Some VCs are getting an early Valentine’s Day gift fromTheFunded, the site where CEOs rate venture capitalists and their firms. Below you will find the top-ranked individual VCs, as determined by their ratings in 2009. What makes this ranking particularly useful to entrepreneurs is that it is ratings by other CEOs, often CEOs who have had direct dealings with the VCs they are rating.
While this is still a popularity contest of sorts (for instance, the rankings are not based on individual investment returns), presumably CEOs are smart enough to take investment performance into account. But they also take into account their own personal experiences with the individual VCs. These are the VCs who CEOs love the most, and not just because they are nice but because they help CEOs do their jobs, which is to build great businesses. Topping the list is Terry McGuire, co-Founder of Polaris Ventures and a big life sciences investor. Mark Suster of GRP Partners is No. 2. David Sze of Greylock comes in at No. 7. Brook H. Byers of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is No. 10. Kleiner’s star investor John Doerr is No.11 Michael Moritz from Sequoia is No. 32..
Anyone who is on this list is well-liked and respected by CEOs. A total of 84 individual VCs (and some angel investors) made the cut out of 17,834 investment pros listed in TheFunded’s directory. To get on the list, each VC had to have at least an average rating of 4 out of 5 and have at least five separate reviews from CEO members of the Funded. (There are 13,480 CEO members). No more than one of the five ratings can be negative (a score of 3 or less). Other VC that made the list include Howard Morgan (No. 28) and Josh Kopelman (No. 39) of First Round Capital, Bill Tai (No. 29) and George Zachary (no. 64) of Charles River Ventures, Roelof Botha of Sequoia (No. 50), Fred Wilson (No. 60) of Union Square Ventures, and angels Mike Maples, Jr. (No. 43) and Ron Conway (No. 61).
You can compare this list to the most active VC firms of 2009 to get a sense of the overlap between these rankings and which firms are doing the most deals. Some other insights that TheFunded shared with us: there was a lot of turnover in VC firms in 2009. When TheFunded sent emails to all the investment pros in its directory, 38 percent either bounced back or replied with an automated message saying they’ve left their firms. None of those people are on this list. And about one or two firms a week became inactive, or 9 percent of the 4,005 firms listed in its directory.
TheFunded.com is offering two free tickets to the Future of Funding event on February 18th in San Mateo, where many of the top-ranked venture capitalists will be attending an awards ceremony. The tickets will go to the two best comments about the state of venture capital (as determined by us or TheFunded’s Adeo Ressi).
Top-Ranked VCs by TheFunded
- Terrance G. McGuire, Managing General Partner at Polaris Venture Partners, rated 5 by 5 CEOs
- Mark Suster, Partner at GRP Partners, rated 4.8571 by 7 CEOs
- Andy Fillat, Managing Member at Leapfrog Ventures, rated 4.8333 by 6 CEOs
- Dan Rua, Managing Partner at Inflexion Partners, rated 4.8 by 5 CEOs
- Paul H. Klingenstein, Managing Partner at Aberdare Ventures, rated 4.6667 by 9 CEOs
- Stuart Ellman, Managing Partner at RRE Ventures, rated 4.6667 by 6 CEOs
- David Sze, Partner at Greylock Partners, rated 4.6429 by 14 CEOs
- Ross A. Jaffe, Managing Director at Versant Ventures, rated 4.6364 by 11 CEOs
- Steven D. Arnold, Managing General Partner at Polaris Venture Partners, rated 4.625 by 8 CEOs
- Brook H. Byers, Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, rated 4.6 by 10 CEOs
- John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, rated 4.5714 by 14 CEOs
