Venture capitalists can be valuable sources of information about the tech community. Not only do they have quality insider information but they also have a knack for figuring out how to evaluate startups. So it makes sense that their blogs can be compelling reads.
Larry Cheng, a partner at Fidelity Ventures, has compiled a list of the 100 top VC blogs, according to the number of Google Reader subscribers for each one. Cheng admits that the rankings don’t necessarily equate to the best quality of content and that there is fine content coming from VC blogs with less subscribers. But the list is a good starting point. Cheng says he will be highlighting the best VC blog posts from this list on his blog every two weeks and will update the directory to add new VC blogs quarterly.
Here are the top 20 on the list, with their Google Reader subscriber numbers (you can see all 100 on Cheng’s blog):
1. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (17,555)
2. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (11,821)
3. David Hornik, August Capital, VentureBlog (7,060)
4. Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (6,434)
5. Marc Andreessen, TBD, Blog.pmarca.com (5,099)
6. Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (3,310)
7. Ed Sim, Dawntreader Ventures, Beyond VC (3,239)
8. Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (2,973)
9. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (2,257)
10. Jeff Nolan, SAP Ventures, Venture Chronicles (1,528)
11. David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, Who Has Time For This? (1,261)
12. Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures, Life With Alacrity (1,194)
13. Seth Levine, Foundry Group, VC Adventure (1,154)
14. Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, The Post Money Value (795) – Canada
15. Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners, Seeing Both Sides (727)
16. Mike Hirshland, Polaris Venture Partners, VC Mike’s Blog (726)
17. Tim Oren, Pacifica Fund, Due Diligence (661)
18. Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC, Software Only (656)
19. Mendelson/Feld, Foundry Group, Ask The VC (587)
20. Matt McCall, DFJ Portage Venture Partners, VC Confidential (432)
(Image courtesy PhotoxXpress).
Leena, The guy’s the name is Larry Cheng, not Larry Chang.
Thank you George! You are correct.
Venturebeat deemed irrelevant chiefly because it rarely, if ever, covers the VC community.
Odd, given its name.
But its sleepy layout and uninspired content makes want to order doughnuts and watch PBS all day long–it’s THAT unispiring.
MG Siegler knows this b/c he served as chief writer for that blog–and publicly stated that he was paid–not in cash–but in peach cobbler.
Arrington hired him away promising all the candy he could eat.
Top of the world MA!
ya larry chang
Around these parts…
The Boise & Rocky Mtn. Region really look to Highway 12 as a thought leader. They just started blogging recently with the help of Tac Anderson, but they are doing a great job.
http://highway12ventures.com/
-jen
Jen, I just found the Highway 12 blog after I posted the directory. Agreed, good content. They will be on the next update.
and it’s “PhotoXpress” not “PhotoxXpress”
What about top VC blogs in Israel?
Israel – there are a number of Israeli blogs on the directory. If you know of others, please leave a comment on the post and I will have them included in the next update.
mmm i look to be in position 99 with a lot more feedburner subscriber (i assum then in proportion google reader too) than others and with a red star meaning i have not posted in more than 3 months…which is not the case. i would like to have more explanations on his method.
Ouriel – I took the red star off your blog on the directory. Must have been my mistake – bound to make a mistake looking at 100+ blogs. Sorry about that. I just chose Google Reader stats because it was easiest for me to access. If you go to Google Reader and look at the feed and click on “details” it will show the number of subs.
Larry
can you tell me some tricks to increase traffic to my blog and my google readers
precision my Google reader indicates (in Feedburner) 709 readers and not 99
Ouriel, where do you see Feedburner subscribers? Maybe I will add that next time.
Funny to see how you come here to beg for ranking. Please get some track-record man!
Great list, hope the next rating will not just related to the number of Greader subscriber.
More you can find here : http://smashing...eeds.com/vc.php
What about the hand in the picture? In google reader the finger point ‘Techcrunch’
is that intentional? I also think Techcrunch is a good reading for vc & co
also there is a new blog worth noting…it seems to be for investors that allocate to private equity and VC.
http://www.venturepopulist.com
I think blogs like Fred W’s and others are so successful because he discusses the current relevant issues & then participates himself in the discussion around the topics.
I believe AVC is the best because of Fred’s honesty. I remember him once admitting that he was one of the VC’s who invested agressively, too agressively in the late 90’s. Personally, that’s why I go back nearly every day.
cheers to jeremy l.
The only VC blog worth reading is Fred Wilson’s. PERIOD!!!!
Agreed that Fred Wilson’s blog rules over the rest – for quality as well as the huge volume of super relevant posts. But one blog on the list that is often looked over is David Cowan’s – there are quite a few gems in there so I’d encourage people to take a look.
Since VCs are reading this I may as well state that this is where we are. Hardware is ready to go, and the front end software where the user signs up and pays is being fashioned from the comps. The back end is almost complete.
Thanks for letting me plug this.
http://picasawe...NProjectLANode#
This project is currently being carried on by 2 people actively and a 3rd which will host a similar set of equipment in NY.
Any VC capital is welcome, we have a luxurious business plan complete with plastic binder and complementary can of Budweiser.
