Launching pad for new start-ups?

Like many venture capital firms, the people at General Catalyst Partners don’t like to talk about themselves - at least not publicly.

The firm’s partners prefer to keep the attention on the businesses they back.

But General Catalyst in Harvard Square is quickly becoming a top player in the world of new media and marketing. Only seven years old, the firm has invested in some of the most-talked-about start-ups to come out of the Boston area.

From online video distributor Brightcove to word-of-mouth marketing agency BzzAgent, from Jeff Taylor’s Eons - a baby boomer social networking site - to online travel company Kayak.com, General Catalyst has played a role in some of the more intriguing companies to launch in recent years.

General Catalyst was one of the top three venture capital firms investing in Web 2.0 companies last year based on the number of deals it made, said Valerie Foo, research manager at Dow Jones VentureOne, which tracks venture capital firms. That would put General Catalyst at the top of the Web 2.0 heap in the Northeast.

Many of the companies General Catalyst have backed have been born out of the firm’s own office. A recently launched company that provides text-based music reviews and news to cell phones, 80108 Media, used office space at General Catalyst. But not everyone has come from the inside.