Power Brokers In NYC
So I was at a panel event that Howard did for NYSIA tonight and I was thinking…do we have any real power brokers in nyc tech? This of course led me to think of the Alley Insider list and also the Peoples’ Choice list which I proudly can say - I came in 5th. My answer is a big fat resounding NO. I don’t think there are any real power brokers in NYC tech - potentially one. So let’s look at what defines a power broker: according to American Heritage Dictionary,
power broker or pow·er·brok·er (pou’ər-brō’kər)
n. A person who exerts strong political or economic influence, especially by virtue of the individuals and votes he or she controls. Then also we have to look at the Seminole Tome “Power Broker” about the life of Robert Moses. Robert Moses if you don’t know controlled and built NYC, he manipulated every mayor and governor for decades and is responsible for most of the bridges and roads in NY. He controlled power. So who controls the power in NYC tech? Is it the entrepreneurs? For the most part no - one mention of the word financing by someone and they usually become sheep.Is it the serial entrepreneurs? Nope. There’s not enough of them and most are too focused on their own startup to exert influence. Is it the investors? Not really, there’s really only one investor NYC that really has the reach and consumer influence and that’s Fred Wilson of course - but he’s one VC and is doing deals for his own firm. David Rose potentially with NY Angels and Angel Soft. Is it the connectors and event hosts? While I’m friends with most of them and am one myself, I don’t think any of us really wield a stick - though we do control a lot of information or deal flow in investor speak, it’s not in a way to really “CONTROL” the market. Is it the tech analyst’s and bankers like the first time around? Not really. Who can actually name an ibank analyst these days? Which ibankers are known as tech/dot commers? not really anyone in NYC.In theory Scott Hieferman could be one, but he really doesn’t exert his influence beyond his meetup (he could if he chose too). Kevin Ryan is probably the closest thing to it as he has the track record, basically invented the industry that underpins web2 and runs a news service but still we are left with only a handful of people and out of them no one that really controls the underpinnings of our tech society. We have influencers not power brokers. So is there a problem with that? NO! That means anyone can get something done 
