The best VCs: Sequoia, Accel and KPCB have the most

Steven Loeb · March 15, 2016 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/43fb

Othe top firms are Benchmark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and NEA

There are a lot of really great venture capitalists out there right now. I know that because Vator has been running a series for the past year or so where we have been interviewing one every week. We've done 47 of them so far and we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

That's even more apparent to me now that CB Insights teamed up with The New York Times to identify the 100 best venture capitalists.

These are the firms that were more represented on the list. There were seven firms with at least four venture capitalists:

The top firm was Sequoia Capital, with seven VCs, including two in the top 10. They were James Goetz, who was named as the number 5 current venture capitalist, and Nanpeng (Neil) Shen, who was number nine. Michael Moritz (13), Roelof Botha (18), Douglas Leone (31), Alfred Lin (46) and Michael Goguen (75) also made the list.

That last one on that list is no longer a Partner as Sequoia as of this weekend, after a major scandal sex scandal broke, but it still counts.

Coming in right behind Sequoia was Accel Partners, with six VCs. They are: Sameer Gandhi (25), Ping Li (57), Andrew Braccia (65), Kevin Efrusy (72), Rich Wong (77), and Ryan Sweeney (89).

In third place was Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with five venture capitalists making the list. The highest ranking VC was Mary Meeker, at 21, followed by Theodore Schlein (39), John Doerr (69), Brook Byers (83), and Beth Seidenberg (85).

There were four firms on the list that wound up with four VCs. Benchmark Capital was represented by Peter Fenton, who was named as the number one venture capitalist right now, as well as Bill Gurley, who came in at number eight; Matt Cohler (24); and Mitch Lasky (86).

Lightspeed Venture Partners had John Vrionis (58), Jeremy Liew (60), Christopher Schaepe (78) and Ravi Mhatre (93); while Bessemer Venture Partners had Byron Deeter (43); Jeremy Levine (54), David Cowan (55), and Alex Ferrara (90).

Finally, New Enterprise Associates was represented by Scott Sandell, who was named as number 10 of all current venture capitalists; as well as Harry Weller (41), Forest Baskett (49) and Krishna Kolluri (73).

Some of the criteria involved in figuring out how to rank all of these VCs included the frequency, size and volume of their exits; how connect they are to other investors; how consistent their investments are; and the frequency and size of high value, unexited companies.

All the data is from 2008 on, by the way, so these are all VCs who are active right now.

So far I have only interviewed two of the top 100 venture capitalists: Mike Maples of Floodgate, number 14 on the list; and Aydin Senkut, of Felicis Ventures, number 16.

Looks like I have some catching up to do!

(Image source: greentechmedia.com)

Steven Loeb

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New York Times

Angel group/VC

Joined Vator on March 10, 2016

New York Times

Benchmark

Angel group/VC

Joined Vator on June 25, 2013

Benchmark is an early stage venture capital firm focusing in Social, Mobile, Local and Cloud companies that disrupt various industries. Founded in 1995, the firm has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, California.

The firm has been recognized for its commitment to open source and is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners. General partners are Matt Cohler, Bruce Dunlevie, Peter Fenton, Bill Gurley, Kevin Harvey, and Mitch Lasky.

Sequoia Capital

Angel group/VC

Joined Vator on January 21, 2014

Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital “one of the highest-caliber venture firms” and noted that it is “one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture-capital firms”. It invests between $100,000 and $1 million in seed stage, between $1 million and $10 million in early stage, and between $10 million and $100 million in growth stage.

Bessemer Venture Partners

Angel group/VC

Joined Vator on August 5, 2008

In 1911, Henry Phipps founded Bessemer Securities to reinvest the proceeds of his sale of Carnegie Steel for the benefit of his descendents. The start-up investment operations were spun out into Bessemer Venture Partners, which now operates out of seven offices around the globe.

Floodgate

Angel group/VC

Joined Vator on May 11, 2010

We’ve developed a new approach to investing in world-changing ideas, which we call the Super Angel Approach. Looking at the world through the eyes of the entrepreneur, we’ve filled a widening gap between Angel investors and venture capital firms. But we help companies with more than just fundraising: we help them discover, refine, evolve, and master the core elements of their businesses so they will be in the best possible position to one day “open the floodgates” to market disruption and dominance.

Some of the world’s most exciting new companies have embraced our approach. If you have a game-changing idea and a passion for building a truly legendary company, contact us.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Service provider

Joined Vator on October 25, 2007

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a technology-focused venture capital firm that manages $1.3 billion of capital commitments. We closed Lightspeed VII, a $480 million fund, at the end of 2005. Over the past two decades, our partners have invested in more than 120 companies, many of which have gone on to become leaders in their respective industries. Our team invests in the U.S. and internationally from offices in Menlo Park, China, India, and Israel.

We are proud to have partnered with many exceptional management teams. Our investment professionals have contributed domain expertise and operational experience to help build high-growth, market-leading companies such as Blue Nile (NILE), Brocade (BRCD), Ciena (CIEN), DoubleClick (DCLK), Informatica (INFA), Kiva Software (acquired by AOL), Openwave (OPWV), Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMCS), Sirocco (acquired by SCMR), and Waveset (acquired by SUNW). Some of our recent exits include the top-performing tech IPO of 2006, Riverbed Technology (RVBD), and the top enterprise software acquisition of 2006, Virsa Systems (acquired by SAP).

Visit our website at www.lightspeedvp.com

CB Insights

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on August 21, 2015

CB Insights is a private company database that provides real-time information on the world's most promising companies, their investors, their acquirers and the industries they compete in to help you invest smarter.

Since launching in 2010, CB Insights has become the most trusted and loved source for private company information. Hundreds of clients (including New Enterprise Associates, Cisco, Salesforce, Castrol and Comcast) rely on CB Insights to help them answer the tough questions.

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We received a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2010 and Series A investment from RSTP in 2015.

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