From Wall Street To Satellites

Lawrence Flinn Jr. hardly knew his father, who died a war hero toward the end of World War II. His great grandfather and grandfather built one of the largest construction companies in America. The Holland Tunnel was just one of ... their many huge projects. After obtaining a bachelor’s at Yale and a master’s at Columbia, Larry worked on Wall Street, first at Morgan Stanley and then for one of the first venture capital firms. There he discovered the nascent cable TV industry. Starting with a single, failing franchise in upstate New York, Larry ultimately grew his cable holdings to 160,000 subscribers. His big win came from branching out to satellite distribution of TV programming, a company he built from $1.7 million to more than $500 million in revenue before selling to Tele-Communications, Inc. As a result, Forbes ranked him the 120th wealthiest American in 1999. Read More