Jim Breyer

FORBES first published the Midas List of the world’s smartest tech investors two and a half bubbles ago. Many of the people on that inaugural list of 2001 we once knew and loved are now either semi-retired (Bob Kagle, Dick Kramlich) or no longer playing the game at the level they once did (you know who you are). Gone also are the non-VCs we used to include to acknowledge the company-building contributions of power lawyers like Larry Sonsini and Jim Gaither, or tech bankers such as Michael Grimes, Brad Koenig (now a startup CEO) and Frank Quattrone. Midas became a pure VC list by 2006.