Alan J. Patricof - No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital, and Never Driving Alone

Advance Praise for
No Red Lights

You know Alan Patricof as a legend, but now youll know why. AOL, AAPL, and Apax are among the many things hes helped back and build, and those are just the ones starting with the letter A. Its like reading a real-life version of Mad Men except its about venture capital and Don Draper is still going strong.

Chris Fralic , Board Partner, First Round

No Red Lights is an amazing thesis on building a life while building a business. What Alan Patricof has done in this memoir is to explain by specifics that success is about ethics, hard work, personal research, perseverance, and honest relationships, all with the understanding that life is cumulative.

Michael D. Eisner , Chairman, The Topps Company; Former CEO Walt Disney

Alan Patricofs No Red Lights is an invitation to adventurein growing businesses, helping others, and leading a life where all roads lead in one direction: forward.

Michael Bloomberg , Founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies; Mayor of New York City, 20022013

A great read. Alan Patricof shows that, whether in business or in your personal life, perseverance wins the day!

Eric Hippeau , Partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures

This delightful memoir is a journey through all of Patricofs incarnations, from a modest upbringing by hardworking immigrant parents, to the early days of venture capital, the founding of New York Magazine and the glittering heyday of media, canvassing for Biden in the nascent days of his candidacy, and the stellar rise of Greycroft, which has backed some of the most game-changing companies in our lifetime. At the crux of it all is Patricofs prescience, curiosity, and humor. Hes as brilliant a storyteller as he is an investor.

Gwyneth Paltrow , Founder of Goop

Alan Patricof is the youngest eighty-seven-year-old on the planet: more energy, bigger dreams, passion, and commitment than all of us slightly younger folk. He came into my life through my late audio pioneer husband over four decades ago, and never ceases to dazzle. This book will make you gasp at how Alan still reaches for fashion and edge and properly defines some of his many chapters as audacious. His fan club will need vitamins as we watch and applaud his next moves.

Jane Harman , Former Congresswoman; Author of Insanity Defense: How Our Failure to Confront Hard National Security Problems Makes Us Less Safe

This book is invigorating, informative, and essential for anyone who dreams of being an entrepreneurthat also comes over very appealingly is how Patricofs natural gregariousness makes him form so many fascinating relationships. Its a particularly important lesson for the young today who are often stuck behind screens and dont understand the value of personal connections. He really is a marvel.

Tina Brown , Author and Journalist

No Red Lights is a brilliantly written and compellingly documented account of why Alan Patricof is one of the smartest, boldest, most imaginative, and most successful financers and venture capitalists of our era. It describes not only how he built his outstanding career, but also how he forged partnerships and teams with others who supported his success and whose successes he likewise supported. For anyone in the financial world, or any other profession, this is must, and constantly captivating, reading on how to begin, nurture, and grow great companies and a fulfilling career and lifeone driven by competitive determination, high levels of integrity and commitment to the very best of human values, scintillating curiosity, and a constant quest for innovation.

Robert Hormats , Managing Director, Tiedemann Advisors, LLC

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

No Red Lights:

Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital,
and Never Driving Alone

2022 by Alan J. Patricof

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-63758-293-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-63758-294-7

Cover design by Cody Corcoran

New York Times cover 1968 Jay Maisel

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

This is a work of nonfiction. All people, locations, events, and situations are portrayed to the best of the authors memory. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the personal and professional advice present within this book is useful and appropriate, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any person, business, or organization choosing to employ the guidance offered in this book.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

To all the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists
who dream big and have the courage
to stake their careers on untested ideas.

Contents

Chapter 1: You Get Where Youre Going from
Where Youve Been

W hen Alan Patricof, my friend and business partner of thirty years in building Apax Partners, was raising his first venture capital fund in 1969, the world had a limited understanding of the important role ambitious entrepreneurs and fast-growing small businesses play in society and the broader economy. Investors and the average citizen firmly believed that large, traditional firms would be the ones to bring technological innovations to the market, create employment, and experiment with new ways of doing things.

Now we can see for ourselves. Small businesses exemplify all the excitement and potential of pursuing new ideas and bringing them to life. Venture capital investing has exploded. From the tiny, $2.5 million funds of the 1960s, a typical venture fund now raises hundreds of millionsand many reach more than a billion.

Venture capitalists no longer spend their time proverbially looking under rocks to find opportunities. Now they sift through hundreds of direct approaches by entrepreneurs each week to pick the gems that can bring new high-potential products and services to the worldand grow at 50 percent a year.

Entrepreneurs, with fire in their bellies, face more competition today than ever before. Every business school across the world teaches a well-attended entrepreneurship track. At least half of MBA candidates, when asked, say they want to start their own business. Many end up ultimately replicating an idea that already exists, but some strive to build huge sustainable businesses that improve both lives and the environment.

Alan Patricof has thrived through the growth and change of the past five decades, which saw the launch of the personal computer, the cellular phone, the internet, digital media, fintech, and podcasting. He has seen and helped spur all of them to mainstream adoption. The fundamentals of good investment decisions have not changed throughout Alans career. He still continues to place his bets on entrepreneurs and exciting business ideas with sky-high potential.

Alan is a role modela staunch supporter of the power of innovative entrepreneurs willing to take a step into the unknown.

Despite the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, there are new and exciting investing opportunities related to climate change, space exploration, self-drive vehicles, medicine, and changing values that propel us into a more equitable world. The view stretches far and wide, and there is no better person than Alan Patricof to emulate as we navigate these new realities. He is proof that life offers us many opportunities to renew ourselves as we contribute to and try to improve our ever-changing world.