Every year the Forbes tech team releases a list of the top 100 investors who they declare are the most successful investors of the year and they make what is called the “Midas” list. Having read the reported methodology for how the members were chosen for this list (which is provided here), it is still somewhat unclear how the determination for the top 100 was made. For example, some of the criteria for the selection are difficult, if not impossible to quantify –like how much time each investor spends with the companies they invest in. No investor keeps a log on that. The statement which adds to the wonder of how the list was compiled is that the final ranking was made by an …”expert panel made up of secret sources”. Intriguing indeed. Women don’t usually fare well in these type of contests.
My Tech Letter readers have asked us to profile women who are investors. In response, we are beginning a series of stories about women angel investors and venture capitalists. There are women who head up venture funds, women who are super angel investors (more than 30 individual investments) and established groups of female angel investors. What we’ve noticed is that there are so many women who are investing, but they tend to do it seriously and without much attention or notoriety. The news is that they are moving huge amounts of wealth to early stage companies especially ones that are founded by women. Our first post is about the five women who made it to the Forbes Midas list for 2012. They are certainly powerful women and deserving of this honor in every way.
If you are a female investor or know of one, please send us their information to tina@jumpthru.net.
Mary Meeker
We profiled her in-depth in an earlier article. Click here to read all about her accomplishments. Some notable investments include Square, Groupon, Spotify and the two female co-founders of One Kings Lane.
Ruby Lu
A former VP of Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking Group of Goldman Sachs, Ruby is now a general partner at Doll Capital Management, where she is the lead investor in two behemoths in the Chinese market: BitAuto and DangDang (A Chinese Ecommerce Site known for being the Amazon.com of China), which has a female co-founder and chairwoman, Peggy Yu Yu.
Theresia Gouw Ranzetta
Known for investing in a great deal of female-founded companies, Theresia of Accel Partners has helped fund Modcloth, Joyus, Glam Media, and LearnVest, all of which are female founded and most seem to be aimed at targeting the female demographic. She is prominent in the media for being a champion for having more diversity in an industry that is primarily white male dominated.
Jenny Lee
As a managing partner at GGV Partners, Jenny Lee is responsible for China Investments. Coming from a technical background, she got her masters in Engineering and her Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Cornell after her home country agreed to pay for her education on the condition that she come back to work for her country. Thus, she spent her early career managing the development of fighter jet upgrade programs. Later she became an investment banker for Morgan Stanley.
Adele Olivia
Adele focuses on biotech and healthcare ventures in her work at Quaker Partners, where she invested in companies such as Ascent Healthcare Solutions and Prometheus Laboratories. Regarding her experience as being a mother and a professional woman in a hugely male environment, Adele says “I was the first female to have a child – it is like a big sign is on you and everyone thinks you’re going to just drop.” Watch a series of her Cornell interviews here.