- Philip Gianos, General Partner at InterWest Partners, rated 4.5714 by 7 CEOs
- James D. Robinson III, General Partner at RRE Ventures, rated 4.5556 by 9 CEOs
- Richard W. Levandov, General Partner at Masthead Venture Partners, rated 4.5455 by 11 CEOs
- Phil Black, General Partner at True Ventures, rated 4.5 by 12 CEOs
- Andreas Stavropoulos, Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, rated 4.5 by 6 CEOs
- Jed Katz, Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners, rated 4.4737 by 19 CEOs
- William J. Link, Managing Director at Versant Ventures, rated 4.4444 by 9 CEOs
- Jon Callaghan, General Partner at True Ventures, rated 4.4167 by 12 CEOs
- Joerg Ueberla, General Partner at Wellington Partners, rated 4.4 by 5 CEOs
- Tom Bogan, Partner at Greylock Partners, rated 4.4 by 5 CEOs
- Maria Cirino, Managing Director at 406 Ventures, rated 4.4 by 5 CEOs
- Mark S. Menell, Partner at Rustic Canyon Ventures, rated 4.3333 by 12 CEOs
- Doug Pepper, General Partner at InterWest Partners, rated 4.3333 by 9 CEOs
- Michael T. Fitzgerald, General Partner at Commonwealth Capital Ventures, rated 4.3333 by 9 CEOs
- Bijan Salehizadeh, M.D., General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, rated 4.3333 by 9 CEOs
- Nicolas El Baze, Partner at Partech International, rated 4.3333 by 6 CEOs
- Howard Morgan, Partner at First Round Capital, rated 4.3077 by 13 CEOs
- Bill Tai, Partner at Charles River Ventures, rated 4.2857 by 14 CEOs
- David Ladd, Managing Director at Mayfield Fund, rated 4.2857 by 7 CEOs
- Frank Boehnke, General Partner at Wellington Partners, rated 4.2857 by 7 CEOs
- Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital, rated 4.2778 by 18 CEOs
- Peter Sinclair, Managing Member at Leapfrog Ventures, rated 4.2727 by 11 CEOs
- Donald B. Milder, Managing Director at Versant Ventures, rated 4.25 by 8 CEOs
- John Burke, General Partner at True Ventures, rated 4.25 by 8 CEOs
- Bill Kaiser, Partner at Greylock Partners, rated 4.25 by 8 CEOs
- Bill Elmore, General Partner at Foundation Capital, rated 4.25 by 8 CEOs
- Mark Hatfield, Partner at Fairhaven Capital, rated 4.2222 by 9 CEOs
- Joshua Kopelman, Managing Partner at First Round Capital, rated 4.2 by 30 CEOs
- Lon H.H. Chow, General Partner at Apex Venture Partners, rated 4.2 by 5 CEOs
- Dave Fachetti, Managing Director at Globespan Capital Partners, rated 4.2 by 5 CEOs
- Edward L. Cahill, Partner at HLM Venture Partners, rated 4.2 by 5 CEOs
- Mike Maples Jr., General Partner at Maples Investments, rated 4.1818 by 22 CEOs
- David Stern, Venture Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners, rated 4.1818 by 11 CEOs
- Curtis Feeny, Managing Director at Voyager Capital, rated 4.1667 by 12 CEOs
- John W. Jarve, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, rated 4.1667 by 6 CEOs
- Shawn T. Carolan, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, rated 4.1667 by 6 CEOs
- Bob Spinner, Managing Director at Sigma Partners, rated 4.1667 by 6 CEOs
- Stuart MacFarlane, Managing Director at Momentum Venture Management, rated 4.1667 by 6 CEOs
- Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia Capital, rated 4.1538 by 26 CEOs
- Anthony P. Lee, General Partner at Altos Ventures, rated 4.1538 by 13 CEOs
- William D. Porteous, General Partner at RRE Ventures, rated 4.1538 by 13 CEOs
- Michael Kim, Partner at Rustic Canyon Ventures, rated 4.1538 by 13 CEOs
- Brent Ahrens, General Partner at Canaan Partners, rated 4.1429 by 7 CEOs
- Eric Wiesen, Principal at RRE Ventures, rated 4.1429 by 7 CEOs
- Alex Mendez, General Partner at Storm Ventures, Inc., rated 4.125 by 8 CEOs
- Richard A. D’Amore, General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, rated 4.125 by 8 CEOs
- Jonathan Ebinger, Partner at BlueRun Ventures, rated 4.1111 by 9 CEOs
