iVillage co-founder and Pando Networks Inc. chief Robert Levitan is boosting New Yorks startup scene, which is quite an accomplishment considering how far Levitan has come. On September 10, 2001, the New York native was mourning the demise of his Internet startup gift company, Flooz.com, and then just a few hours later, he was mourning for his city after the terrorist attacks took place. Levitan spent the weeks after the terrorist attacks working with a charity group to assist in organizing volunteers to work at Ground Zero and elsewhere in New York City. At 46, Levitan has co-founded three companies in New York City. iVillage fared much better than Flooz, as iVillage was purchased by NBC Universal Inc. in 2006 for $600 million. Despite Silicon Valleys pull on venture capital and engineering talent, Levitan decided to base his latest effort, video-sharing startup Pando, in Manhattan. Levitan prefers to live in New York and he has flourished there. Despite Floozs failure, Levitan contends that Flooz was a better, faster growing business than iVillage and that Floozs failure resulted from a cascade of unusual events. Pando may be Levitans most promising startup, based on the avalanche in advertising and online video, and Pando will likely attract large web, tech, telecom, and media companies if the venture is successful. The startup may also be Levitans riskiest, however, because competition is fierce. Pando makes peer-to-peer software that enables consumers and enterprises to download, stream, and share big, memory-consuming digital files over the Web. Levitan chose Pando because it is a perfect combination of media and technology. As it continues to raise investor capital, Pando has gained many consumers. Levitan predicts that Pando is destined to become part of the essential infrastructure to deliver online media.