In the Know with Amol Sarva

February 7, 2026

PJ Parson, Northzone and Spotify

🎙️ Episode Guide — PJ Parson (Northzone) Welcome to my series on OG NY Tech Celebrating 30 years of the New York tech ecosystem, from 1995 to now. PJ Parson is a partner at Northzone, best known for backing Spotify when it expanded to New York in 2012. But his path to venture capital wasn’t linear—it ran through small-town Sweden, jazz musicianship, tour guiding in Italy, ski resorts in France, McKinsey, fish farming, and eventually private equity. His story is about how unconventional experiences shaped his ability to see opportunity, manage chaos, and eventually help build New York’s second wave of tech. This conversation is about the hidden arcs behind venture capital: not just finance, but music, culture, resilience, and the willingness to reinvent yourself. SECTION I — Origins and Early Adventures 00:00 – Small town Sweden to Dayton, Ohio PJ describes growing up in Sweden, then spending a formative exchange year in Dayton, Ohio. The contrast opened his eyes to the wider world. 00:42 – Three gap years of adventure Instead of rushing to university, PJ spent three years as a tour guide in Italy and ski guide in France. What began as playing music for tourists turned into managing excursions and eventually running large resorts with hundreds of guests per week. 03:00 – Learning history by necessity Thrown into leading tours of Rome, Florence, and Pisa, PJ immersed himself in Renaissance and Roman history—discovering a love of learning outside the classroom. SECTION II — University and Discipline 07:30 – Stockholm School of Economics After years of adventure, PJ enrolled at Sweden’s top business school. His vision deficiency exempted him from military service, but the maturity gained from his gap years helped him thrive academically. 09:00 – Trial by fire in microeconomics A professor failed him twice before finally passing him on the third attempt, teaching him the value of rigor and persistence. SECTION III — McKinsey: Survival and Structure 11:00 – Entering consulting almost by accident PJ applied for a McKinsey internship with little knowledge of consulting. His charisma and conceptual thinking got him in, despite average grades. 17:00 – “You’re a mis-hire” After just one project, McKinsey tried to fire him. PJ pushed back, arguing for another chance—and survived. He stayed five years, learning the discipline of structure, detail, and execution. SECTION IV — Private Equity and Fish Farming 20:00 – Leaving McKinsey for private equity In 1993, PJ joined one of Sweden’s early private equity firms. But he quickly found the work too removed from real operations. 22:00 – Becoming a fish CEO Sent to fix a struggling fish distribution company, PJ became CEO. He turned around the business by slashing working capital, introducing just-in-time methods, and building simple internet-based systems in the mid-1990s. 25:00 – Buying the company for $1 When the firm gave up, PJ took over the company himself—proving his ability to lead a turnaround. SECTION V — Lessons Before Venture 27:00 – From chaos to clarity Running ski resorts, surviving McKinsey, and saving a fish company all taught PJ the same lesson: leadership is about managing complexity, staying calm in chaos, and finding leverage in systems. 29:00 – Toward venture capital These experiences set the stage for his later career in private equity and eventually Northzone—where he would back Spotify and help shape New York’s tech scene. Closing — The Arc of PJ Parson PJ’s story shows that venture capital isn’t just about finance. It’s about lived experience: music, travel, management under pressure, and the ability to reinvent yourself. From Swedish jazz roots to Spotify in New York, his path reflects the eclectic, global, and resilient spirit that defines the New York tech ecosystem.

January 30, 2026

Kevin Ryan, Alleycorp + MongoDB ++ Doubleclick, Dilbert

Welcome to my series on OG NY Tech Celebrating 30 years of the New York tech ecosystem, from 1995 to now. Kevin Ryan joined DoubleClick in 1996, just months after it was founded—and helped turn it into the most important New York technology company of the internet era. From there, he went on to co-found or incubate a generation of defining NYC companies: MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, and dozens more through AlleyCorp. This conversation is about how New York tech actually formed: not in garages, not via hype cycles, but through media, advertising, distribution, discipline—and people who stayed when it got ugly. 🎙️ Episode Chapters — Kevin Ryan DoubleClick, the Internet Crash, and Building New York’s Second Tech Act SECTION I — Before “New York Tech” Existed 00:00 – Books, tapes, and recording everything The conversation opens not with startups, but with New York itself—books about the city, recording devices, and the instinct to document moments that don’t yet feel historic. A fitting entry point for someone who repeatedly found himself early to structural change. 03:00 – From Europe to Yale to Wall Street A childhood split between Rome, Geneva, and Ohio. Yale economics and art history. Investment banking. Business school at INSEAD. Disney Paris during the launch of Euro Disney—scaling from 1,000 to 20,000 employees in under two years. Operations before tech. Execution before mythology. SECTION II — Media, Cartoons, and the Pre-Browser Internet 07:30 – Running Dilbert… before browsers existed At United Media (a division of E.W. Scripps), Kevin builds one of the earliest commercial websites—for Dilbert and other syndicated content—before Netscape, before Mosaic adoption, before “the web” meant anything to most people. 09:30 – Why this mattered Syndication economics are collapsing. Newspapers are consolidating. The internet quietly offers a way to bypass gatekeepers and go direct to audiences—if anyone can figure out how to monetize it. 11:30 – The first banner ads Ads are hard-coded. Prices are invented on the spot. Netscape and IBM buy week-long placements. Measurement barely exists. But something clicks: distribution plus software beats content alone. SECTION III — 1995–1996: Silicon Alley, Barely 15:30 – How small it really was In 1995 New York internet events fit in a room. Everyone knows everyone. Media companies flirt with AOL, Prodigy, and Pathfinder. Most incumbents wait for “the next internet.” 16:30 – The innovator’s dilemma, live Kevin proposes building a real internet division inside United Media. Leadership declines—too small, too uncertain, too reminiscent of the CD-ROM bust. A textbook example, unfolding in real time. SECTION IV — DoubleClick: The Right Abstraction 18:00 – Meeting the founders Kevin meets Dwight Merriman and Kevin O’Connor—recent arrivals from Atlanta with a radical idea: dynamic ad serving. Smarter, measurable, programmable advertising. 19:30 – Knowing what you don’t know Kevin immediately understands the business importance—and immediately knows he can’t build it himself. The partnership works because the abstraction is right and the roles are clear. 21:00 – From CFO to President to CEO Joined in mid-1996 as CFO. Becomes President within months. Later CEO. The company grows from 10 people to 2,000 in four years. IPO in 1998—just 24 months after founding. SECTION V — The Boom, Then the Collapse 24:30 – 1998–2000: Peak Silicon Alley DoubleClick becomes New York’s most valuable tech company. Tens of billions in valuation. The center of gravity for online advertising globally. 25:30 – The crash everyone misremembers In 2000–2001, 70% of DoubleClick’s customers go bankrupt. Competitors give away product to survive. Markets panic. Kevin’s contrarian take: The market wasn’t wrong in 2000—it was wrong in 2001. Buying the leaders at the peak would still have paid off long-term. 28:30 – Survival math Half the st

January 8, 2026

Flaming Lips play Madonna