The Facebook IPO Players Club: Jim Breyer

Who he is: When we profiled him back in 1997, Jim Breyer was simply a Managing General Partner at Accel Partners, who spent the “bulk of his working hours in meetings” but who “comes to the table only if the stakes are high and the action is guranteed.” Now he’s also president of Accel Management Company, and founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, and sits on various boards (including Booyah). He’s got a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and economics, which must certainly have played a part in his interest in Facebook. In October 2011 he was elected to News Corporation’s board, just in time to be in the middle of the phone hacking scandal, but that probably doesn’t detract from his nomination as Forbes‘ “smartest investor in technology” in 2010.

What’s his connection to Facebook?: In 2005 under Breyer’s pressure, Accel invested $12.7 million in the nascent Facebook enterprise, and Breyer was so seemingly smitten with the technological and financial promise that he invested one million dollars of his own money too, establishing an ownership share of about 1%. 

What’s he worth now: Estimated at $1.1 billion in late 2011

How much could the IPO make him: An assumed 1% stake at an $85 billion IPO would equate to $850 million.

What he may do with the money: Invest, invest, invest! But not necessarily where you may think: His economic smarts also bring caution, and recently Breyer said too much startup funding could be a bad thing, and the current frenzy “may end badly.”

UPDATE

How much could he make from IPO: A 1% stake at $100 billion of value equates to, yup, a round billion dollars…some of which he’ll realize immediately because Facebook’s revised S-1 form yesterday included him in the list of investors selling a proportion of their extant shares at IPO. Added to shares he’s selling on behalf of Accel partners, it means he and his firm may exit IPO with over $3 billion in cash, at a $35-a-share price.

What he may do with the money: Breyer was just placed top of Forbes‘ “Midas List” of top tech investors, so it would seem that he still plans on investing his money wisely. In fact he sees the current frighteningly-fast pace of change of the startup game and investing scene, in Silicon Valley and overseas, as being perfect for entrepreneurship. He also, hearteningly, believes in luck.

Read about others in the Facebook IPO Players Club:

• Chris Hughes
• Sean Parker
• Peter Thiel 
• Dustin Moskovitz
• Reid Hoffman
• David Choe
• Donald Graham
• Eduardo Saverin
• Li Ka-shing
• Jeff Rothschild
• Sheryl Sandberg

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.