In search of underhyped VCs

If you want to know who’s been doing the deals in the last few years, you might need to dig a bit.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on recent liquidity events and the thing that keeps jumping out at me is the difference between recent success and media hype.

Take Kevin McQuillan. Have you heard of him? That name’s probably not as familiar as Vinod Khosla or John Doerr, but Kevin has had four portfolio companies IPO and seven get acquired for gains in the last four years alone. Doerr has had, as far as I can tell, none in the same time period.

Vinod had a stake in the 2007 Infinera IPO, and that’s about it, though he's been very active on the investment side.

Doerr was #1 on the Midas List this year. Kevin was #41. I’m not saying Doerr is on vacation. He’s made some big bets on green companies like Miasole and Amyris—but I do wonder how much hype factors in these lists, and how many hardcore dealmakers have yet to step into the limelight.

As LPs and venture firms decide how to allocate their shrinking pools of dough, the industry as a whole has an interest in pushing the shy overachievers into the limelight.