VENTURE CAPITAL BEHEMOTHS In this year’s Midas’ List of Top Technology Investors, Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) cast a shadow over the rest of the venture capital industry Hall of fame The Midas methodology has evolved since 1 2 3 the list began in 2001, but these names have a knack for staying on Jim Breyer Marc Andreessen Peter Thiel Years on list Jim Breyer takes the Midas Marc Andreessen, co- Peter Thiel was John Doerr 12 crown again this year creator of Mosaic brows- Facebook's first institu- thanks to his firm Accel er and co-founder of tional investor with a Michael Moritz 12 Partners’ early $12.7- Andreessen Horowitz, $500,000 cheque. In Jay Hoag 12 made seed investments 2005, Thiel and some million bet on Zuckerberg. Jim Breyer 11 With an 11% stake at the in Twitter and LinkedIn, friends opened his own IPO, Accel Partners was and bought into invest- venture firm Founders David Cowan 11 Facebook’s second- ments in Skype and Fund and created hedge Chris Schaepe 10 largest shareholder Groupon and Zynga IPOs fund Clarium Capital William Ford 9 Vinod Khosla 9 Kevin Harvey 9 4 5 6 David Chao 8 Douglas Leone 8 Douglas Leone Reid Hoffman Peter Fenton Sequoia Capital’s Doug Reid Hoffman co-found- Peter Fenton backed John Walecka 8 Leone had two IPOs last ed LinkedIn and chair- Twitter when it had 25 Peter Wagner 8 year — ServiceNow and man, board of the people and now serves on Top of the crop CafePress. Leone sits on Mountain View talent the board. Within 24 hours the boards of both. He database. He earned in 2009, he was the lead Firms that score big exits put the most also led Sequoia's Series good returns on a partner behind partners on the Midas list A investment in enter- $40,000-investment in SpringSource’s $420-mn Partners on list prise Wi-Fi company Facebook in 2004; he was sale to VMWare and Accel Partners 9 Meraki an early backer of Zynga FriendFeed's Facebook sale Sequoila Capital 6 Benchmark 5 Greylock Partners 5 7 8 9 NewEnterprises Associates 5 Jim Goetz Scott Sandell Jeremy Levine 4 Bain Capital Ventures Jim Goetz had two big Scott Sandell, an early Jeremy Levine led the 4 Bessemer Venture Partners IPO scores in 2012: investor in Workday, also first VC round in Yelp in 4 Kleiner Perkins Caufield Ruckus Wireless (current invested in Nicira, which 2005, when the local & Bayers market cap: $1.7 billion) VMWare acquired last reviews site claimed only 4 Meritech Capital Partners and security outfit Palo year for $1.26 billion. 100,000 San Franciscans Exit >$200 million in 2012 Alto Networks ($3.8 bil- Sandell was a lead as users. He also led the Sequoia Capital 9 lion). Goetz was a first- investor in Playdom, 2007 round for LinkedIn, round investor and which sold to Disney in which went public in Accel Partners 6 remains on both boards 2010 for $563 million 2011 Benchmark 5 Meritech Capital Partners 5 David Sze, Greylock Greylock Partners 5 Greylock Partners’ David Sze led the firm’s investment in 10 Facebook in early 2006 and its investments in LinkedIn 4 New Enterprise Associates (Greylock held a 16 per cent stake at the 2011 IPO) and 4 Bain Capital Venture Pandora (14 per cent stake at 2011 IPO). 4 Bessemer Venture Partners 2 Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Bayer Midas touch | Facebook’s May 18, 2012, IPO was the attention away from enterprise early-stage firms on Sand Hill Road largest for an internet company, briefly companies with IPOs, such as Workday, have been Accel, Benchmark, valuing the company at $104 billion ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Ruckus Greylock, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, | Last year saw large consumer tech exits Wireless and Splunk and in recent years, Andreessen such as the M&As of Instagram (acquired | The June 29, 2012 offering of ServiceNow, Horowitz by Facebook), OMGPOP (acquired by the first significant IPO since Facebook, | Seed investors jumped on the scene, Zynga) and Tudou in China, as well as brought some confidence back to the driven by the decreasing cost of starting the IPOs of Kayak, Yelp, Trulia and market. The Workday’s IPO in October a company. These investors have China’s VIP Shop was the second-largest in 2012 climbed the Midas rankings over the | The focus on Facebook may have drawn | In recent years, the most sought-after past few years Source: Forbes.