No Red Lights

In the summer of 2001, at age sixty-seven, most successful executives would have been contemplating retirement. Instead, Alan Patricof found himself in a movie theater watching "Rat Race" with his wife Susan, feeling profoundly bored with his work at the venture capital firm he had built into a global powerhouse. That moment of clarity led to one of the most audacious decisions of his career: walking away from Apax Partners, the $60 billion private equity giant he had co-founded, to start completely fresh in an industry obsessed with youth.

This remarkable journey spans more than five decades of venture capital history, from the pioneering days when the industry barely existed to the modern era of billion-dollar unicorns. Patricof's story reveals how one man's relentless curiosity, unshakeable optimism, and commitment to building lasting relationships enabled him to identify and nurture some of the most transformative companies of our time. Through his eyes, we witness the evolution of technology and business, from early investments in Apple Computer and AOL to later backing of digital media pioneers like The Huffington Post and Venmo. His memoir offers profound insights into the art of recognizing potential, the importance of treating people with dignity regardless of outcomes, and the power of viewing every obstacle as an opportunity to forge ahead. Most compelling of all, it demonstrates that the most meaningful chapters of our lives can begin at any age, as long as we maintain the courage to embrace change and the wisdom to never drive alone.

The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants who fled pogroms in 1907, Alan Patricof grew up in a cramped Manhattan apartment where financial insecurity was a constant presence. His father Martin had arrived at Ellis Island as a four-year-old orphan, part of a group of six siblings taken in by relatives in Middletown, Ohio. By the time Alan was born, Martin had worked his way from picking fruit and shoveling coal to running a small remnants business in lower Manhattan, selling fabric scraps to clothing manufacturers. His mother Dorine, equally industrious but with grander aspirations, saved every penny to send her son to the prestigious Horace Mann School, believing education was the path to a better life.

This foundation of hard work mixed with ambition shaped Patricof's early worldview. At Horace Mann, he was surrounded by privilege but acutely aware that his family's financial situation differed from many of his classmates. The contrast taught him to be resourceful and self-reliant, qualities that would serve him throughout his career. When Princeton rejected his college application, he scrambled to find alternatives, ultimately choosing Ohio State University over more prestigious options simply because he needed to make a quick decision.

At Ohio State, Patricof discovered his entrepreneurial instincts by selling striped ties and fraternity favors to Greek organizations across campus. The experience of walking from house to house with samples, negotiating with social directors, and building a small business from nothing gave him his first taste of what it meant to create value where none had existed before. More importantly, it taught him the difference between being on the buying side versus the selling side of transactions, a lesson his father had emphasized and one that would influence his entire approach to investing.

After graduating in three years, Patricof returned to New York determined to work on Wall Street. For an entire summer in 1955, he walked building to building, riding elevators from top floors down, asking receptionists at every office if they had job openings. The rejections mounted until he reached Naess & Thomas, a prestigious investment advisory firm where he landed his first position as a securities analyst trainee. This persistence in the face of repeated rejection established a pattern that would define his career: seeing obstacles as temporary inconveniences rather than permanent barriers.

The early experience at Naess & Thomas introduced him to Benjamin Graham's value investing principles and the rigorous analysis of public companies. Under the mentorship of Ragnar Naess, Patricof learned to evaluate businesses based on fundamental metrics like cash flow and earnings potential rather than market hype. These analytical skills, combined with his natural curiosity about new technologies and business models, positioned him perfectly for the venture capital revolution that would emerge in the following decade.

By 1970, Patricof had accumulated fifteen years of Wall Street experience, moving through several firms and developing expertise in both public securities and private company investments. His work at Central National Corporation had given him exposure to early-stage businesses, and his involvement with entrepreneurs like Larry Saper of Datascope demonstrated his ability to spot promising technologies before they reached mainstream awareness. When he decided to strike out on his own, the venture capital industry barely existed as a formal category of investing.

The founding of Alan Patricof Associates represented a leap of faith that few of his contemporaries understood. In an era when most professional investors focused exclusively on established public companies, Patricof was betting that there was a market for providing capital and guidance to promising young businesses. His innovative approach of advising family offices on their private investments while simultaneously raising his own fund solved multiple problems at once, providing steady fee income while building relationships with potential investors.

