Steven Price

Steven Price is a lifelong entrepreneur and investor whose career spans media, telecommunications, private equity, law, and government. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Early in his career he practiced law at Davis Polk & Wardwell and worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before moving into operating and investing roles. From 2001 to 2004 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Spectrum, Space and Communications) at the Pentagon, for which he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

As an operator, Price co-founded and led PriCellular Corporation as CEO, and in May 2010 he founded Townsquare Media, a radio and digital media company that owns and operates hundreds of radio stations across small and mid-sized U.S. markets. He served as Townsquare's Chairman and CEO and continues as its Executive Chairman. On the investing side, he was a Senior Managing Director at Centerbridge Partners, where he led investment efforts in telecom, technology, and media, and earlier was a Managing Director at Spectrum Equity.

In 2017–2018, Price co-founded 25madison alongside partners including Matt Fremont-Smith, Gary Ginsberg, Michael Lynton, and Kirk Posmantur. As Co-Founder and CEO, he leads a New York–based venture platform that blends a venture studio, incubation, and early-stage investment — building and scaling companies from the ground up rather than only writing checks. The firm has stood up sector-specific studios, including a healthtech studio and, with funds managed by Apollo Global Management, the "25m Evolve" studio for AI-native enterprise software.

Beyond his firms, Price is a co-owner and Alternative Governor of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks (he acquired a stake in 2014 and retained it after the 2015 sale to a group led by Tony Ressler) and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Columbia Business School. He and his wife direct philanthropy through the Tina & Steven Price Charitable Foundation.

• Build, don't just fund: 25madison operates an integrated venture studio model — incubating, building, and operating alongside founders with in-house product, data-science, engineering, UX, and go-to-market teams, rather than acting as a passive capital source.
• Stage: Focuses on pre-seed and seed, including companies conceived and spun out of its own studios.
• Sectors: Applied AI in "unsexy," overlooked, and regulated markets — healthtech, supply chain and commerce, industrial distribution, and AI-native B2B SaaS.
• Distribution as the edge: The firm's stated core value-add is customer distribution — per 25madison's team, "it's all about distribution. That's the number one thing we can help with," leveraging partnerships with PE firms (notably Apollo) to connect startups with enterprise buyers from existing portfolios.
• Partnership-driven vehicles: Launches dedicated studios with strategic partners (e.g., 25m Health with LifePoint Health, backed by an initial $20M commitment; 25m Evolve with Apollo funds).