- Gus Tai, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, rated 4.1 by 10 CEOs
- Fred Wilson, Partner at Union Square Ventures, rated 4.0952 by 21 CEOs
- Ron Conway, General Partner at SV Angel, rated 4.0909 by 11 CEOs
- Hodong Nam, General Partner at Altos Ventures, rated 4.0833 by 12 CEOs
- Gilman Louie, Partner at Alsop Louie Partners, rated 4.0769 by 13 CEOs
- George Zachary, Partner at Charles River Ventures, rated 4 by 16 CEOs
- Paul Maeder, General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, rated 4 by 9 CEOs
- Warren J. Packard, Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, rated 4 by 9 CEOs
- Bryan Schreier, Partner at Sequoia Capital, rated 4 by 9 CEOs
- Brian Pokomy, Associate at SV Angel, rated 4 by 8 CEOs
- Byron Deeter, Venture Principal at Bessemer Venture Partners, rated 4 by 8 CEOs
- Kevin Spain, Principal at Emergence Capital Partners, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Thatcher Bell, Principle at Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Kirk Holland, General Partner at Vista Ventures, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Jonathan Seelig, Managing Director at Globespan Capital Partners, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Andrew L. Zalasin, General Partner/CFO at RRE Ventures, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Bruce K. Taragin, Partner at Blumberg Capital, rated 4 by 7 CEOs
- Frederick J. Dotzler, Managing Director at De Novo Ventures, rated 4 by 6 CEOs
- Max Niederhofer, Associate at Atlas Venture, rated 4 by 6 CEOs
- Gil Dibner, Principal at Genesis Partners, rated 4 by 6 CEOs
- Ryan Ziegler, Investment Manager at Edison Venture Fund, rated 4 by 6 CEOs
- Bob Pavey, General Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, rated 4 by 6 CEOs
- Philippe Herbert, Partner at Banexi Ventures Partners, rated 4 by 5 CEOs
- Eric Hjerpe, Partner at Atlas Venture, rated 4 by 5 CEOs
- Angelo J. Santinelli, General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, rated 4 by 5 CEOs
- David Min, Principal at Steamboat Ventures, rated 4 by 5 CEOs
Photo credit: Flickr/le vent le cri
ratings by only 10 people are really statistically insignificant. + what are they rating? how informed the person was? or whether or not they invested in them?
The ratings are by CEOs, not random people, normally portfolio CEOs or CEOs that went through due diligence. The average VC may only deal with 30 CEOs as a Board Member over an entire career.
old data here for Boston VCs
Bill Tai and Eric Hjerpe now at Kepha Partners.
Angelo Santinelli long gone from NBVP
Levandov long gone from Masthead now at Avalon
Some of the data on individual venture capitalists is inaccurate, mainly due to the fact that 38% of venture capitalists left the field in 2009.
Bill Tai is still at CRV, BTW.
Wow…Holy Kaw
Andrew – maybe I missed it – but didn’t it say there were over 13,000 CEO members who participated?
Phew! There is *one* woman in the list. I got scared for a moment.
I’ve interacted with a number of folks on this list, as an entrepreneur. I believe these people are on the list and in their ranking positions because they treat us with respect. They work interactively and enthusiastically with us offering, at a minimum, valuable feedback and match-making contacts. The investment folks I’ve met with that are not on the list speak to us like we’re inexperienced dreamers – waisting their time.
Glad to see so many partners from Lightspeed have made the list.
agree, ratings by only 10 seems unsubstantiated.
5 or even 10 could be 100% of the entrepreneurs that you have ever worked closely with as a VC. We set the number at 5 separate CEO reviews to get on the list since the average VC serves on 5 Boards.
