2026 Strebulaev-Jackson Ranking: 100 Top VCs at Emerging Firms

New research: Ilya Strebulaev published the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson ranking of the top 100 venture capitalists at emerging firms on November 13, 2026. Sol Bier of Factorial Funds leads the publicly disclosed list.

For a founder building an investor shortlist, the interesting question is what sits behind a newer firm's name. A partner's experience, the firm's current focus, and the person who will actually work with your company deserve separate attention.

Our takeaway: use a ranking to discover people worth researching, then build your shortlist around fit. The most useful next step is a better-informed conversation, not a longer outbound list.

The full 100-investor ranking

The ranking covers qualifying firms founded in 2016 or later, with an August 31, 2026 cutoff. Individual scores include the investor's full US investment record, including work before the current firm existed.

Source: Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Rankings. The table below transcribes the two source graphics, with credit to Ilya Strebulaev's original report. Firm associations reflect the ranking, not a claim about current investment availability.

Jump to ranks: 1-25 · 26-50 · 51-75 · 76-100.

2026 Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Ranking: investors at emerging firms.

Rank and investor	Firm in the ranking
1. Sol Bier	Factorial Funds
2. Geoff Lewis	Bedrock
3. Lee Fixel	Addition
4. David Sacks	Craft Ventures
5. Peter Sonsini	Laude Ventures
6. Michelangelo Volpi	Hanabi
7. Jesse Coors-Blankenship	Parkway Venture Capital
8. Gili Raanan	CyberStarts
9. Frederick Ehrsam	Paradigm
10. Hisham Elhaddad	HOF Capital
11. Ish Dugal	IronArc Ventures
12. Gregg Hill	Parkway Venture Capital
13. Stephen Oskoui	GigaFund
14. Lior Simon	CyberStarts
15. Grant Hosking	Align Ventures
16. Sarah Guo	Conviction Partners
17. Weston Moyer	MVP Ventures
18. Stephen Marcus	Riot Ventures
19. Anu Hariharan	Avra
20. Doug Philippone	Snowpoint Ventures
21. Max Gazor	Striker Venture Partners
22. Michael Robinson	Craft Ventures
23. Beth Seidenberg	Westlake Village BioPartners
24. Omeed Malik	1789 Capital
25. Zavain Dar	Dimension
26. Michael Vernal	Conviction Partners
27. Luke Nosek	GigaFund
28. Jeff Fluhr	Craft Ventures
29. Thomas Hendrix	Decisive Point
30. Kevin Jiang	Mangusta Capital
31. Alexis Ohanian	Seven Seven Six
32. Jay Simons	BOND Capital
33. Cyan Banister	Long Journey Ventures
34. Harley Miller	Left Lane
35. Yuda Doron	Greenfield Partners
36. Anne Dwane	Village Global
37. Achal Upadhyaya	Interlagos
38. Villi Iltchev	Category Ventures
39. Landon Downs	Cambium
40. Stephen Jurvetson	Future Ventures
41. Alexander Hartz	Shine
42. Swaroop Kolluri	Neotribe Ventures
43. Mary Meeker	BOND Capital
44. Masha Bucher	Day One Ventures
45. Bryan Rosenblatt	Craft Ventures
46. Jeffrey Herbst	GFT Ventures
47. Michael Dybbs	Samsara BioCapital
48. Teddy Citrin	Definition
49. Matthew Miller	Evantic
50. Ben Bryce	Align Ventures
51. Kristina Shen	Chemistry Ventures
52. Jared Kesselheim	Transformation Capital
53. Ross Fubini	XYZ Venture
54. Geoffrey Woo	Anti Fund
55. Nick Brown	Imaginary Ventures
56. Sujay Jaswa	WndrCo
57. Dayna Grayson	Construct
58. Abdo John Hajj	Type One Ventures
59. Christopher Sacca	Lowercarbon
60. Robert Toews	Radical Ventures
61. Tomasz Tunguz	Theory Ventures
62. Benjamin Kortlang	G2 Venture Partners
63. Robin Vasan	Mango
64. Ariane Tom	Kaleida
65. Charles Reim	Amity Ventures
66. Kevin Hartz	A*
67. Kirk Nielsen	Vensana
68. Ramtin Naimi	Abstract Ventures
69. Patrick Maloney	CIV
70. William Coffield	Riot Ventures
71. Soraya Darabi	TMV
72. Fred Cohen	Monograph
73. William Lee	Craft Ventures
74. Justin Kan	Goat
75. Arjun Balaji	Paradigm
76. Alexander Fang	Entrada Ventures
77. Christoph Lengauer	Curie.Bio
78. Scott Banister	Long Journey Ventures
79. Jay Park	Prysm Capital
80. Haim Sadger	S Capital VC
81. Justin Klein	Vensana
82. Sean Mendy	Westbound Equity
83. Mark Goldberg	Chemistry Ventures
84. Andrew Slavitt	Town Hall Ventures
85. Alfred Chuang	Race
86. Moshe Koyfman	Shine
87. David Whelan	Town Hall Ventures
88. Michael Gilroy	Marathon
89. Gokul Rajaram	Marathon
90. Salil Deshpande	Uncorrelated Ventures
91. Wesley Chan	FPV Ventures
92. Tanuj Dutta	Congruent Ventures
93. Michael Kives	K5 Global
94. Auren Hoffman	Flex
95. Kevin Gabura	Craft Ventures
96. Chris McCann	Race
97. Alexander Harstrick	J2 Ventures
98. Lan Xuezhao	Basis Set Ventures
99. Jared Sleeper	Avenir Growth
100. Colin Greenspon	Narya

