Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Forbes Midas List Gives Cold Shoulder To SoCal VCs

The latest annual ranking of venture capitalists by Forbes has given a cold shoulder to Southern California venture capitalists. The Forbes Midas List, which was published Wednesday, did not name a single, Southern California investor. The list has been short on local investors for the last few years, even as many Southern California companies have helped place other, Silicon Valley venture capitalists high up on the investor ranking.

Despite the cold shoulder to local investors, a number of investors on the list did have companies here to thank for their position. Sequoia Capital's Douglas Leone, was placed at number six for his role in funding San Diego's ServiceNow; Bessemer's Byron Deeter was ranked #36 due to his role in funding Santa Monica's Cornerstone OnDemand; Stephen Jurveston, of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, was ranked at #59 for his investment in Hawthorne-based SpaceX. It's unclear why Forbes selected Sequoia's Leone so high in the list, while slighting San Diego-based venture investor Paul Barber at JMI Equity, who is chairman of ServiceNow. JMI Equity owned 53.88% of ServiceNow at the IPO, and lead the investment; Sequoia owned only 21.56% of ServiceNow at its IPO filing back in 2012.

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