What would a better number be?
i think 10 minimum is probably the right number, altho 2 pissed off entrepreneurs could still bring the scoring down substantially… but not sure you have enough data to really get to this unless sample size is larger. certainly at 20 the data would start to be meaningful, but not too many folks on the list with that many reviews.
so let’s say 10 for now, and maybe 20 when you have more data…?
sorry just to clarify: i think most VCs that have been in the business for at least 5 years will have far more than 5-10 entrepreneurs they have worked with, but you’re correct larger fund VCs may have fewer entrepreneurs / more time with them.
somehow i still think the min # should probably be 10 tho…
Self Directed IRA’s allow anyone to invest in just about any venture with checkbook access. One can even invest in a branded entertainment, The Apprentice caliber reality television shows. The two empowering shows that I am developing come to mind. Of course social media via widgets will help spread the awareness.
We are creating our own stimulous plan
Kudos to Suster to vaulting to the top!
Eric Hjerpe of Kepha is the man, so is Angelo Santinelli (even though the latter is gone from VC scene).
Question: How does one know that the CEO has standing to make these review claims? How do we know that the CEO has even worked with the VC?
Also, the #1 guy has just five ratings? Versus Josh Kopelman’s 30? That’s kinda like saying that the vietnamese restaurant down the street from me in Lower Haight is the best restaurant in the city, because it has five 5-star yelp reviews…while Michael Mina and Gary Danko has hundreds of reviews…but not a 5-star average.
I don’t know how actionable this information is.
To be fair, TheFunded does not prefer to rank order the top 84. Everyone on the list is in the top 0.5% of all venture capitalists listed in the directory. Koppelman is great, according to the Members, and so is McGuire.
CEOs also provide written feedback on their experiences working with a particular VC, but, since the site has subpoena proof anonymity, there is no way to know if a CEO worked with a particular VC.
However, busy startup CEOs don’t spend nights and weekends looking to anonymously flatter venture capitalists in my experience (even when pressured or asked).
you’re right… i find the contrary – rather than flattery most CEOs prefer to be quite independent in their views of investors and quite candid about negative experiences…
…personally I wish I’d listened to the frank critiques of the investors for my last startup, which we saw on the funded around the time our term sheet was being closed… would have saved a really bad experience
Like any ratings lists, not 100% perfect, but very helpful in any event.
I imagine most CEOs are flatout so it’s not possible to get all to participate but a VC getting 5 high scores out of 5 CEOs should be a pretty good indication. Thanks for publishing.
Any of those guys want to take a look at us :)
TechCrunch readers can use discount code “TC_Reader” to get 20% off the Future of Funding event. Visit http://futureoffunding.com for all the details.
Hope to see you there!
Adeo:
These ratings are rigged by aggressive VCs. I took a meeting a with VC especially because of the high ratings from Funded.com I came back with lousy experience. CEOs rated them not necessarily ever got funded.
I like the intention of thefunded, VC should act like a service provider, instead of jerk. Any small step in that direction would be great.
VCs have been known to pressure entrepreneurs to rate them positively on TheFunded. Since the site is anonymous, the tactic is only moderately successful.
The site allows any CEO Member to block a firm that he or she believes is cheating the rating system. Firms that cheat are then removed from the leaderboard and the top rated lists for 90 to 120 days.
Ranking differences are of less value than the list itself. When you’re outside the valley, as we are, it’s sometimes hard to identify the best people at a given firm. This is where the Funded really helps, and where sample size is perhaps less important.
Ali Davar, Worio
Gil Dibner is the only representative from Israel and not by coincidence.
He has helped so many companies and entrepreneurs that it was a matter of time before he got the recognition.
Great mind, great ethics, great guy!
Ratings are worth whatever the reader determines. In this case, it’s hard to see they are worth much at all.
Grammy’s For VCs :-)
Norm
The critics of this are just the usual VC hating crowd.
These rankings ring pretty true to me. Not so much the order that matters as the names on them are consistent with what you hear when you’re a startup founder and are talking with investors, and more importantly with your peers. (As I am)
The Funded website is one of many elements that are coming together at once which have broken down some of the information asymmetry between investors and entrepreneurs.
