When the Midas List began in 2001, Silicon Valley was still coming to terms with the “tech wreck.” The excitement in early internet companies led to public flameouts and a long and painful reset that saw the Nasdaq drop 39.3%, its worst one year drop to date. But as any Midas investor knows, market downturns are when generational companies are built: Google, Amazon and Netflix, founded and built in this era, have become some of the world’s most valuable companies, and made their founders and investors vast fortunes.The next two decades brought waves of innovation: social media, smart phones, electric cars, and now artificial intelligence. Only a handful of investors have enduring track records of picking the best founders and startups over the 25- year history of the Midas List. Just 15 have appeared on the Midas List 15 times or more.Those include Vinod Khosla, who topped the inaugural list for bets on networking startups like Juniper, and now again for writing the first institutional check into OpenAI in 2019. The AI company was last valued at $852 billion, and is now reportedly fast-tracking its initial public offering. He’s in good company alongside former Kleiner Perkins colleague John Doerr (who stepped back in 2016), and Bond Capital’s Mary Meeker, some of the biggest names in the biz. There’s an even bigger dog on the block: Sequoia Capital. A total of four investors associated with Silicon Valley’s most famous venture fund landed a spot on our all-time all-star ranking. Silicon Valley was a smaller place 25 years ago. U.S. funds collectively managed only $262 billion. Sequoia in its early days had a mantra that it wouldn’t invest in a company that its partners couldn’t bike to from its Sand Hill Road office. The fund’s founder Don Valentine once quipped that past Denver, Colorado, “you go off the edge into technological oblivion.” That’s not the case today. Waves of infrastructure and cloud computing breakthroughs mean that it's never been easier to start a company. Though the Bay Area remains the gravitational center of VC and startups, lowering the barriers to entry has sparked fierce competition that now extends to most corners of the world. Venture funds in the United States alone now manage $1.38 trillion drawn by two decades of massive outcomes from a growing herd of unicorns, and a handful of companies like SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic that are racing for trillion-dollar IPOs (even though to date venture funds collectively have underperformed against public markets). But while companies, trends and markets have continued to evolve, one constant remains the handful of investors who have proven an enduring ability to spot the best and boldest entrepreneurs emerging from every generation. ERIC MILLETTE FOR FORBES1. Doug LeoneFirm: Sequoia CapitalTotal appearances: 21Average rank: 21.1Best rank: No. 4 (2013)Net Worth: $12.1 billionFirst year on the list: 2003Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Wiz, Nubank, RingCentral, ServiceNow, RackspaceSequoia Capital2. Michael MoritzFirm: Sequoia CapitalTotal appearances: 21Average rank: 26.5Best rank: No. 1 (2006)Net Worth: $8.2 billionFirst year on the list: 2001Last year on the list: 2023Biggest deals: Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, Yahoo, StripeBrandon McGanty3. John DoerrFirm: Kleiner PerkinsTotal appearances: 20Average rank: 19.2Best rank: No. 1 (2005)Net Worth: $24.5 billionFirst year on the list: 2001Last year on the list: 2021Biggest deals: Google, Amazon, DoorDash, Slack, NetscapeErin Beach4. Vinod KhoslaFirm: Khosla VenturesTotal appearances: 19Average rank: 26.9Best rank: No. 1 (2001)Net Worth: $15.3 billionFirst year on the list: 2001Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Khosla VenturesLevon Biss for Forbes5. Danny RimerFirm: Index VenturesTotal appearances: 19Average rank: 47.4Best rank: No. 16 (2009)First year on the list: 2006Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Figma, Etsy, Dropbox, King, NotionBenchmark Capital6. Peter FentonFirm: Benchmark CapitalTotal appearances: 18Average rank: 24.8Best rank: No. 2 (2015)First year on the list: 2007Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Yelp, Elastic, Twitter, Sierra, New RelicNew Enterprise Associates7. Scott SandellFirm: New Enterprise AssociatesTotal appearances: 18Average rank: 33.5Best rank: No. 5 (2011)First year on the list: 2006Last year on the list: 2025Biggest deals: Cloudflare, Coursera, Robinhood, Patreon, WorkdayMayfield8. Navin ChaddhaFirm: Mayfield FundTotal appearances: 18Average rank: 35.6Best rank: No. 4 (2024)First year on the list: 2007Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Lyft, HashiCorp, Akamai, Poshmark, SolarCitySequoia Capital9. Roelof BothaFirm: Sequoia CapitalTotal appearances: 17Average rank: 23.9Best rank: No. 3 (2020)First year on the list: 2007Last year on the list: 2025Biggest deals: MongoDB, Eventbrite, Unity, Block, YouTubeJohn Lamparski/Getty Images10. Peter ThielFirm: Founders FundTotal appearances: 16Average rank: 18Best rank: No. 3 (2013)Net Worth: $28.4 billionFirst year on the list: 2011Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Palantir, Stripe, SpaceX, Facebook, AirbnbCody Pickens for Forbes11. James BreyerFirm: Breyer CapitalTotal appearances: 16Average rank: 27.9Best rank: No. 1 (2011)Net Worth: $3.4 billionFirst year on the list: 2001Last year on the list: 2018Biggest deals: Facebook, Etsy, Circle, Spotify, DatalogixMartin Schoeller/August Images12. Neil ShenFirm: HSGTotal appearances: 15Average rank: 7.7Best rank: No. 1 (2018)Net Worth: $3.4 billionFirst year on the list: 2012Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: ByteDance, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Ant Group, KuaishouMary Meeker13. Mary MeekerFirm: Bond CapitalTotal appearances: 15Average rank: 30.3Best rank: No. 5 (2016)First year on the list: 2012Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Canva, Facebook, Spotify, Ring, AlphaSenseBenchmark14. Bill GurleyFirm: BenchmarkTotal appearances: 15Average rank: 40.7Best rank: No. 2 (2018)First year on the list: 2001Last year on the list: 2022Biggest deals: Uber, GrubHub, OpenTable, Snapchat, ZillowBenjamin Horowitz15. Ben HorowitzFirm: Andreessen HorowitzTotal appearances: 15Average rank: 40.7Best rank: No. 4 (2020)First year on the list: 2012Last year on the list: 2026Biggest deals: Coinbase, Wiz, Databricks, Skype, LyftMore from ForbesForbesInside The Murky Market Selling Pre-IPO SpaceX And OpenAI SharesBy Phoebe LiuForbesInvesting Superstar Yasmin Razavi Turned A $75 Million Check Into A $3 Billion AI WindfallBy Iain MartinForbesSarah Guo Bet Everything On AI Pre-ChatGPT. Now She’s One Of The World’s Top InvestorsBy Rashi Shrivastava
The 15 Best Midas List Venture Capital Investors Of All Time
Only a handful of VCs have appeared 15 times or more on the Forbes Midas List ranking of the best startup investors over the last 25 years. Meet the Midas All-Stars.
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