Rising Stars is more diverse than ever. This year’s list includes 24 women and 16 men, nearly the opposite of last year’s, which was made up of 23 men and 17 women.
We should note that we have never set a quota in the six years that we have done the list. We received roughly the same number of nominations for both sexes, but women just happened to outnumber men when the editors were asked to choose those most deserving of recognition.
The average age of the people on this year’s list is 33, the same as a year ago. The youngest person is Denver Yu, an analyst for Generational Partners, who is 24.
It may be more diverse, but this year’s list is less international than the previous year’s. That can be attributed to our receiving fewer nominations from outside the US. Out of the 40 Rising Stars, 35 are based in the US, three in the UK, one in India and one in Israel. Our 2024 list included six countries outside of the US.
Within the US, we continue to see more Rising Stars outside of Silicon Valley. Fifteen are based in California (including 13 in the San Francisco Bay Area), with 10 in New York, five in Massachusetts, two in Texas and one each in Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma.
While we love to recognize limited partners, we didn’t receive any nominations for that category this year. Two LPs appeared on last year’s list.
Next-generation VCs make up the majority of the list, accounting for 25 slots, followed by platform/talent stars (eight), attorneys (three), corporate VCs (two) and founder VCs (two). Our 2024 list had 21 next-gen VCs, eight platform/talent stars, five CVCs, two founder VCs, two attorneys and two LPs.
You will find lots of familiar firm names on this year’s list, including Anthemis, Bessemer, General Catalyst, Iconiq, Insight, NEA and Sofinnova. That should come as no surprise given that large, established firms rightly make it a priority to develop and recognize their talent. You will also find some new firms you may not be familiar with, such as Soul Street Ventures of Houston, Cybernetix Ventures of Boston and Boyd Street Ventures of Norman, Oklahoma. Each of their Rising Stars has an interesting story to tell.
Some of this year’s Rising Stars have had circuitous career paths that seem a far cry from the world of private investments. Long before making her way to Forum Ventures, Naomi Goez was a sustainable fashion influencer, which led to a succession of production-related jobs at Centric Brands, a global apparel and accessories company. Shikhin Garg felt his interests didn’t match his research analyst position at an advisory firm focused on outsourcing and responded to a LinkedIn post by someone he had once organized a conference with for the role he now has as chief of staff at Inventus Capital Partners.
Congratulations to everyone who made this year’s list.
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