David Fialkow

David P. Fialkow[1] (born October 18, 1958)[2][3][4] is an American venture capitalist and an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer. He is the co-founder of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage and growth investments.[5] He is also a producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus.[5]

David Fialkow
Born (1958-10-18) October 18, 1958
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationColgate University (BA)
Boston College (JD)
OccupationVenture capitalist
Known forCo-founder of General Catalyst Producer of Icarus
Spouse(s)Nina Fialkow

Early life and education

David Fialkow was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge. Fialkow then attended Colgate University, where he earned a B.A. in fine arts, with a concentration in film.[6][7]

Fialkow graduated from Colgate in 1981. He took a year off to travel and run a T-shirt business before entering law school.[6] He earned a law degree from Boston College in 1985.[8]

Career

Early career

Fialkow met fellow General Catalyst Co-Founder Joel Cutler, with whom he would launch a number of successful businesses, at a summer camp in Maine. While an undergraduate at Colgate, Fialkow started a successful T-shirt business.[6] In 1987, while still in law school, he also co-founded Last-Minute Travel Company (later changed to National Leisure Group), which offered discounted vacations for individuals with flexible schedules.[9] By the time of its sale in 1995, Last-Minute Travel was the third-largest vacation package provider in the United States.[6]

Among other jobs that he held while in undergraduate and law school, Fialkow worked as a driver for leveraged buyout pioneer Thomas H. Lee.[6] After graduation, Fialkow worked as an associate at Lee's eponymous firm as well as U.S. Venture Partners. Along with Cutler, he also founded a number of applied technology-based platforms and tools for the travel, financial services, specialty retail, and payment processing industries. In addition to National Leisure Group, these included:[10]

General Catalyst

Fialkow co-founded General Catalyst with Cutler in Cambridge in 2000.[13][14][15]

In 2017, Fialkow was added to the Forbes Midas List and was named one of the "Most Influential People in Boston" by Boston Magazine in 2018.[16][17]

Board memberships

Fialkow has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Beer Company, the second-largest craft brewery in the United States, since 2016.[18][19] He is also a member of the Dean's advisory council at the MIT School of Engineering and the Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee at The Engine, MIT's early-stage venture capital firm.[20][21]

Fialkow's former board seats include Grain Communications Group, BBN Technologies, CLEAResult, Retail Convergence and Vitrue.[22]

Documentary filmmaking

Fialkow first studied film at Colgate University. While attending Colgate, Fialkow participated in the university's Global Study program, where he focused on making films. Following the end of the program, he earned a grant to continue making films on his own.[6] After graduation, Fialkow continued to produce documentary films as a hobby.[6]

David and his wife, Nina, also an independent producer who has worked for Boston PBS affiliate WGBH-TV, are members of Impact Partners, a film partnership focused on developing films with a social justice theme.[23][24][25]

Icarus

David, a cycling enthusiast who sits on the board of the Pan-Mass Challenge charity bike-a-thon, was a producer of the 2017 documentary film Icarus, which chronicled director Bryan Fogel's exploration of the underground world of doping in the world of cycling.[6][26] The film chronicles Fogel's use of performance-enhancing drugs to win an amateur cycling race and his discovery of a major international scandal, involving Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory.[27]

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2017 and was awarded the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award (Orwell Award).[27][28] Netflix acquired the distribution rights for the film and released the documentary globally on August 4, 2017.[29][30] Icarus won the Oscar for the Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards.[31]

Fogel said of Fialkow's contributions to the film:

So often, the financier is looking over your shoulder. David is somebody who empowers people to do their best work and he’s someone who’s going to fight for you. You don’t get that every day in this business. In fact, you don’t get that any day. He’s truly inspiring and one of a kind.[6]

Filmography

Following the commercial and financial success of Icarus, both David and Nina have remained active as filmmakers. The pair have worked on a number of projects, include co-producing The Fourth Estate, a four-part miniseries that chronicled The New York Times' coverage of the White House.[6][32][33] The series, which originally aired on Showtime, was nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards.[34]

Fialkow's film credits include:

Title Year Contributor
Icarus 2017 Producer[35]
Bending the Arc 2017 Executive Producer[35]
Our New President 2018 Executive Producer[35]
The Fourth Estate 2018 Executive Producer[35]
The Dissident 2020 Executive Producer[36]

