---
alias:
- 53rd Street Ventures, Inc.
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-22
location: New York City
start: 1976
summary: New York venture fund, managed first by Patricof and Company and from 1984
  by Tessler and Cloherty, that put 100,000 dollars into INSLAW in 1982 and whose
  managers Bill Hamilton accused of pressing him to surrender voting control in December
  1984.
tags:
- Organization
- 53rdStreetVentures
- PROMIS
- INSLAW
- VentureCapital
updated: 2026-09-22
---

53rd Street Ventures, Inc., was formed about 1976 as an investment company that took capital from shareholders and placed it in "high risk, high reward ventures." It was managed by [Patricof and Company](/organizations/patricof-and-company/), where the Israeli-born fund manager [Jonathan Ben Cnaan](/people/jonathan-ben-cnaan/) handled several of the firm's funds and, around 1982, made the fund's investment of 100,000 dollars in [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/), the software company of [Bill Hamilton](/people/bill-hamilton/) and [Nancy Hamilton](/people/nancy-hamilton/), as a "follower" investor with no negotiating role; the stake was less than one percent of the fund's portfolio and gave it about 1.2 percent of INSLAW. In 1984 management of the fund passed to Tessler and Cloherty, Inc., the firm of [Daniel Tessler](/people/daniel-tessler/) and his wife [Patricia Cloherty](/people/patricia-cloherty/), who had left Patricof and Company for the Carter administration's Small Business Administration and returned to Patricof in February 1988.[^1]

Tessler and Cloherty concluded that INSLAW "had serious operating difficulties," "could not meet its production obligations" and "was heavily in debt." Hamilton's affidavit in the INSLAW litigation alleged that in December 1984 Tessler tried to coerce the Hamiltons into surrendering voting control of their stock on the threat that neither 53rd Street Ventures nor [Hambro](/organizations/hambro-international-equity-partners/), the lead investor whose partner [Richard D'Amore](/people/richard-damore/) sat on INSLAW's board, would help the company raise capital otherwise, and that Cloherty had said she "knew all about" [Earl Brian](/people/earl-brian/)'s role. Tessler, Cloherty and D'Amore denied the accounts, Tessler adding that he was no relation of [Allan R. Tessler](/people/allan-r-tessler/) of Shea & Gould, whom Hamilton had described as Brian's merger lawyer, and the special counsel [Nicholas J. Bua](/people/nicholas-j-bua/) found the allegation not credible. INSLAW filed under Chapter 11 in February 1985.[^1]

[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, pp. 90-94 and the interviews of Ben Cnaan, Tessler, Cloherty and D'Amore. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport