During his three years as a Forbes magazine reporter covering tech, entrepreneurs, venture capital and startups, J.J. Colao wrote more than 200 digital articles, a cover story selected as one of the 18 best Forbes stories of the decade, and conducted 40 video interviews with high-profile figures including Game of Thrones‘ “Hodor” to Sam Adams founder Jim Koch.
He also was bombarded with hundreds of pitches each day — which inspired him to found a firm with media literacy at his core. Colao founded Haybuildr Group in 2014, and the agency has secured clients including Clean Cult, Valvoline, Harness and Tech:NYC since.
Colao launched Media Summit NYC in 2024 — an invite-only gathering of 250 top journalists, founders and investors with speakers from The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Information; and leaders from Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The summit established Haybuildr Group as a leader of communication in the tech and B2B spaces, and Colao hosted Media Summit San Francisco in 2025 to build on its NYC success.
Colao has also volunteered as a business mentor for early-stage companies through Columbia University’s startup, Almaworks Accelerator, since 2015.
