What’s the next big thing? There’s a good chance someone on this list is either starting it or funding it. The investors below have been a there as founders or investors for many of the companies that have shaped the internet like Amazon, eBay, AOL, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, Google and many more. These investors have had incredible success and are major players in the tech industry.
Even if you never have the opportunity to work with them they can provide you with incredible insight into the tech world as well as provide an unlimited amount of knowledge and expertise for achieving whatever you want.
Ron Conway
About: Referred by some as a super angel of Silicon Valley, Conway has been an active member of the tech sector for over thirty years. Previously, he was the founder and partner of the Angel Investors LP, which invested in big name companies like Google. Prior to being an angel investor, Conway was the co-founder of Altos Computer Systems, which went public in 1982. He was also the CEO of Personal Training Systems, which was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft.
Firm: SV Angel & Start Fund
Investments: AddThis, BuzzFeed, Pinterest, TweetDeck
Peter Thiel
About: Thiel is a partner in Founders Fund, an early stage investment company, and president of Clarium Capital, a hedge fund.
He also is a philanthropist and began the Thiel Fellowship, a program that pays students $100,000 to drop out of school to focus on being an entrepreneur. Before starting Clarium, Peter served as Chairman and CEO of PayPal, an Internet company he co-founded in December 1998 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
Firm: Founders Fund
Investments: Stripe, Quora, PandoDaily, Asana
Ben Horowitz
About: Ben Horowitz is a founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs become successful CEOs and build important and enduring companies.
Horowitz was a co-founder and CEO of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud), which was acquired by HP in 2007 for $1.6 billion, and was appointed vice president and general manager of Business Technology Optimization for Software at HP. He serves on the board of many companies including Jawbone, Lytro, Magnet, Nicira and Tidemark.
Firm: Andreessen Horowitz
Investments: NationBuilder, Lytro, Asana,
Marc Andreessen
About: Marc Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Andreessen is also the co-founder of Ning, which was acquired by Glam Media for $150 million in 2011, and previously co-founded Netscape and served as the CTO at AOL.
Firm: Andreessen Horowitz
Investments: Business Insider, AppNexus, Foursquare, PandoMedia, OMGPOP
David S. Rose
About: Involved in the New York startup scene since the 1970s, Rose is currently the founder and chairman of New York Angels, an investment angel group, and the managing principle of Rose Tech Ventures. Throughout the years, Rose has successfully founded many startups with his most recent including Gust and AirMedia.
Firm: New York Angels and Rose Tech Ventures
Investments: Mashery, Space Adventures, Linkstorm
Fred Wilson
About: Founded Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm, in 2004. The company has been extremely successful with investments in Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Meetup, Zynga, del.icio.us, Etsy, Indeed.com, Tacoda, and Clickable. Previously, Wilson was the founder of Flatiron Partners.
Firm: Union Square Ventures
Investments: Twitter, Zynga, Foursquare
Paul Graham
About: Partner in Y Combinator, an early stage investing firm. Graham has been around the tech industry for some time. Back in 1995, he co-founded Viaweb, an application that allowed users to build their own e-commerce store, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998 for a reported $49 million. Graham also played a pivotal role in spam filters.
Firm: Y Combinator
Investments: OMGPOP, Dropbox, Hipmunk, AirBnB
Chris Dixon
About: Chris Dixon is a Partner at and co-founder of Founder Collective. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay. In addition to his work with Founder’s Collective, Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies
Firm: Founder Collective
Investments: 20×200, Kickstarter, PandoDaily, Meddik, Stripe
Brad Feld
About: Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995.
Firm: Foundry Group
Investments: Zynga, Lijit Networks, OneRiot, Loomia
David Tisch
About: David is a Co-Founder of TechStars NYC. David is also the Managing Member of Box Group, a New York City based seed-stage angel capital firm.
Firm: TechStars NY
Investments: 42Floors, Art.sy, Boxee, Fab.com, GroupMe
Dave McClure
About: Founding Partner at 500 Startups, an incubator program that invests seed funding in companies while also providing mentoring. Dave has been in Silicon Valley for over twenty years, and has worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O’Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft.
