Guided by Trask’s motto, “Deeds, not words,” his legacy inspires us to seek out bold ideas and transform them into realities that light up the world.
To understand Spencer Trask & Co. is to understand the man behind the name. Spencer Trask believed wealth was most meaningful when applied to serve society.
His investments were not just financial bets, but commitments to the advancement of civilization.
Trask was among the earliest backers of Thomas Edison, providing the capital that turned the incandescent bulb from laboratory experiment into commercial reality. Edison recognized his role by naming him president of the world’s first electricity company. The impact of that endeavor cannot be overstated: electrification laid the foundation for modern life.
But Trask’s vision extended far beyond electricity.
He financed America’s early railroads, Marconi’s wireless, the Edison Phonograph Company, and even launched the statistical department of John Moody, which would later become Moody’s—an institution described by Thomas Friedman as one of two global superpowers.
He also played a pivotal role in rescuing The New York Times from financial ruin.
On August 13, 1896, as head of the Times’ reorganization committee, he acquired 100% control of the struggling newspaper at the New York Real Estate Exchange, with no competing bidders. Trask then hired Adolph S. Ochs as publisher and became chairman. Under Ochs’s leadership, the newspaper was revitalized, becoming the globally influential publication it is today, still controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family. Trask’s strategic investment preserved a cornerstone of American journalism, ensuring its legacy of truth and impact.
Trask’s generosity extended far beyond finance.
A devoted patron of the arts, he served as president of the National Arts Club, where he insisted on admitting women, and was a member of the Municipal Art Society of New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With his wife, Katrina Nichols, an author he married in 1874, Trask transformed their 400-acre Saratoga Springs estate into Yaddo, a retreat for artists and writers. Named by their daughter Christina for her playful mispronunciation of “shadow,” Yaddo has hosted luminaries like John Cheever, Sylvia Plath, and Leonard Bernstein, yielding 61 Pulitzer Prizes and 56 National Book Awards. The Trasks also donated land for the Wiawaka Holiday House, a retreat for working women. Trask’s commitment to education was evident in his role as a trustee of Teachers College (now part of Columbia University) and St. Stephen’s College (now Bard College), and in founding the Spencer Trask Lecture Series at Princeton in 1891, which continues to host distinguished speakers.
Through his commitments, Trask established a template for venture investing as a force for progress.
He showed how capital, properly applied, could democratize knowledge, accelerate innovation, and elevate human welfare.
That spirit endures at Spencer Trask & Co. The firm remains dedicated to the same mission: backing transformative technologies, guided by the conviction that innovation should serve not only markets, but mankind.