His early investments revealed an eye for transformative technologies and business models. Datascope's cardiac monitoring devices arrived just as hospitals were beginning to prioritize patient safety in operating rooms. Revere Smelting and Refining addressed the emerging need for environmentally responsible metal recycling. Cellular Communications Inc. positioned itself ahead of the mobile phone revolution that would transform how Americans communicated. Each of these investments required Patricof to see potential in markets that didn't yet exist or technologies that weren't yet proven.

The New York Magazine investment demonstrated Patricof's ability to recognize opportunities beyond traditional technology sectors. When he helped Clay Felker raise money to launch the independent weekly magazine, he was betting on the power of smart, irreverent journalism to capture the attention of affluent urban readers. Despite constant conflicts with Felker over business management and editorial control, Patricof's faith in the magazine's potential was vindicated by its immediate cultural impact and influence on city magazines nationwide.

These early successes established Patricof's reputation as an investor willing to take calculated risks on unproven concepts. More importantly, they demonstrated his commitment to supporting entrepreneurs through the inevitable challenges that arise when building something new. His hands-on approach, combining financial support with strategic guidance and valuable connections, became the foundation of his investment philosophy and would remain consistent throughout his five-decade career.

The transformation of Alan Patricof Associates into a global investment powerhouse began with a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with Ronald Cohen, a brilliant Oxford and Harvard Business School graduate who shared Patricof's vision of bringing venture capital to Europe. Their partnership, formalized over dinner in Chicago, created one of the first transatlantic investment firms at a time when cross-border venture investing was virtually unknown. Cohen's sophistication and ambition complemented Patricof's practical experience and deal-making ability.

Building a venture capital presence in Europe required patience and cultural adaptation. European business culture in the 1970s and 1980s emphasized stability and incremental growth over the high-risk, high-reward mentality that drove American start-ups. Entrepreneurs were scarce, and those who did exist often lacked the aggressive growth ambitions that venture capitalists sought. Early investments like Motomop, a device for drying wet sports fields, demonstrated both the challenges and the learning curve involved in identifying European opportunities.

As the European offices matured, they achieved remarkable successes with companies like Computacenter, an early provider of PC systems for businesses, and eventually Autonomy, which became the UK's largest enterprise software firm. However, the scarcity of early-stage opportunities gradually pushed the European partners toward larger, later-stage investments and leveraged buyouts. This evolution reflected both market realities and the increasing size of the funds they were managing.

The American operation followed a similar trajectory, driven by the influx of institutional investors following pension fund reforms in the late 1970s. Larger funds required larger investments, which naturally led toward later-stage companies and buyout transactions. Investments in established businesses like Sunglass Hut, Life Time Fitness, and restaurant chains represented a fundamental shift from the early-stage venture model that had originally defined the firm.

By the early 2000s, the combined entity known as Apax Partners had become a global private equity giant managing billions of dollars in assets. While financially successful, this evolution left Patricof feeling disconnected from the entrepreneurial energy and hands-on company building that had originally attracted him to the business. The decision to step away from Apax at age sixty-seven represented not a retreat from investing, but rather a return to the fundamental principles and deal sizes that had made the work meaningful to him in the first place.

Launching Greycroft at age seventy-one, Patricof deliberately structured the firm to avoid the institutional pressures that had transformed his previous company. He limited fund sizes, focused on early-stage investments, and concentrated exclusively on digital media companies where his decades of media experience provided genuine added value. The timing proved fortuitous, as the digital revolution was creating entirely new categories of media businesses that traditional publishers struggled to understand.

Early investments like PaidContent and Pump Audio demonstrated both the potential and the execution challenges of digital media ventures. Rafat Ali's PaidContent began as a simple blog but grew into an authoritative source for digital media industry news, ultimately attracting acquisition interest from The Guardian. Steve Ellis's Pump Audio solved a real problem for content creators by providing affordable music licensing, leading to its sale to Getty Images for $42 million within two years of Greycroft's investment.

