Queens native, Russell Simmons, co-founded the hip hop music label Def Jam Records in 1984 when he was 27. In the 30 years since then, he has expanded into the fashion industry (Phat Farms clothing), financial services, TV, and film.…
How many companies do you think of when you see a pink Cadillac? That’s right. Just one. The late entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash built her profitable business from the ground up and found success by following a principle of rewarding employees…
As one of the most recognizable success stories of the American Dream, we know the late Dave Thomas as the grandfatherly figure who wanted to share his food with us. For longer than a decade, he regularly appeared on our…
We’ve all heard the saying “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Do you know who said it first? The late Emanuel James Rohn called himself an Idaho farm boy who made it…
A confectioner and philanthropist, Milton Hershey is of course known for his startup: The Hershey Chocolate Company. His success came after two prior attempts to make it as a candy entrepreneur (caramels and a variety of other candies). By selling…
Drew Houston (pronounced like the NYC street, not the town in Texas) is the man we can thank for bringing us the cloud-based file-sharing service, Dropbox. This year his company brought in the funding that put it in the 10-figure…
Mark Suster is a two-time entrepreneur (the founder of Koral and BuildOnline) turned venture capitalist (focused primarily on early stage tech companies). He joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. His background…
Uber is the smartphone app that allows users to summon an Uber-registered vehicle to the curb nearest you. Travis Kalanick is the brilliant UCLA-grad who has kept his startup, Uber, rolling in dozens of cities despite lawsuits and cease-and-desist letters…
His self-described Twitter bio (@joshjames) says it all: “Josh James: Domo Founder Ominture CEO & Co-founder—inception to IPO. Sold for $1.8B. 6 daughters. ONE lovely wife. BYU.” As noted, James’ first great success was Omniture, the Adobe web analytics and…
As co-founder of the photo-sharing service, Instagram, it’s not surprising that Kevin Systrom’s background is littered with software engineering experience. Before being listed as one of Fortune’s “40-under-40”, he had already brushed arms with some of the most prominent internet…