Your first annual Newcomer Silicon Valley Superlatives are here. These individuals and institutions defined the startup industry for good and for bad this year.
Last week, I solicited nominations. I heard from general partners and fund managers, founders and startup executives. Many public relations professionals earned their keep and shilled for their clients.
But ultimately, these are my selections.
The venture capital firm most willing to pay high prices to stay in the zeitgeist.
The CEO that put their company on their back this year.
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ALI GHODSI, for willing Databricks into juggernaut status.
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Honorable mentions: MAY HABIB, for keeping Writer relevant in the face of overwhelming competition. CHRISTINA CACIOPPO, for creating her own TAM. PARKER CONRAD, for building a team of founders at Rippling. ALEX KARP, for proving the haters wrong. GUILLERMO RAUCH, for getting developers talking about Vercel.
The most successful startup doing their best to keep their heads down.
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SAFE SUPERINTELLIGENCE. Sure Ilya Sutskever got himself in a bit of drama last year, but if you compare the low profile of SSI to the braggadocio of Elon Musk’s xAI, the new foundation model kid on the block has kept things pretty low-key.
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Honorable mention: MIDJOURNEY, for eschewing venture capital and building an epic lifestyle business.
The nameless associate landing generational wealth for their general partners.
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ALYSAA CO of BAIN CAPITAL VENTURES, for helping the firm land investments in MagicSchool AI, Loyal, Hightouch, and Relay. She was recently promoted to principal.
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Honorable mention: WILL McCREADIE of GENERAL CATALYST, for his work in defense tech.
In a year where many in Silicon Valley flung themselves into politics, this person distinguished themselves.
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DAVID SACKS, for relentless, enthusiastic, and early support for Trump that earned him czar status.
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Honorable mentions: MARC ANDREESSEN, risked employee and founder blowback but has successfully ingratiated himself with the new regime. ELON MUSK, but does he need any more pats on the back, really?
The most promising early stage investor with their own fund.
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SARAH GUO of CONVICTION, for smart early stage investments in Harvey, Cartesia, HeyGen, Sierra, Cognition, and more that speak for themselves.
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Honorable mention: NAT FRIEDMAN and DANIEL GROSS, for cementing themselves as in-demand and respected AI investors. GILI RAANAN, for establishing himself as a controversial kingmaker in cyber security.
The best among the establishment venture capitalists.
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MAMOON HAMID of KLEINER PERKINS, his investments in Figma, Glean, Harvey, Rippling, and many others continue to mark him as one of the most important early stage investors of this era.
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Honorable mentions: SHARDUL SHAH of INDEX, with investments in Wiz and Datadog, he already has career-defining wins. DANIEL LEVINE of ACCEL, with investments in Scale and Vercel. VINOD KHOSLA, for being the earliest venture capital investor in OpenAI.
In an era of mega funds, you can’t neglect the inside game.
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BEJUL SOMAIA, for establishing himself as a force within Lightspeed.
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Honorable mention: MARTIN CASADO, for his fiefdom at Andreessen Horowitz.
Let’s reward those who shipped greatness.
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CURSOR, created by startup Anysphere, this AI coding assistant has been the buzziest early stage startup of the year.
The (actually) founder friendliest among us.
The kookiest startup idea that got investor attention this year.
This defined dealmaking in a year with heavy-handed regulators.
They let their startup get away with bad acts or incompetence.
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SYNAPSE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, INCLUDING ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ’S ANGELA STRANGE, for apparently allowing this banking as a service company’s leadership to lose track of customer money.
For the company most determined to slap “AI-powered” on every feature.
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