Please magnify this picture if you are interested.
http://picasawe...725813088436994
If you don’t understand it, ask your IT guy. We will have 4 of these in 3 months and are currently planning a 3rd CDN node cluster in Florida with another partner.
These blow away Amazon S3.
Thanks VCs, you really mean a lot to us.
Chris, you post so often with updates of your progress, that someone has to tip you off…
You will not find partners or investors by posting your updates here and in this fashion. Write a proper plan, and/or build a prototype, for God’s sake. And then go through the right channels to pitch it.
The right channels suck. Are we supposed to pay $5000 to attend a “VC conference” where extremely snotty and nontechnical people sit around and critique your project presentation as if they have a clue?
Usually even the presenters are truly clueless.
Our plan is simply to amass the hardware, and software, which we largely have, then to brute force investment from those investors who know how much computing power we have.
So far we have 2 CDN nodes projected to open within 1-2 months where one node is represented by the picture linked above on Google Picasa.
I am currently negotiating a 3rd with a partner I have in Florida.
Basically, we have to invest our time in getting this CDN up, instead of jet setting off to meaningless presentations which TechCrunch is more exploitative of.
Then we have to work during the week. So a comment here or there is all that’s in the budget to attract investors. The investors won’t bring in revenue, only having the service up and running will.
Dude, just stop. Its embarassing. No one cares.
Why do you think investors will be impressed by you not wanting to approach them? Do you really think posting *comments* on *techcrunch* is notable? in any way?
If you can’t find time to network to find investors, when are you going to find time to network and find customers.
just so nobody calls bs on me, you create 6 x 2TB logical drives out of the 12TB and put them into one big 12TB drive using Red Hat Large Volume Manager or LVM. I took the above pics in a way that people could understand even though the Raid 6i is not possible under that capacity. The drives are in Raid 0 for maximum capacity. Until we get more money. But that may be soon.
Marc Andreessen doesn’t update his blog very often. His last post was in August of last year. Interesting guy, but I’m not sure I see the value of subscribing.
its pretty depressing for those outside the top 5, when #4 – Andressen – hasnt commented in 10 months. Nice to know a stale blog that hasnt been touched in nearly a year is beating the others
I’m currently subscribed to Guy Kawasaki, Fred Wilson & Brad Feld. I think Fred Wilson has the most valuable content.
Does the listing change if you base it off of the number of Twitter followers?
Gagasaki #1? Hmmm…
He’s a promoter, not a VC. He shouldn’t be on that list.
All of these bloggers are both venture capitalists & promoters, including Guy. Kawasaki is a brilliant VC. Garage Technology Ventures (Garage.com) is clearly a VC firm founded by Guy. If you’re not a promoter of your investment, you bring very little value to the venture.
hate to say it, but real VC’s dont have blogs.
less than 10% VC’s actually have the balls to invest in anything. the rest of the partners are just waiting for the carry while making sure they dont get fired. and yes, the latter have time to blog.
Would alexa rankings be an additional meaningful indicator?
- imoDOTcom -
I can recommend Nic Brisbourne’s “The Equity Kicker:
http://www.theequitykicker.com
…for a good European take on tech VC.
If Kawasaki is a VC blogger, then he shld blog more about VC issues, and less about turning Twitter into a junk channel and promoting alltop.
.
no democracy in VCs yet?
this is my comment deleted by Larry Chang:
many venture capitals’ websites have NO email address, while, those that have an email, NEVER answer to the email sent and NEVER take a look to the proposed site/project!
last year I’ve proposed via email to dozens VCs my idea of a New.Space company [ http://www.newspaceagency.com/ ] but NO ONE OF THEM has sent an answer to me!!!
I feel that all VCs like to invest ONLY in already existing and big websites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
.
Fred Wilson should be number one. He answers so many of the posts live, too.
Thank’s ! Great post, wonderfull info
Guy Kawasaki is the coolest one out of them all.
I hope in the future one of these guys will be email my friends and I for one of our sites.
Anyone else struck by the irony in this – an article about VC blogging, originally posted by a VC blogger, with the name of the VC misspelled! Humor aside, great post, Larry!
VC blogging is all about providing transparency to entrepreneurs and knocking down barriers. Three of the general partners here now do it and I’m hoping we get to five out of five shortly!
Lets get going but http://www.mybloglog.com/bu... Making money in a business of your own is not easyLets get going but http://www.mybloglog.com/bu... Making money in a business of your own is not easy
I combined and re-ranked this list with TechCrunch’s Top 100 Networked VC’s. Interesting results,- Social Media is a big factor it turns out, see here new list here: The Top 21 Socially and Deal Networked VC’s http://bit.ly/18XqFI
I am currently negotiating a 3rd with a partner I have in Florida.
I have never seen such links but still its shocking that passwords can be stolen so easily.. Use firefox and Kaspersky for better protection…
Interesting article. I have read some of the blogs from the VC’s that you have listed and I agree that it’s a good start!
We have some interesting VC’s on our website at http://www.fundingpost.com. Our events help entrepreneurs meet face to face with VC’s and also they can connect on-line. A great way to broaden your VC knowledge would be to read the above blogs!
Thanks for the post.
Heather Coull
http://www.fundingpost.com
Thanks!