Ranking and methodology credit: Strebulaev-Jackson's original report. Its subscription includes scores, deeper analysis and the interactive dataset.

View the original ranking graphics

A newer firm can have a very experienced partner

That distinction becomes concrete when you check the firms themselves. Bedrock's official biography identifies Geoff Lewis as its founder and managing partner and describes his earlier work at Founders Fund. Laude's biography for Pete Sonsini describes nearly two decades at NEA before Laude and a focus on deeply technical founders at the earliest stages.

Those histories help you prepare better questions. Which experiences are relevant to your company? What does the current team contribute? Who would be your day-to-day partner? A familiar name can open the research process, but the answers should determine your next move.

Check the current team as well as the individual biography. For example, Craft's team page lists Michael Robinson as partner and head of its investment team. A ranking position alone does not establish who is handling a new opportunity today.

Five checks before an investor earns a place in your pipeline

1. Company fit. Find an explicit connection between your sector, product and the current investment thesis. Save the official source, not just a database tag.
2. Round fit. Check stage and geography. Ask about current check size, ownership expectations and lead participation when those details are not public.
3. Partner fit. Identify the person whose work is closest to your company. Prepare a specific reason for wanting that person involved.
4. Working relationship. Ask founders what happens after the investment: communication, difficult decisions, hiring support and follow-on discussions.
5. Approach. Look for a relevant mutual connection or a documented public submission route. Make the request easy to understand and easy to forward.

Keep “unknown” separate from “no.” An unanswered check-size question calls for research or a conversation. A documented geographic mismatch calls for a different target.

A ranking-to-shortlist worksheet you can copy

Use one record per investor and firm. This original Finta worksheet turns discovery into a clear decision and a next action.

Investor / current firm:
Discovery source and ranking date:
Current official biography / team URL:
Mandate source URL and date checked:
Our sector, stage and geography:
Documented match:
Open questions: check size, lead role, timing:
Why this partner could be relevant:
Mutual connection or public approach route:
Founder-reference questions:
Decision: research / approach / defer / exclude:
Next action, owner and date:

Illustrative example, not a claim about a named investor: a technical founder finds a highly ranked partner, but the current firm's stage focus is unclear. The next action is to verify stage fit and identify the relevant team member. It is not to send a generic pitch to every partner. Once the fit is clear, the founder can prepare a short, specific introduction request.

For the outreach itself, use Finta's Warm Introduction Playbook to prepare a forwardable ask. Keep the company story consistent with the materials in your seed fundraising plan.

Turn investor research into your next conversation

A good shortlist should get more useful as conversations happen. Keep the investor's current firm, supporting sources, relationship context, meeting notes and next action together. That makes it easier to explain why someone belongs in the pipeline and what needs to happen next.

Finta CRM connects investor relationships with pipeline stages and research context. Aurora can help prepare context and draft the next step for your review. Start with a few well-matched investors, give each a clear next action, and build from there.

For fund managers, a different capital search

This article is about venture capitalists founders may research for company funding. If you are raising a fund, you need LPs rather than a list of startup investors. Start with our separate guide to LPs backing emerging fund managers.

Read the original: Strebulaev-Jackson's report and subscriber dataset. Finta is not affiliated with the ranking.

By Finta Editorial Team. Sources checked November 14, 2026. Rankings are research inputs, not a promise of investor availability or funding.