Firm: 500 Startups
Investments: InterMatch, BeHance, DailyWorth, 42Floors
John Frankel
About: John Frankel has been an early-stage venture investor since 1999. Mr. Frankel was one of the earliest investors in Quigo Technologies, which was purchased by AOL in December 2007, and in Cornerstone OnDemand which had a successful IPO in March 2011. He is also a Mentor with the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator program.
Firm: ff Venture Capital
Investments: Contently, HowAboutWe, Klout
Brian Cohen
About: Founded Technology Solutions, Inc. in 1983 which he then sold to The McCann Erickson World Group in 1997 and became the Vice Chairman. Now serves as Chairman of the New York Angels. He is very devoted to the New York City startup community
Firm: New York Angeles
Investments: Pinterest, Social Genius, School Loop
Roelof Botha
About: Roelof Botha is a partner at Sequoia Capital, and works with a broad range of companies. Roelof led the initial financing of YouTube on behalf of Sequoia Capital in 2005.
Roelof served as the Chief Financial Officer of PayPal, where he led the company through its IPO in 2002, and the acquisition by eBay before joining Sequoia Capital in 2003.
Firm: Sequoia Capital
Investments: Eventbrite, Tumblr, Instagram, Xoom Corporation
Reid Hoffman
About: Co-founder of LinkedIn, a network for professionals with a valuation of $9.31 billion after its IPO. Prior to LinkedIn Hoffman served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member. He is also a partner at Greylock, a VC firm located in Silicon Valley.
Firm: Greylock
Investments: AirBnB, Zynga, PayPal, Flickr and Facebook
Andy Weissman
About: Investor and partner at Union Square Ventures, Weissman also founded Betaworks.
Firm: Union Square Ventures
Investments: Bit.ly, Codecademy, Hot Potato, Tumblr, Tweetdeck, Twitter
Mitch Kapor
About: Partner at Kapor Capital and director at the non-profit organization, Level Playing Field Institute. In the past, Kapor was the founder of software company Lotus, which was acquired by IBM for $3.5 billion.
Firm: Kapor Capital
Investments: Bit.ly, Mozilla, Twilio, Uber
Mark Suster
About: Mark joined GRP Partners in 2007 after having worked with GRP for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Most recently Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral,where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, the largest independent global content collaboration company.
Firm: GRP Partners
Investments: Gamesalad, Treehouse, ecomom
Eric Schmidt
About: For ten years, Schmidt served as the CEO of Google and presently is the executive chairman of the search engine giant. Forbes has Schmidt worth $6.9 billion
Firm: Innovation Endeavors
Investments: Mashape, Art.sy, DailyWorth
Kevin Rose
About: Partner at Google Ventures. Previously, Rose was the founder of Digg and the CEO of Milk. Rose made much of his fortune as an angel when he invested in Twitter, Zynga, and Square, according to The Wall Street Journal
Firm: Google Ventures
Investments: About.me, Fab, OMGPOP, Path
Sean Parker
About: Parker just launched Airtime, was the co-founder of Napster, and the founding president of Facebook. He is now managing partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm located in San Francisco.
Firm: Founders Fund
Investments: NationBuilder, Votizen, Spotify
Esther Dyson
About: Esther Dyson is an active investor in a variety of start-ups, focusing on technology. Her portfolio of private space and air travel investments includes XCOR Aerospace, Space Adventures/Zero G, Icon Aircraft, Coastal Aviation Software and Airship Ventures.
Dyson sold her business EDventure Holdings, along with its Release1.0 newsletter and PC Forum conference, to CNET Networks in 2004; PC Forum and Release 1.0 played key roles in the early development of the PC software marketplace and the commercial Internet.
