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
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