Developers and founders no longer have to go west to find a vibrant tech scene. New York’s Silicon Alley has emerged as a heavy-hitting startup ecosystem, with a strong foundation of entrepreneurial and tech talent, venture capital, accelerator and incubation programs, marketing/PR and ad agencies, NGOs and government programs. New York is now a serious alternative to the Bay Area for founders hoping to make it big. But it has taken an army to get to this point, replete with all kinds of companies and supporting services that make a tech ecosystem possible. Here are 20 entrepreneurs shaking up the New York tech scene with their tech, service and non-profit businesses:
Scott Gerber, Founder, Young Entrepreneur Council
In 2010, when it seemed like most college graduates collected their diplomas and then moved back in with Mom and Dad, Gerber founded the Young Entrepreneur Council, an organization that supports young people seeking to create their own jobs. YEC has become a prestigious invite-only group of young entrepreneurs who mentor new entrants into the tech scene. A for-profit arm, Gen Y Capital Partners, provides seed and early stage funding. In the first four years, a number of leading young entrepreneurs have passed through YEC’s doors including the founders of Mint.com, 2U and Klout.
Brooke Hammerling, Founder, Brew Media Relations
Hammerling does PR differently. In addition to getting stories published for clients including
Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann, Co-founders, WeWork
Miguel intended to get a degree in business, but came out of school an architect. Adam is an entrepreneur who grew up on a kibbutz. Their two backgrounds have shaped WeWork, a network of communal workspaces that use funky, offbeat design to make a work a place you actually want to hang out. In the growing co-working space market, WeWork appears to be the leader with a footprint of 1 million square feet in 6 US cities and new locations planned in the UK and Israel.
Adam Pritzker, Matthew O. Brimer, Brad Hargreaves and Jake Schwartz, Co-founders, General Assembly
If you’re considering a traditional master’s degree related to tech, you might want to check out General Assembly first. The organization, founded in New York in 2011, has campuses around the world where entrepreneurs and other professionals teach practical courses on topics from programming to business management. GA also teaches tech seminars to Fortune 500 executives who sometimes look at the pool of GA alums for new hires.
Gil Dudkiewicz, Founder, StartApp
Since leading his first company to a $40 million sale in 2012, Gil has been at the helm of StartApp, a feisty mobile advertising platform, which he founded in 2010. Competing against the big dogs, such as
Alexis Ohanian, Co-founder, Reddit
He’s been called both the “Mayor” and the “Hero” of the internet. That’s what you get for co-founding (with Steve Huffman, who’s in San Francisco these days) one of the web’s most popular sites, Reddit, and leading the charge against internet regulation. These days he’s based in Brooklyn and focused on advising tech startups and running side projects like his zany Breadpig “uncorporation.”
Lee Hnetinka and Calvin Lai, Co-founders, WunWun
Hnetinka, the CEO, and Lai, the developer, have been in the app-based delivery game with WunWun since last year. The big difference between them and the competition is that they offer their basic service—delivery of products and food in Manhattan and Brooklyn—for free. There’s also a courier service, for things such as picking up dry cleaning, for a fee. The end game is to charge companies to serve users ads based on their requests.
Jessica Lawrence, Executive Director, NY Tech Meetup
Lawrence earned a reputation as an innovative non-profit CEO while leading a chapter of the Girl Scouts in Southern California. Today, she’s a key figure in the New York tech scene, leading NY Tech Meetup, a forum for the local industry and a networking event. The event’s 800 tickets are always sold out, but you can catch it at New Work City, a co-working space, where it’s livestreamed for an overflow crowd.
Ken Lerer and Ben Lerer, Partners, Lerer Ventures
Their exits include Venmo ($26 million), Bluefin Labs (to Twitter), Makerbot ($403 million) and GroupMe ($68 million to Skype). How does the Lerer Ventures father and son team do it? As a New York magazine profile put it, “Ben [the son] knew the people who had the ideas; Ken knew the people who had the money.” They also have media entrepreneurship bona fides of their own. Ken was a co-founder of The Huffington Post and Ben’s the founder of Thrillist.
