News From NewYorkBusiness.com
E-Trade stock plunges on account worries
Shares tumbled to a three-year low after performance issues lead to fears that the company had frozen its clients' accounts.
Judge says no to monitor in blast probe
The judge said that Con Ed is already working with state and city officials; lawyers for the injured tow truck driver claimed the utility was destroying evidence.
LIU appoints new Brooklyn chancellor
Morgan Stanley-Prime Brokerage managing director Joel Press will succeed Monsignor Thomas Hartman as chancellor of the Brooklyn campus.
Jerry Colonna, 37
Managing Partner
Flatiron Partners
Asked what quality his “40 under 40” photograph should project, Jerry Colonna blurts out, “Power.” Then he gets serious. “Nice,” he says.
“Approachable.”
It’s a revealing choice of adjectives for a journalist-turned-Internet-investor whose company put Silicon Alley on the venture capital map, and who became a public face for new media in New York.
“We have always tried to be mensches,” he says. “If I can get a deal on a great company for 10% less because the company wants to do the deal with me instead of someone else, then I will make money.”
Flatiron, which has backed TheStreet.com, StarMedia Network and other hyped-up players, has had setbacks lately as the market retreats from the content-oriented sites that gave Mr. Colonna and partner Fred Wilson an unblemished string of hits until last year.
The venture capitalists, who get most of their funding from Chase Capital Partners, are now focusing more on software and application plays.
Brooklyn-raised Mr. Colonna was 11 years old when his dad, a proofreader for a typesetting company, lost his longtime job as computers entered the printing business.
Mr. Colonna worked to put himself through Queens College, and was just about to withdraw because he couldn’t afford the tuition when a professor found him a scholarship that included an internship at CMP Media, publisher of Information Week. Mr. Colonna went on to edit the magazine, then founded the company’s interactive group.
He left to become a founding partner at venture firm CMG@Ventures, which invested in Lycos, and in 1996 helped found Flatiron.
“We have copies of our values and principles all over the office,” Mr. Colonna says. “Values are what help you sleep at night.”