weinberg, MD
Blueprint Health, Cofounder
Brad Weinberg, MD is cofounder of Blueprint Health Accelerator, and yes, he is an MD. And a serial entrepreneur. And does product development (PHP / LAMP, Ruby, Zend, memcache). And he’s an investor (Chartio, Docphin, Care at Hand, Sproutel, Care Thread) and advisor (Aidin, Sproutel, Betaspring, iMedicare, Health Recovery Solutions, Pixie Scientific, Consignd (ERA W’13), Decisive Health, Artemis, Care Thread, CareSpeak Communications) to companies.
Blueprint Health, which is a Charter Member of the Global Accelerator Network, which was started by TechStars, is geared towards healthcare companies seeking to benefit from the accelerator’s intensive three-month program, which focuses on acquiring clients and capital..
And if you are going to found or manage an accelerator with a focus on health care, or take a space in the accelerators offices, good to know that there’s a doctor in the house.
Keep up with Brad:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Image credit: LinkedIn