Firm: Space Angels & New York Angels
Investments: Singly, HealthTap, Vizu Corporation, Power.com, Visible Path
Dave Morin
Co-founder and CEO of Path, a social network for mobile. Prior to Path, Morin was one of the first hirees at Facebook, where he assisted in Facebook Connect and Facebook Platform. He has also worked for Apple.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Birchbox, Bit.ly, Sparrow, TaskRabbit
Max Levchin
About: Founder of Slide, a company that creates apps for Facebook and widgets for the desktop. Prior to Slide, he was the co-founder and CTO of PayPal. The company sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Listia, Pinterest, Slide
Rob Hayes
About: Hayes is a partner at First Round Capital. He has been involved in venture funding for quite some time with past stints at philanthropic investment company Omidyar Network, and Palm where he assisted with overseeing its venture arm.
Firm: First Round Capital
Investments: Mint, Square, TaskRabbit, Uber
Charlie O’Donnell
About: Charlie O’Donnell founded Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and was formerly a Principal at First Round Capital. He kicked off his career under Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures and is the founder of Path 101.
Firm: First Round Capital
Investments: Backupify; he found GroupMe, Singleplatform and Chloe + Isabel for FRC
Mike Arrington
About: Partner at CrunchFund, an early stage investment firm. In 2000, he cofounded Achex, an online payments company, that was later acquired by First Data Corp for $32 million. Up until 2011, he was the editor of Tech Crunch, a tech blog that he founded in 2005.
Firm: CrunchFund
Investments: Zaarly, Dogster, Snapguide, Seesmic
Jim Breyer
About: Partner at Accel. Breyer has been a staple in the tech industry, as an early investor in Facebook. He also sits on various boards: Dell, Facebook, Walmart, Brightcove, Etsy, and News Corporation. He played a pivotal role in getting Accel Partners to invest early in Facebook. He was so confident in the social network, he invested $1 million of his own money.
Firm: Breyer Capital
Investments: PandoDaily, Art.sy
Marissa Mayer
About: Mayer recently joined Yahoo as the new CEO. Prior to Yahoo, Mayer spent most of her career at Google with her most recent position as the vice president of Local and Location services.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Airtime, Brit, Minted, One Kings Lane, and Square
Alexis Ohanian
About: Cofounder of Reddit which has become one of the most popular social news websites online. In 2010, Alexis helped launch hipmunk, the most agony-free way to search for a flight or hotel. He is also the East Coast ambassador for Y Combinator.
Firm: Y Combinator
Investments: Art.sy, Hubspot, Grubwithus, Crowdtilt
Catarina Fake
About: Co-founded Flickr along with Stewart Butterfield in 2004. After Flickr was acquired she Fake ran the Technology Development Group at Yahoo. She is also the founder of Hunch and Pinwheel.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Etsy, Kickstarter
Jay Levy
About: His first company, MPI was acquired by a publicly traded company. Levy then founded Trueview Services and most recently cofounded Zelkova Ventures where he is currently a partner.
Firm: Zelkova Ventures
Investments: Foodspotting, Rapportive, Fab, Klout
Josh Kushner
About: Founder of social gaming company Vostu and Thrive Capital, an early-stage firm that likes to invest in media and internet.
Firm: Thrive Capital
Investments: Art.sy, Fab.com, Greplin, Dwolla, Instagram
Ben Lerer
About: Lerer is the co-founder and CEO of Thrillist, a publication targeted towards men with 3 million people subscribing daily to it. Recently, Thrillist expanded to include Thrillist Rewards and JackThreads, an online ecommerce store.
Firm: Lerer Ventures
Investments: Scoutmob, Venmo, Romotive, Pair, Yoke, Branch, Everlane, BuzzFeed, PandoDaily
Ken Lerer
About: Manager of Lerer Ventures, chairman of Betaworks, Bedrocket, and BuzzFeed. He also cofounded The Huffington Post.
Firm: Lerer Ventures and Pilot Group
Investments: Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post
Michael Lazerow
About: Co-founder and CEO of Buddy Media, a social enterprise software that got acquired by Salesforce for ~ $689 million. Prior to Buddy Media, Lazerow founded UWIRE which was acquired by CBS and Golf.com which was acquired by Time Inc.
Firm: Lazerow Ventures
Investments: N/A
Shana Fisher
About: Managing partner of High Line Venture Partners, a New York firm focused on early stage investments. Prior to High Line Venture Partners, Fisher was the senior vice president at IAC.
