Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Ranking: Top 100 US VC Firms
A performance ranking of the top 100 US-based VC firms by Stanford GSB professor Ilya Strebulaev and Blake Jackson, built from more than 230,000 investments by nearly 13,000 venture capitalists over a 30-year window. Founders and LPs use it as a data-driven alternative to reputation lists such as the Forbes Midas List.
- Reliability
- Grade B · 8/12
- Ranks
- Venture firms, United States
- Editions
- 1 since 2026
- Method
- Data
- How items get in
- Compiled by the publisher
- Status
- New
Editions
| Edition | Published | Top of the list | On record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | June 22, 2026 | Sequoia | 33 of 100 |
How the ranking works
Each firm's score sums points from its investments using six factors: private valuations discounted for preferred-stock protections, dilution tracked through later rounds, net profit after investment cost, extra points for leading rounds and board seats (value add), a three-year half-life decay on value created, and credit split 25% to the firm where the deal was made and 75% to the firm where the partner now works. Every point traces to a specific investment on a specific date; there is no editorial judgment and no self-reported data.
The universe is US-based VC firms. Scores are integer-rounded; Sequoia scored 10,158 and rank 100 scored 245. The full methodology is in the Strebulaev and Jackson (2026) working paper.
Scores only: Indicator scores are published without a single overall rank. Firms cannot apply or pay; scores are computed from investment records. The top 100 is free (as images plus a login-gated Airtable); ranks 101 to 200 are for paid newsletter subscribers. Authors plan to add verified submissions from firms in future.
How far to trust it
Superscout grades every ranking on six criteria, each scored 0 to 2. Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Ranking: Top 100 US VC Firms scores 8 of 12, grade B.
- Transparency 2/2
- Six factors and weights described in a working paper.
- Independence 2/2
- Computed from records; no fees or applications.
- Evidence 2/2
- Investment-level data over 30 years.
- Stability 1/2
- Decay factor means ranks move each year by design; untested across editions.
- Coverage 1/2
- Top 100 public; wider list paywalled.
- Track record 0/2
- First edition 2026.
History
Released June 22, 2026 as the 'inaugural release' on Strebulaev's Substack, with a guest version on The VC Corner on August 22, 2026. Companion releases followed or were announced: a top 100 individual VC ranking, a top 100 emerging VC firms list, and industry cuts beginning with biotech (August 2026).
How it is received
The authors position it against the Forbes Midas List, which they call 'largely a black box' and whose own replication left 49 of its top 100 absent. Commenters on The VC Corner praised the research; one (Sergei Polevikov) objected to framing it as an alternative to Midas, arguing Midas is sponsor-backed and uses no performance metric. No independent academic critique was found yet.
Strengths
- Fully data-driven with a published working paper describing six factors.
- Measures value captured after dilution and cost, not deal volume or unicorn logos.
- No editorial adjustments and no firm self-submission.
- Time decay keeps the ranking focused on current performance.
Weaknesses
- The underlying dataset is not public, so scores cannot be independently reproduced.
- Private valuations are discounted uniformly, a simplifying assumption.
- Parts of the ranking (extended lists, detail) are for paid subscribers only.
- First edition only; stability across years is untested.
Open questions
Facts not verified yet. They stay visible so they are not mistaken for settled facts.
- Names for most ranks (9 to 18, 21, 22, 25, and most below 30) are only in images or the gated Airtable and were not transcribed.
- Rank 10 scored 3,011 but the firm is not named in text.
- Whether the ranking will be updated annually is not confirmed.
Superscout describes Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Ranking: Top 100 US VC Firms independently from the publisher’s own pages and outside coverage, linked below. The rankings belong to Ilya Strebulaev (Stanford GSB) newsletter.