SA 100 2014: The Coolest People In New York City Tech

New York City has become home to some of the tech industry's most promising companies, including Etsy, MongoDB, and Vice Media.

So we created the Silicon Alley 100 to celebrate people who did the coolest things in the past 365 days.

What does it mean to have done something cool?

Getting acquired or going public — that's pretty cool. Founding an awesome startup or building impressive hardware — that's also cool.

Investors? They're somewhat cool. But the inventors, innovators, and lead executives building the next big things are the people who really should be celebrated. We prioritized entrepreneurs over investors, simply because it's a lot harder to start a company than to fund one.

Coolest does not mean most important or most impactful. There are many, many people who are instrumental to the New York City tech community who are not recognized on this list.

Thanks to all who make New York City an amazing place to launch a startup.

Complete Coverage

In A-Z Order

The Complete List 1-100

The 2013 List

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the many readers who took the time to send us nominations. We would also like to thank Maya Kosoff, Rebecca Borison, Alyson Shontell, and Jay Yarow for their input.

100. Charlie O'Donnell

Partner and founder, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures is a seed and early-stage venture-capital firm, and the first venture-capital fund based in Brooklyn. In November, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invested in design app Makr, contributing to its $865,000 seed-funding round. In December, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invested in peer-to-peer lending startup Orchard Platform's $2.7 million seed-funding round. Brooklyn Bridge Ventures has also invested in Ringly, SocialSign.in, and goTenna. Its biggest breakout company, however, may be home-security camera company Canary.

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures raised $8.3 million in January. But O'Donnell's greatest achievement this year in tech may be his support of female founders. Unlike other New York City investors who have female founders in only 10% to 20% of their portfolio companies, female-run companies make up a whopping 62% of O'Donnell's portfolio.

99. Allison Goldberg

Vice President, Time Warner Investments

Time Warner’s investment group put its money behind some ambitious companies this year. In June, the group invested in women’s news website Bustle, which raised a round total of $5 million, a company called Epoxy that connects YouTubers with fans, which raised a round total of $6.5 million, and data-management company Krux, which raised a round total of $35 million.

Time Warner Investments has also backed self-service advertising platform iSocket and TV marketing platform Simulmedia in the past year.

98. Shana Fisher

Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

Shana Fisher is known for her knack at spotting the hot new startups early on. And in November she took her talents to Andreessen Horowitz, where she's now a board partner.

For a better understanding of Fisher's talent, all you need to do is look at some of her previous investments: MakerBot, Pinterest, Vine, FiftyThree, Refinery29, and Stripe. Fisher tends to keep a low profile, but tech insiders will immediately recognize her success. 

Her investment advantage? "I like to think I have a strong grasp of human psychology," Fisher said about evaluating entrepreneurs.