The Midas List 2024

• Firm: Index Ventures
• Notable Deal: Wiz
• Location: San Francisco, California

While many VCs are former founders or operators, Shah took another route: He went from intern to general partner at Index Ventures in a little over a decade. There he specializes in cybersecurity deals—Coalition, Datadog and Wiz, with which he inked a seed deal on his birthday. Wiz eventually gave him a stunning gift: a $12 billion valuation. He calls himself an idealist, and says backing founders allows him to tackle lofty issues. “The most talented people in the world will always gravitate toward solving problems,” he says. (Photo Credit: Index Ventures)

• Firm: DFJ Growth
• Notable Deal: Coinbase
• Location: Napa, California

“AI reminds me so much of the ’90s, when we were building out the internet,” Schuler says. He should know: He was CEO and chairman of AOL when the web began to become mainstream. After that, he cofounded the DFJ Growth fund, where he led a $10 million investment in Tumblr in 2011 before it sold to Yahoo two years later for $1 billion, and led a 2014 investment in Coinbase (market cap: $51 billion). He’s most comfortable operating in and capitalizing on a big technological shift. But even though there are similarities to the fever-pitch hype of the dot-com era, it’s clear to him that the AI frenzy is something else. “It’s unlike anything we’ve seen in the past.” (Photo Credit: DFJ Growth)

• Firm: BAI Capital
• Notable Deal: Stori
• Location: Beijing

Growing up in China’s Sichuan province, Annabelle Yu Long was a world away from Silicon Valley. The founder of BAI Capital, the Asian venture arm of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, she found her way into investing after attending the Stanford business school and being around so many entrepreneurs on campus. “It was a natural path,” she said. After graduation, she became the first-ever Chinese national appointed to the school’s advisory council. Now BAI has 18 IPOs under its belt and has backed several popular Asian companies, including the video streaming app Bigo and grocery app DingDong Fresh. (Photo Credit: BAI Capital)

• Firm: Ribbit Capital
• Notable Deal: Coinbase
• Location: Menlo Park, California

In 1996, Venezuela-born Malka opened the first Wendy’s franchises in his home country. He learned how to flip burgers, clean toilets and even met with the fast-food chain’s iconic late founder, Dave Thomas. “Always talk to your customer really transparently,” four-time Midas Lister Malka recalls Thomas telling him. After founding fintech investing firm Ribbit Capital in 2012, he has since helped develop other powerful consumer brands, with blockbuster Series A deals in Coinbase and Robinhood. (Photo Credit: Ribbit Capital)