The Midas List
DFJ's Tim Draper ranks number 7 on Forbes "Midas List" - which ranks the best dealmakers in high tech and life sciences.
By: Erika Brown, David Whelan, Patricia Huang
Feb. 13, 2006
| The Top Ten Best Dealmakers | |
| 1. | Michael Moritz |
| 2 | L John Doerr |
| 3 | Ram Shriram |
| 4 | Andreas von Bechtolsheim |
| 5 | Michael Grimes |
| 6 | David Cheriton |
| 7 | Timothy Draper |
| 8 | Lawrence Sonsini |
| 9 | David Marquardt |
| 10 | David Katsujin Chao |
The Forbes Midas List, which ranks the best dealmakers in high tech and life sciences, is led this year by a passel of survivors. The folks profiled here (the full 100-person ranking is at forbes.com/midas) have proved their mettle by creating wealth through an economic slump. A lot of names on the list last year are gone with the disappearance of the gargantuan valuations of the boom era.
The financiers behind Google’s 2004 initial offering continue to dominate the Midas list, which is based on five-year results, but they now are trailed closely by venture capitalists who helped launch such foreign-bred successes as Shanghai chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Luxembourg’s phone-over-Internet service Skype and Chinese search engine Baidu. With the continued rise of China and India and waves of driven, newly minted capitalists, these rankings will get more multinational each year.
A note on methodology: The Forbes Midas list seeks to identify individuals who deploy venture capital to create wealth for their investors and build valuable, long-lasting companies. Our ranking formula ignores the original amount invested in a deal (as it is often undisclosed), instead weighing most heavily the market capitalization of a venture-backed company on the close of its first day of trading or the purchase price in an acquisition. A lesser weight is given to the change in value of each investment since going public or being sold. Ranking also depends on a candidate’s length of involvement in and depth of influence on a startup. Only tech and life sciences companies that have gone public or been acquired within the past five years are considered. Our results are based on extensive reporting and surveys sent to 800 professionals, including angels, bankers, lawyers, recruiters and venture capitalists. • Special thanks to the Money Tree Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association, FactSet Research Systems and Thomson Financial.• Statistics: Mitchel Rand, Carl Subick and Michael K. Ozanian.
