Founder and Managing Director, Greycroft Partners
A former titan of global private equity, Alan helped reignite the New York tech startup scene when he launched VC firm Greycroft Partners in 2001.
The company typically invests between $500,000 and $3 million in startups, and it has backed boomer startups like Doppelganger, K2 Network, and the Huffington Post. In July, Alan made out nicely when Guardian Media bought paidContent.org parent ContentNext for over $30 million; as sole investor, Greycroft initially funded the tech blog for "well under a million" when it bought paidContent in 2003.
Some of Alan's other activities this year: in April, Greycroft invested in Health Plan One, an Orbitz-for-health-insurance site; in May, it funded analytics startup Sometrics, and in July, it backed Web publishing startup Crowd Fusion. Alan's portfolio company executives characterize the investor's aura as "The Alan Factor." At SAI, we just refer to him as "God."
2007 Rank: 4
