A Brand That Opens Doors
Spencer Trask & Co. is a name that carries weight–known instantly, trusted universally. It’s a magnet for bold ideas, brilliant founders, top-tier investors, and maverick entrepreneurs.Our brand isn’t just a legacy; it’s a promise to discover potential first and turn it into progress that lasts.
Where We Win: Early Bets, Big Impact
We thrive in the early stages—where risk meets reward, and vision becomes value. Our record proves it: we’ve launched or seeded 13 companies that hit billion-dollar valuations, with a combined peak worth topping $128 billion. That’s not luck—it’s instinct honed over decades.
What We Look For
We back ventures that deliver two things: real returns and real change. It’s about building wealth while tackling big problems—easing suffering, saving lives, connecting people, and pushing humanity forward. Think of it as value with a backbone.
Why It Matters
At Spencer Trask & Co., we don’t just fund startups—we ignite movements. Our work creates companies that stand the test of time, financially and morally. That’s our edge, now and always.
Members of the Spencer Trask & Co. team played a seminal role in discovering scientific and technological breakthroughs and launching the companies that scaled them. We have a genuine passion for helping founders and venture teams transform their ideas into reality. As advisors, creators and investors, we provide the experience, wisdom and access to make innovations practical, which is what matters most.
Chairman
CEO emeritus, fmr. Chairman and CEO of Gartner Group, Inc.
CEO, Spencer Trask Media & Communications Group LLC
Chief Communications Officer
The Immune Response Corporation
DISCOVERY – Non-infectious viral vaccines.
INNOVATOR – In the history of medicine, few figures have had as profound an impact on human health and wellbeing as Dr. Jonas Salk. His polio vaccine breakthrough was the culmination of centuries of research, dating back to Louis Pasteur discovering inoculation. However, Salk’s method was different. He found a way to protect people from viruses without giving them the very disease the vaccine was designed to prevent.
Using this no-infection method, Salk worked with Kevin Kimberlin of Spencer Trask to develop cancer vaccines and an immunotherapeutic to slow or prevent AIDS. They patented and conducted preclinical studies on a cancer vaccine that demonstrated a startling 90% protection against lethal malignancies.
IMPACT – A fusion of dendritic cells and the cancer antigen, their technology formed the basis for the first FDA-approved cell-based immunotherapy. Over 40,000 men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer have received the treatment, and it appears especially effective for African-American men who receive a 48% improved survival benefit compared to white men.
The team and facility making this immunotherapy also made clinical and commercial supplies of the first approved gene therapy, the CAT-T drug Kymriah.
The first approved cell-base immunotherapy and gene therapy prompted the FDA Commissioner to say, “New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses.”
The noninfectious vaccine approach developed by Jonas Salk eliminated polio from the developed countries, his flu vaccine mitigated the effects of influenza for the past 75 years, and finally, the cancer vaccine developed at his Immune Response Corporation led the way to gene, cell-based, and immune therapy innovations that will impact human health for generations. In summary, Salk released the last step in enabling the most important preventative medicine – non-infectious viral vaccination.