Philanthropy

David Fialkow served as the chairman of the Pan-Mass Challenge, a 100-plus mile bike-a-thon that benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[37] In 2019, the organization raised $63 million for the institute.[38]

His non-profit involvement also includes:

References
  1. Venture Volume 7, Part 2
  2. #82 David Fialkow, Cofounder and Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners
  3. Fellow Stockholder - The Boston Beer Company (2019)
  4. United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (Massachusetts, 1987-2008)
  5. Dowling, Ann (May 10, 2018). "Passion And Personality: Oscar-Winning Tech Investor David Fialkow Addresses Under 30 Global Summit". Forbes. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  6. Konecky, Chad (Summer 2018). "The Creative Genius of David Fialkow". Boston College Law School Magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  7. "David Fialkow". General Catalyst. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  8. "Producer David Fialkow '85 Wins Academy Award | Boston College Law School Magazine". Boston College Law School Magazine. April 19, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  9. Sorkin, Andrew Ross (January 29, 2018). "For His Next Act, Ken Chenault Turns His Focus on Silicon Valley". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  10. "National Leisure Group Becomes Largest Cruise Seller with Acquisition of MyTravel's U.S. Cruise Brands; Combines NLG's Award-Winning Cruise Technology with Leading Consumer Cruise Brands". BusinessWire. November 21, 2003. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  11. Hein, Kenneth (January 27, 2000). "Offline Expansion in the Cards for MyPoints.com". DMNews. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  12. "Starboard Cruise Services acquired by LVMH". Crunchbase. January 25, 2000. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  13. Chesto, Jon (March 6, 2018). "Boston-area venture capitalist makes a winning investment with 'Icarus'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  14. Primack, Dan (July 20, 2012). "Venture firm General Catalyst loses co-founder". Fortune. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  15. Alspach, Kyle (November 20, 2012). "John Simon: Why I left General Catalyst and joined Sigma Prime". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  16. Matheson, Abbi (April 21, 2017). "Bostonians Make Forbes Midas List". Boston Magazine. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  17. "The 100 Most Influential People in Boston". Boston Magazine. April 24, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  18. "David Fialkow | Board Member". The Boston Beer Company. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  19. McLean, Rob (May 9, 2019). "The brewers of Sam Adams and Dogfish Head merge in $300 million deal". CNN. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  20. "Dean's Advisory Council". MIT Engineering. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  21. "Our Board". The Engine. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  22. "Profile: David P Fialkow". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  23. "Nina Fialkow". Disruptor Awards. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  24. Dady, Cole (March 8, 2018). "David Fialkow, BC '85, Wins Academy Award for 'Icarus'". The Heights. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  25. Tsikos, Basil (January 5, 2018). "2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: OUR NEW PRESIDENT". what (not) to doc. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  26. Driscoll, Kathi Scrizzi (March 1, 2018). "Vineyard filmmakers win an Oscar". Cape Cod Times. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  27. "Projects: Icarus". Sundance. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  28. "Icarus: Awards". IMDB. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  29. Lang, Brent; Setoodeh, Ramin (January 24, 2017). "Sundance: Netflix Lands Russian Doping Documentary 'Icarus' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  30. "Icarus". Netflix Media Center. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  31. McNary, Dave (March 5, 2018). "Netflix Wins First Feature Documentary Oscar With 'Icarus'". Variety. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  32. Ryan, Maureen (May 24, 2018). "Review: 'The Fourth Estate' Is a Competent but Incomplete Peek Inside The Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  33. "Nina Fialkow". IMDb. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  34. "Showtime Honored With 21 Emmy Nominations". BroadwayWorld. July 12, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  35. "David Fialkow". IMDb. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  36. McCarthy, Todd (January 24, 2020). "'The Dissident': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  37. "Who We Are". Pan-Mass Challenge. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  38. "Pan-Mass Challenge Announces $65 Million Fundraising Goal for 2020". www.pmc.org. January 14, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  39. "Board and Leadership Council". Facing History and Ourselves. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  40. "Board of Trustees". MV Youth. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  41. "Boys & Girls Club of Boston: Our Leadership". Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  42. "Council on Foreign Relations". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
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