Thursday, May 3, 2012

SoCal Venture Capitalists Shut Out Of Midas List

Forbes Magazine has just published its annual Midas List, its annual ranking of the top 100 venture capitalists, and -- despite a record number of IPOs and exits last year from southern California technology companies -- Southern California's venture capital community was shut out of the list entirely. Although the list did not contain any Southern California venture investors, at least two names in the list were boosted into the top 100 by their roles in funding Southern California companies. At number 13, Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz was ranked highly due to his role in funding Monrovia-based Green Dot, the prepaid debit card provider founded by Steve Streit, and number 81, Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners, was listed due to his funding of Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand, the human resources and talent management firm founded by Adam Miller. Both Green Dot and Cornerstone OnDemand went through their initial public offerings last year.

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