Peter Lurie, Co-founder, Grid Mobile
A serial mobile entrepreneur, Lurie co-founded Virgin Mobile USA over a decade ago and played a central role in its massive success. Last year, he co-founded Grid Mobile, which provides mobile software solutions to employees of SMBs. He also recently co-founded Defense Mobile, which helps active and retired US military personnel with mobile and banking solutions. Lurie is deeply tied into the mobile tech scene in New York.
Azita Ardakani, Founder, Lovesocial
Azita Ardakani is that rare ad exec primarily motivated to use advertising to effect positive social change. Her company, Lovesocial, is an even rarer breed: an agency that’s also a B-corp. Her work on campaigns for clean water (Summit on the Summit) and socially conscious documentaries (Gasland) earned her the attention of business luminaries. Jack Dorsey is an adviser and Todd Moscowitz was the first investor in Lovesocial. The agency’s clients have included Oprah magazine, Michael Kors and the United Nations Foundation.
Brian Cohen, Chairman, New York Angels
One of the most prominent angels in New York, Cohen leads the New York Angels, a membership group of angel investors who make seed and early-stage investments from private funds. Since founding Technology Solutions Inc. in 1983 and running it for 14 years, Brian has had some big wins in the angel game including Pinterest and ComiXology.
Nancy Lublin, CEO, DoSomething.org
Since 2003, Lublin has been at the helm of DoSomething.org, one of the most effective organizers of social campaigns. The site mobilizes young people (13-25) to start and participate in campaigns addressing issues from energy conservation to public health. Lublin herself has been a social entrepreneur her whole career. She founded Dress for Success right out of college in 1996.
Rex Sorgatz, Kinda Sorta Media
A former executive producer at MSNBC.com, Sorgatz quit his job and moved to New York where he quickly became a new medial mogul. For the last four years, he’s been at the helm of Kinda Sorta Media, an “anti-agency” that does basically everything, from social media to strategy and product design to IT. The client list is just as diverse, spanning the gamut from Agogo to Major League Soccer.
David Cohen, David Tisch, Jared Polis, David Brow and Brad Feld, Co-founders, TechStars
The east coast’s answer to Y Combinator, TechStars has an impressive track record incubating tech startups. In exchange for 7-10% equity TechStars has given founders $118,000 and intensive mentorship. Of more than 400 companies that have passed through the incubator, more than 90% remain active or have been acquired.
Zach Cutler, Founder and CEO, Cutler PR
One of New York's newer tech agencies, Cutler founded his firm Cutler PR in 2009 (at 22 years old) and has since grown to serve nearly 50 startup and mid-size tech companies, including Big Apple bigwigs like Voxy, Taboola and GetTaxi (aka Gett). With its disruptive pricing models and no-frills, results oriented approach, Cutler’s efforts have helped lots of New York-based tech companies – from AdTech and FinTech to HealthTech and EnterpriseTech – build media presence and brand visibility.
Laurel Touby, Founder, Mediabistro.com
The go-to site for all things media and journalism, Mediabistro has been bookmarked by reporters, editors, producers and PR types since Touby launched it in 2006. In 2007, she sold the site for $23 million and she’s been advising young entrepreneurs (sometimes as a mentor with TechStars) and investing in tech startups since then.
Paul Berry, Founder and CEO, Rebelmouse
The former CTO at the Huffington Post, Berry founded Rebelmouse in 2012. The company’s platform allows customers to pull together content from various social media accounts and other publishers to create dynamic pages for desktops and mobile devices. A star-studded list of investors has put about $13 million into the company.
Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Jared Tarbell and Haim Schoppik, Co-founders, Etsy
Founded in Brooklyn in 2005, Etsy was one of the early figures in the New York tech renaissance. Etsy took the concept of a crafts market and put it online. Nine years later and after raising almost $100 million, Etsy works with 1 million craftsmen and women who sell goods on the site. The company is private, but CEO Chad Dickerson has said it’s been profitable since 2009.
Rachel Haot, Serial Entrepreneur and Chief Digital Officer for New York State
A lifelong New Yorker, Haot (née Sterne) founded and ran Ground Report, one of the first citizen journalism sites, and Upward, a digital consultancy, before Mayor Bloomberg appointed her the city’s chief digital officer in 2011. She was 27. With Bloomberg, she implemented the Digital Roadmap, a long-term plan to engage the city in technology. Now she’s graduated to the state government where she works with Governor Cuomo.