The firm's most significant early success came with Buddy Media, a social marketing platform that sold to Salesforce for nearly $700 million in 2012. The investment illustrated Patricof's continued ability to identify talented entrepreneurs and support them through strategic pivots when their original business models proved inadequate. His hands-on involvement, from making introductions to providing strategic guidance, remained as intensive as it had been in his earliest deals decades earlier.

Personal challenges tested Patricof's resilience during this period as his wife Susan developed progressive aphasia, which eventually led to an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Watching the gradual deterioration of his partner of fifty years while maintaining his professional commitments required enormous emotional strength. His decision to keep Susan at home with round-the-clock care while continuing to include her in social activities demonstrated his commitment to treating her with dignity throughout her decline.

The experience of caring for Susan while building Greycroft reinforced Patricof's belief in the importance of staying actively engaged with life regardless of age or circumstances. His continued attendance at industry events, his willingness to travel extensively for business, and his maintenance of a rigorous exercise routine reflected his determination to remain vital and productive. Susan's death in January 2021 marked the end of one chapter but not a retreat from the ambitious goals he had set for his remaining years.

At age eighty-five, when most successful executives would be content with past achievements, Patricof identified what he saw as a massive market opportunity hiding in plain sight. His research revealed that by 2034, Americans over sixty-five would outnumber those under eighteen for the first time in history, creating the largest and wealthiest consumer demographic in American history. More provocatively, academic studies showed that older entrepreneurs actually achieve better outcomes than younger founders, contradicting the venture capital industry's obsession with twenty-something founders.

The launch of Primetime Partners in 2020, in partnership with Abby Levy, represented Patricof's most audacious bet yet: that a venture fund focused exclusively on aging-related businesses could generate superior returns while addressing one of society's most pressing challenges. The fund's initial investments spanned e-commerce platforms designed for seniors, telemedicine solutions for senior living facilities, financial services addressing retirement planning, and entertainment content for aging-in-place consumers.

The market response validated Patricof's thesis about unmet demand in the aging sector. Within eighteen months, Primetime Partners had reviewed over seven hundred investment opportunities, suggesting that entrepreneurs were already developing solutions for older consumers but lacked access to specialized investors who understood the market dynamics. Patricof's own credibility as an active octogenarian provided powerful evidence that age need not diminish ambition or capability.

The fund's portfolio strategy reflects lessons accumulated over five decades of investing. Companies must address real problems with scalable solutions, demonstrate clear paths to profitability, and possess management teams capable of executing through inevitable challenges. The focus on experienced entrepreneurs, particularly those launching second or third ventures, acknowledges the value of accumulated wisdom in building sustainable businesses.

Patricof's goal of reaching age 114 may seem fantastical, but it reflects his fundamental approach to life and business: setting audacious objectives and working systematically to achieve them. His daily exercise routine, intellectual curiosity, extensive travel schedule, and continued involvement in multiple boards and organizations demonstrate that longevity requires active engagement rather than passive retirement. Primetime Partners represents not just another investment fund, but a practical demonstration that the most productive and impactful years of a career can come at any age.

Alan Patricof's extraordinary journey from the son of struggling immigrants to a pioneering venture capitalist spanning six decades offers a master class in the power of persistence, curiosity, and authentic human connection. His core insight—that success comes not from avoiding obstacles but from viewing every challenge as an opportunity to forge ahead with "no red lights"—enabled him to build multiple successful businesses while maintaining his fundamental values and genuine care for the entrepreneurs he supported.

The practical wisdom embedded in Patricof's story extends far beyond venture capital to anyone building a career or seeking to make meaningful contributions at any stage of life. His commitment to responding quickly to every inquiry, treating all people with dignity regardless of outcomes, and maintaining an insatiable curiosity about new ideas demonstrates that professional success ultimately depends more on character than credentials. Perhaps most importantly, his decision to launch ambitious new ventures in his seventies and eighties proves that the most impactful chapters of our lives can begin at any age, as long as we retain the courage to embrace change and the wisdom to surround ourselves with talented partners who share our vision for creating positive change in the world.