This is THE VERY BEST time to be starting a company. Low cost infrastructure. Maturing of powerful new methodologies and business models (thanks Eric Ries, Sean Ellis, Steve Blank, Andrew Chen et al). VCs hungry for great deals after a dry spell. Some very clued in, smart investors who value their relationships with the entrepreneurial community.
As Venture Capital pulls back from its over-funded, under-performing state (the last decade), we’re seeing the best VCs adapt. They’re taking notice of the criticism and push back from the entrepreneurial community – they had to if they wanted to compete with super angels for the best deals.
I think we’re going to see a stronger, tighter industry and all of us starting companies will benefit.
So, stop hating in the comments. This list has value, and what it tells us is great news.
oh… and would love to go to the Future of Funding event
You probably heard we ain’t in the web2.0 hypin’ business; we in the killin’ VC smugness business. And cousin, Business is a-boomin’.
Thanks Adeo.
True, the ‘ranking’ format has its flaws…as others have pointed out, it’s not really statistically significant with 5 or 6 reviews, and I know at least a few cases where VCs have asked entrepreneurs to go add favorable ratings, evern before funding them. (I suppose it’s only human nature to try to game the system…like a real world version of the SEO industry.)
So while it’s not perfect, the mere existence of a list like this is a really positive thing, as it keeps a fire lit under VCs to be more respectful and entrepreneur-friendly…it tempers (some) of the arrogance.
I would imagine the funded might have also played an indirect role in weeding out a few of the under-performers from the VC world over the last couple years (note the article’s mention of high turnover and bounced emails).
As in most industries, more competition + greater transparency = better customer experience.
What are my ideas about the state of venture capital?
In the short to mid term, with tanking returns, we may see reductions in future investments in venture rounds, as VC firms have more trouble accessing capital.
Further in the future, though, as globalization continues its play, VC funds from overseas will start to play a more prominent role, with Chinese tycoons eventually making “status” investments akin to Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies investing in Facebook and Zynga. The Arab world may eventually join in, too — Prince Alwaleed, known for his huge stake in Citi and for teaming up with Bill Gates to invest in Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, is an example of the amount of capital Arab investors bring.
Adeo should find a way to do the same for Service Providers and even Entrepreneurs.
Congrats to Mark Suster! Well deserved…
I think the current state is healthy transformation : a dividing line between the larger VC funds focused on repeating the successes of the past and smaller funds centering their efforts on new models of businesses, teams and therefore investments. Entrepreneurs may seek both out to decide which camp treats them better since the fit is both ways. To say one model is better for everyone and every idea ignores the diversity which propels businesses forward. Increased scrutiny, transparency and flow of commentary between entrepreneurs is pushing this transformation forward, and rooting out the inefficiencies of the past.
Yes, money still talks and opens doors, especially in SV, but startups more than ever can understand the value of non-monetary benefits. We are understanding what it means to be the best VC for our companies — not the first to say ‘yes’, or the not even the one with the best valuation. The current state is one where the entrepreneurs are gaining more leverage, and the VC’s are learning to broaden their appeal beyond just $$ and dusty tombstones on a lobby shelf.
And yes, I would love the ticket for the event. Sounds v. interesting.
I wud like to see how they perform if they are with only one company.
This just demonstrates WHAT A CRUEL JOKE TheFunded is. Not only is the list rife with inaccuracies and dated info — Michael Kim of Rustic Canyon is out of the industry, as just one example — but it is just a FORUM FOR WHINING AND MOANING by entrepreneurs whose pitches were not successful. Most start-ups SHOULD NOT GET FUNDED!
Hiding behing anonymity only encourages snarkiness and unfair remarks that defame good VCs that might have passed on an opportunity. If a VC is unfairly bashed THERE IS NO WAY for them to get that posting removed or fight the charge. Indeed, if they EVEN FIGHT the unfair portrayal Adeo and company black list them. If that is not Stalin-esque I do not know what it. I hope these guys get sued out of existence.
David Murphy and M. Joe – great comments. Contact me at jonathan [at] thefunded [dot] com and I’ll get you the 2 free tickets to the event.