The Seed 100: the Best Early-Stage Investors

• These seed investors are the best in the US, based on data analysis from Tribe Capital.
• Insider and Tribe also identified the Seed 25: the best female early-stage investors.
• Tribe Capital selected and ranked these lists with a statistical model based on 25 attributes.

Most venture capitalists at the seed stage don’t invest in companies. Rather, they invest in people, who may have little more than an idea and a business plan scrawled on a cocktail napkin.

Seed-stage investing carries the highest risk in all of venture capital, but those who excel can make huge returns on their relatively small investments, which attracts a growing number of people and firms to the industry.

And by analyzing data, we can see that only a few of them have the skills it takes to succeed year after year. Scroll down for the full Seed 100 list.

Also read: How seeking out the ‘weird and wonderful’ led to Eric Paley’s seed investment in Uber and hundreds of other startups

Kevin Mahaffey began building software when he was 8 years old. Now he’s the No. 3 seed investor.

How Ian Rountree bet $120,000 of his life savings on startups and became one of the nation’s top seed investors

How top VC Miriam Rivera turned bets on underrepresented founders into multibillion-dollar wins

Additional editing by Shakeema Edwards.