I don’t believe that being a Founder of tech startup gives you a better chance of being the best VC.  I have never seen any data that confirms this, if you have it, please share that in the comments section.  On the contrary, if you look at some of the best VCs of all time, they were NOT Founders of tech startups.  The great thing about this industry is that regardless of your background, you can be a great VC.  Identifying who is going to be the best VC, when a VC is just starting, is extremely difficult, which is why the job of being a LP is so challenging.

Here is the tweet thread that got me thinking about this topic:

 

https://twitter.com/shaig/status/1064886565061763072

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/shaig/status/1065241909189324800

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/shaig/status/1065243644771409922

I do recognize that specific words are critically important for this debate.  Entrepreneur vs Founder is a material difference.  The original premise and original tweet was about “Founder” not Entrepreneur .  That being said, most of folks on the list provided below were neither an entrepreneur or founder, a few did work for tech startups though but that is different debate.

Here is a list of folks who meet all of the following parameters:

1. They were not tech Founders before they started leading venture rounds
2. They started leading venture rounds (Seed/A/B) post 2005
3. They have substantial realized gains (not looking at TVPI), meaning they distributed meaningful money to their LPs (DPI)

If you know VCs that meet ALL of these parameters, please let me know in the comment section and will add them.  In no particular order:

Rebecca Lynn – Canvas

http://www.canvas.vc/team-member/rebecca-lynn/

 

Ian Sigalow – Greycroft

https://www.greycroft.com/people/ian-sigalow/

 

Kirsten Green – Forerunner

https://forerunnerventures.com/team/kirsten-green/

 

Chetan Puttagunta – Benchmark

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanputtagunta/

 

Shana Fisher – Third Kind

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/shana-fisher#section-overview

 

Mamoon Hamid – Kleiner Perkins

https://www.kleinerperkins.com/people/mamoon-hamid

 

Tony Florence – NEA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/toflorence/

 

Mike Volpi – Index

https://www.indexventures.com/team/mike-volpi

 

Roger Ehrenberg – IA Ventures

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/roger-ehrenberg

 

Matt Cohler – Benchmark

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcohler/

 

Aydn Senkut – Felicis Ventures

https://www.felicis.com/team/aydin/

 

Hans Tung – GGV Capital

Hans Tung