I keep hearing about third tier and top tier VCs. Other than the Ycombinator rankings I have not seen anything else that ranks VCs. How will you put them in their places ;-) ?

I don't know of anything except

http://ycombinator.com/topvcs.html

In fact, that's why we had to make it; we wanted to know ourselves.

My own perception would be also to rank Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, and Benchmark as top 3, but to put KP half-a-step above the other two, and Sequoia marginally above Benchmark. Especiaually during the last bubble KP really had a reputation of a golden touch in SV, and their startups had an advantage when recruiting. I suspect that people PG surveyed formed their brand perception over longer time than I have.

I think the ycombinator ranking is focused on internet companies. What about the VCs that invest in (yes I know yuck) enterprise software?

I think they're basically the same firms.

The YCombinator list does not include Union Square Ventures whose portfolio includes:

Del.icio.us, FeedBurner, Wesabe, Outside.in, and Indeed

Just a thought.

thefunded.com is decent

thanks for the tip, useful.