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Meet the 600 30 Under 30 who are moving minds, markets and a new generation.
In the past, youth was a handicap to professional success. Getting older meant more resources, more knowledge, more money. No more. Those who grew up in the tech age see things differently. Their ambitions are way bigger — and perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial and impatient digital world they grew up in. If you want to change the world, being under 30 is now an advantage.
This, our fourth annual celebration of 30 Under 30s, is bigger than ever: 20 categories showcasing 600 millennials – no repeats from years past and every single one hand-selected by a blue-ribbon panel of expert judges.
SEE THE FULL LIST: FORBES 30 Under 30 Class of 2015
Some are names you already know: Blake Lively, James Harden, Iggy Azalea and Michelle Phan. Others are superstars in their own realms, such as Emily Weiss, Sam Altman, Austin McChord, Nat Turner, and Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre.
Glossier founder Weiss, 29, went from Vogue assistant moonlighting as a beauty blogger to captaining a $10 million funded ecommerce site backed by the likes of Ken Lerer and Joshua Kushner (30U30 Class of 2012). Altman, 29, is the handpicked successor to Paul Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's premier accelerator. And then there's McChord, 29, founder of $100 million (sales) emergency back up and data protection service Datto, who refused a 9-figure acquisition offer for no other reason than "I loved my job and there was more ground for us to cover."
Flatiron Health's 28-year-old cofounder Turner is set on improving cancer outcomes with big data by compiling and analyzing individual doctor-patient interactions as one big cancer trial. To date he's raised $138 million, including $100 million from Google. Bayer and McIntyre, both 29, are the brains behind Ecovative, which uses mushroom-engineered materials for packaging that won't spend 10,000 years decomposing in a landfill - buh bye, Styrofoam.
How good are we at picking tomorrow’s superstars? Virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey, 22, this year's cover profile and a member of the Class of 2014, sold his company, Oculus VR, to Facebook in July for $2 billion. Evan Spiegel, 24, and Bobby Murphy, 26, cofounders of Snapchat and 2014's cover, raised $485 million last year and has a reported valuation of at least $10 billion -- and that's after turning down a said $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013. David Karp, the 28-year-old founder of Tumblr and the previous year's cover, sold his company in 2013 to Yahoo for $1.1 billion. And none have done better than Malala Yousafzi, 17, the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
SEE THE FULL LIST: FORBES 30 Under 30 Class of 2015
A walk through of the process: There are 20 categories of 30 people. Nominations poured in from social media (check out our #my30Under30 campaign) and others. Each category was assigned to seasoned FORBES reporters, who researched candidates and worked to vet the finalists with a panel of expert judges in the field, among them billionaires Sara Blakely and Steve Balmer, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, famed restaurateur Danny Meyer, Makerbot CEO Jenny Lawton, David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, and musician Taylor Hansen.
The Class of 2015 By The Numbers:
20: Categories
600: Winners
2,500+: Contenders
10,000+: Nominations
84%: College degrees
67%: Zero college debt
36%: Immigrants or first-generation
20%: Married
14: Average age they chose their dream job
12 p.m.: Average bedtime
No. 1 dream mentor: Elon Musk
No. 1 can't-live-without gadget: iPhone
Just 1 word for success: Persistence
SEE THE FULL LIST: FORBES 30 Under 30 Class of 2015
Editors: Caroline Howard, Kate Pierce
Product: Andrea Spiegel, Audrea Soong, Katheryn Thayer, Christian Wolan, Ariana Santana
Design: Nina Gould, Kai Hecker, Johnny McCampbell, Joe Pietruch, Uyen Cao, Emma Choi (online); Anton Klusener, Bob Mansfield, (magazine)
Video: Cara Costentino, Kirsten Taggert, Kelly Appleton, Chad McClymonds, Kieran Meadows, Brian Petchers, Tim Pierson, Will Sanderson, Taylor Soppe, Amanda Tallini. Interviewers: Caroline Howard, Ryan Mac, Michael Noer, Zack O’Malley Greenburg
Photo: Robyn Selman (director of photography); Joseph DeAceti (style director); Merrilee Barton, Michele Hadlow, Meredith Nicholson, Gail Toivanen (research). Photographers: Walter Smith and Jamel Toppin (photographers); Janet Baus (producer).
Copyeditors: Deborah Markson-Katz, Jim Cholakis, Richard Hyfler, Suzanne O'Neill, Craig Silver
Research: Julia Pierce, Molly Sinsheimer
Reporters: Alicia Adamczyk, Susan Adams, Dan Alexander, Steven Bertoni, Emily Canal, Erin Carlyle, Kathryn Dill, Jennifer Eum, David M. Ewalt, Daniel Fisher, Lauren Gensler, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Sarah Hedgecock, Christopher Helman, Matthew Herper, Caroline Howard, Emily Inverso, Alex Knapp, Alex Konrad, Vanna Lee, Maggie McGrath, Glynnis MacNicol, Ryan Mac, Alex Morrell, Joann Muller, Clare O'Connor, Chase Peterson-Withorn, Kate Pierce, Dorothy Pomerantz, Natalie Robehmed, Jennifer Rooney, Avik Roy, Sam Sharf, Prerna Sinha, Chris Smith, Michael Solomon, Aaron Tilley, Glenda Toma, Bruce Upbin, Nathan Vardi, Kate Vinton