Firm: High Line Venture Partners
Investments: Crowdtilt, Makerbot, Pinterest
Dennis Crowley
About: Co-founder of Foursquare. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Metamarkets, Square, Svpply, Timehop
Kal Vepuri
About: Founder and chairman of The Trisiras Group, an investment firm and holding company. He focuses on technology, the health industry, and consumer goods.
Firm: The Trisiras Group
Investments: 42Floors, Art.sy, Crowdtilt, Warby Parker
John Borthwick
About: CEO of Betaworks, an investment company. Prior to launching Betaworks, Borthwick was the CEO of Fotolog and also worked at Time Warner as the senior vice president of Technology and Alliances.
Firm: Betaworks
Investments: Outside.in, Bit.ly, ShowMe, Twitter, UserVoice
Gary Vaynerchuk
About: Founder of VaynerMedia, a consulting agency for brands, Vaynerchuk made his money in the wine industry. After successfully helping his parents grow their wine company, he launched Winelibrary, an online wine store, in 2005 and has also launched Cinderalla Wine, a flash sale site.
Firm: Independent
Investments: Adaptly, BarkBox, Birchbox, Meetup , SimpleGeo, Tumblr
Mike Yavonditte
About: CEO of YieldMo. He is also an investor and partner in ff Venture Capital. In the past, Yavonditte built Quigo, which sold for $340M to AOL in 2007.
Firm: ff Venture Capital
Investments: Lover.ly, Klout, Meetup, Yipit, Flurry
David Sze
About: Before coming to Greylock, David was SVP of Product Strategy at Excite and then Excite@Home. As an early employee at Excite, David also held roles as GM of Excite.com and VP of Content and Programming for the Excite Network.
Firm: Greylock Partners
Investments: Facebook, Revision3, digg, Oodle, LinkedIn, Pandora
Amish Jani
About: Venture capitalist and marketing director at FirstMark Capital. Previously, Jani was a partner at Pequot Ventures.
Firm: FirstMark Capital
Investments: Aveksa, Bamboom, Boomi, NETGEAR, OpenX, YouAre.TV
Howard Morgan
About: Managing partner at First Round Capital. Prior to FRC, Morgan was a professor at Wharton, Cal-Tech and HBS. He was president of Renaissance Technologies Corp during the 80s, where he oversaw investments in tech companies. He was the director and founding investor of Idealab in the ’90s.
Firm: First Round Capital
Investments: Delicious, Mint, Pandora, Yummly
Rick Heitzmann
About: Founder and managing director at FirstMark Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that likes to invest in technology companies focused on ecommerce, media, and gaming industry. Prior to FirstMark Capital, Heitzmann was a partner at Pequot Ventures.
Firm: FirstMark Capital
Investments: Clickable, Pinterest, StubHub, Tapad
Frank Rimalovski
About: Managing director of NYU Innovation Venture Fund, a seed capital for technology startups coming out of NYU. He is also founded New Venture Partners and Seymour Entertainment.
Firm: NYU Innovation Venture Fund
Investments: Azure Solutions Ltd., Fondu, numberFire, ShopWell
Brad Harrison
About: Founder and managing partner of BHV, an early stage seed fund that likes to invest in media, entertainment and technology. Harrison’s prior experience includes holding positions at Point Capital Partners, WhenU.com, and AOL.
Firm: BHV
Investments: BlackBook Media, CirrusWorks, Fliptu, Tracks, twtMob
Scott Heiferman
About: Co-founder and CEO of Meetup, a network for local community groups. In the past, he also co-founded Fotolog and i-traffic.
Firm: Independent
Investments: 20×200, Betaworks, Kickstarter, Path101, Skillshare
Owen Davis
About: Managing director at NYC Seed, a firm that funds early stage tech startups in New York City. Previously, Davis was the CEO of Petal Computing, Sonata, and Thinking Media.
Firm: NYC Seed
Investments: Enterproid, Magnetic, Olapic, SeatGeek, Ticketfly, Tout
