The Top Angel Investors: Behind the Rankings

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That list was eventually boiled down to some 40 names for final analysis. The list was then whittled down once again, this time to our 25 angels. YouNoodle sent every angel a list of their investments to review for accuracy. Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, Jeff Bezos, Mike Maples, Max Levchin, Bill Joy, Joe Kraus and Eric Schmidt didn't respond.

Full Disclosure: YouNoodle is a two-year-old intelligence firm, specializing in data on startups and venture capital. That makes them a startup. And yes, they have angel investors. Two of YouNoodle's investors are on our list: Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, both co-founders of online payment service PayPal.

To qualify for the list, YouNoodle considered three major factors: the success of investments made by angels, their current leadership within the angel community, and the diversity and reach of their portfolios. The factors were given different weights, with a heavy focus on financial performance. The weighting and score used to come up with the ranking was developed by Amy Heineike, YouNoodle's director of science and a former Cambridge University mathematician.

Financial Yardsticks

To gauge the financial performance, YouNoodle assessed the portfolio of the angels as determined by the annual growth of investments, companies operating at valuations greater than $100 million, and the sale of any companies for more than $50 million. They also took into account funds raised to date and the number of employees—important measures of progress for nascent companies. "You don't get follow-on funding unless you're achieving something," says Sumon Sadhu, lead analyst of YouNoodle.

Then YouNoodle considered the leadership factor. The angel investment community is like a small town—everyone knows all the people in town, and some have higher stature in the community than others. The importance of each angel was measured by looking at the network of co-investments between angels, as well as at the ability to act as a bridge to other angel groups. From the perspective of an entrepreneur, the ability to attract other investors is critical.

Finally, YouNoodle looked at the diversity of each angel's portfolio to evaluate the range of industries and the countries represented. And that brings us back to Chris Dixon, who along with Caterina Fake (No. 20) is a co-founder of Hunch, a recommendation tool that uses machine learning to harness its users' knowledge and offer customized answers to their questions. Dixon's big return was his early investment in Skype, which eBay bought for $2.6 billion in 2005. Although he's not in the top tier when it comes to influence, he does rank No. 1 in terms of having the most diverse portfolio. That's why YouNoodle ranks Dixon as the savviest angel investor in tech—at least for now.

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