I keep hearing about third tier and top tier VCs. Other than the Ycombinator rankings I have not seen anything else that ranks VCs. How will you put them in their places ;-) ?
In fact, that's why we had to make it; we wanted to know
ourselves.
My own perception would be also to rank Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, and Benchmark as top 3, but to put KP half-a-step above the other two, and Sequoia marginally above Benchmark. Especiaually during the last bubble KP really had a reputation of a golden touch in SV, and their startups had an advantage when recruiting. I suspect that people PG surveyed formed their brand perception over longer time than I have.
I think the ycombinator ranking is focused on internet companies. What about the VCs that invest in (yes I know yuck) enterprise software?
I think they're basically the same firms.
The YCombinator list does not include Union Square Ventures whose portfolio includes:
Del.icio.us, FeedBurner, Wesabe, Outside.in, and Indeed