The fastest way to an emerging tech company’s heart is through its venture capitalist.
Such has been the modus operandi of Jack Petrie, a senior vice president at CresaPartners who has amassed a list of clients that reads like a veritable who’s who of Silicon Alley. He’s found these clients through contacts and clients of his in venture capital.
“I [find] that usually I can connect the dots with a lot of these companies with relationships I have with V.C. firms and people I have met through the community,” said Mr. Petrie, 50.
PulsePoint, Clearspring and Jingle Networks have all found new office space through the aid of Mr. Petrie.
Young firms like Sailthru, a behavioral email marketing service, and GramercyOne, a cloud-based software development firm, recently secured seed money from venture capitalists and tabbed Mr. Petrie to find them 15,000 square feet and 5,000 square feet of office space, respectively.
He helped Amazon (AMZN) expand to 60,000 square feet of space at 1350 Avenue of the Americas this year—and the online retail giant is counting on him for future growth.
He’s also done deals for venture capitalists, like 3,000 square feet for First Round Capital at 200 Park Avenue South and 7,000 square feet for Square 1 Bank at 500 Fifth Avenue.
In short, Mr. Petrie is plugged into an ever-expanding network of tech companies both large and small that have a growing need to expand their space.
He has his networking skills to thank for his client roster.
“I really spent a lot of time learning about the [tech] sector, kind of spending time in their playground attending a lot of events, learning who is who and meeting people,” said Mr. Petrie.
