Kevin Ryan, the Godfather of NYC Tech
From Capital for Good by Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change
June 12, 2025 · 26 min · Season 4 · Episode 7
About this episode
Kevin Ryan discusses his journey as a leading internet entrepreneur and investor in NYC tech.
In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with Kevin Ryan, one of New York's leading internet entrepreneurs and investors, and often called the "Godfather of NYC tech." Ryan is a co-founder of MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, and Transcend Therapeutics, and every year founds and invests in new companies through AlleyCorp, the New York based venture fund and incubator. Ryan is also one of New York's driving civic leaders, serving as vice chair of the Partnership for New York City, a founding board member of Tech:NYC, and a gubernatorial appointee to numerous commissions focused on New York's economic and civic health and well-being. We begin with Ryan's early and pioneering days as a 1990s internet entrepreneur. As the president of DoubleClick, he grew the company in two years to 2,000 people across 25 countries, took it public, navigated the dotcom bust and sold it to Google in 2007. We discuss AlleyCorp's unusual model as early-stage investor and incubator, and Ryan describes AlleyCorp's most recent investment vertical, economic infrastructure, focused on the economic mobility of low- or middle-income Americans: "the 80% of families who power our…
People in this episode
Guest: Kevin Ryan
Topics covered
- internet entrepreneurship
- venture capital
- economic mobility
- health equity
- fintech
- workforce development
Keywords
- Kevin Ryan
- NYC tech
- AlleyCorp
- internet entrepreneurship
- economic mobility
- health equity
- venture capital
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Transcend Therapeutics, AlleyCorp, Partnership for New York City, Tech:NYC, DoubleClick
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