50 Millennial Founders (+ their startups) to watch in 2018
After attending Next Gen Summit (NGSummit.com), a Forbes-rated conference for entrepreneurs under 30, I had the honor of connecting with some of the brightest young minds worldwide, including college founders, dropouts, and recent grads working on the hottest startups in technology, health, education and more.
My brother Eric Fajardo and I came to the event with press and media credentials for LNB Tv, our LIVE weekly show where we feature notable guests and share a Leave Normal Behind perspective on trending topics around the world.
LNB Tv is the media arm of Leave Normal Behind — a community, content, and events hub for purpose driven people. The mission of LNB is to bring purpose driven people together and inspire them to become the best version of themselves by creating things that matter and encouraging others to do the same.
Our mission of LNB runs parallel with NGS.
Next Gen Summit is a global community and conference that connects the world’s most talented young people, and supports them with the resources needed to succeed.
Nelson Mandela sums this up perfectly, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Below are the profiles of 50 of the most promising young founders within the Next Gen Community, although this is not an exhaustive list, these 50 startup founders are talented, dedicated, and on the rise.
Be sure to keep these young guns on your radar in 2018!
(This list is in no particular order and rather an aggregate group of noteworthy millennial entrepreneurs).
1) Stacey Ferreira
Snapshot:
Age: 24
Co-founders: Talulah Riley, Scott Ferreira, Lloyd Jones
Education: New York University, dropout. Thiel Fellowship.
Company: Forge.
“Work Life Balanced”
To date:
Founded in 2015, Forge empowers companies to offer their workforce the same schedule flexibility that a ride-share driver experiences in order to stay competitive in the fight for great talent. With Forge, companies can hire qualified candidates, make hours available for pickup while also optimizing labor cost around sourcing, hiring and training.
Forge raised a $2.6M seed round from notable venture capitalists such as Social Capital, Sherpa Ventures, UP2398 and 1517 Fund to name a few.
To watch:
In late 2017, Forge will be launching multiple integrations with POS and Payroll vendors to help clients have more invaluable data regarding Labor Costs and COGS.
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2) Nick Mares
Snapshot:
Age: 21
Co-founders: Justin Mares
Education: Thiel Fellowship
Company: Kettle and Fire
“Getting bone broth and its many health benefits into as many people’s hands as possible. “
To date:
Kettle and Fire launched end of 2015, and within two years will be in over 1,700 stores with their bone broth. They’re able to count Whole Foods, Wegmans, Sprouts, Krogers, HEB, and many others as valuable customers who sell their products in stores.In addition to their large retail business, Kettle and Fire has a thriving online business and is on pace to have their first 8 figure year.
To watch:
Kettle and Fire is focused on expanding their current product line, and by end of 2017 will have 4–5 product lines, and over 15 products total. Considering early 2017 they only had a single product, they are quickly developing more products to service their thousands of customers.
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3) Laura Vaughan
Snapshot:
Age: 21
Co-founders: Steven ten Holder
Education: University of Waterloo, dropout. Thiel Fellowship.
Company: Acorn Biolabs
“We provide genetic analysis to help you take control of your health today, and preserve your cells at their current age. This allows you to fully take advantage of the next wave of cell-based therapeutics and treatments in regenerative medicine.”
To date:
In development since 2015, Acorn Biolabs aims to preserve people’s young cells for future medical treatments and improve their healthspans. Having participated in the YC Fellowship program as well as Creative Destruction Lab, the company successfully raised seed capital to develop our first product. Acorn’s new CEO, Dr. Drew Taylor, is a VC investor and Lead Medical Researcher for Epic Capital Management’s series of healthcare funds.
To watch:
Acorn Biolabs is moving into JLABS in Toronto in the fall, currently raising its angel round and is expected to launch in the beginning of 2018.
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4) Ryan G Smith
Snapshot:
Age: 26
Co-founders: Zachary Silverman
Education: Colgate University, graduate.
Company: LeafLink.
“Connecting retailers with the brands they love.”
To date:
Born in 2016, LeafLink is a wholesale b2b platform for legal cannabis companies. LeafLink connects retailers with the brands they love, allowing them to purchase inventory from multiple brands, all in one cart. LeafLink has raised over $4m in capital and is currently live in CO, WA, OR, NV, and CA with 1,300+ retailers and 250 leading brands.
To watch:
LeafLink will expand to new states, setting the standard for the country’s fastest growing industry, as momentum continues to build around state-level legalization of cannabis.
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5) Rachel Zietz
Snapshot:
Age: 17
Education: Pine Crest High School, Senior
Company: Gladiator Lacrosse.
“High quality, affordable lacrosse practice equipment to take your game to the next level.”
To date:
Rachel is the founder of Gladiator Lacrosse, a high-quality sports training equipment line with an affordable price point. At 17 years old, as a straight-A high school student, athlete, CEO, and dedicated family member, Rachel has maintained a profitable company without ever compromising the brand’s fundamental intent or consumer promise. In January 2016, Rachel was recognized by Governor Rick Scott in his State of the State Address for her business success, which recognized some of Florida’s top business leaders and their contribution to the State. She was also honored by Florida Governor Rick Scott and awarded the Governor’s Young Entrepreneur Award for her business success. Rachel has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fortune, Forbes, Inc., and TIME Magazine, being named one of the 30 most influential teens of 2016. Rachel also appeared on Season 7 of ABC’s hit television show Shark Tank.
To watch:
Gladiator Lacrosse is going to continue to expand the product line-up to include 3 more game changing products. They are currently being finalized. Stay tuned for their release!
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6) Jeremy Cai
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Co-founders: Keith Ryu
Education: Thiel Fellowship.
Company: OnboardIQ
“Bring intelligence to your workforce hiring”
To date:
OnboardIQ is a leading mid-market and enterprise hiring automation platform for large-scale, hourly workforce screening. Companies use the platform to empower their HR and operations teams to automate tedious manual tasks and make data-driven hiring decisions at scale.
The 3-year old Y Combinator graduate has raised $11MM in capital and have customers in 46 countries and 700+ cities who have used the platform to process over 3,500,000 applications.
To watch:
In order to expand its product offering and to broaden its customer reach, OnboardIQ is using the funding to grow the San Francisco team with Ruby-on-Rails engineers, an experienced sales team, and its first dedicated marketing person.
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7) Tatiana Birgisson
Snapshot:
Age: 27
Education: Duke University, graduate.
Company: MATI Energy
“Healthy energy”
To date:
MATI is the first truly healthy, long lasting energy drink-it’s a simple yet powerful combination of juices and team and packs the same caffeine punch as a Red Bull or 12oz coffee. Launched out of Birgisson’s Duke dorm room in 2012 and was bootstrapped until winning best startup in North America at Google Demo Day which sent the company sky-rocketing with impressive triple-digit growth year-over-year.
To watch:
Mati closed on $5M in financing in Summer 2017 to support exciting retailer and geographic expansions in 2H2017 and 2018.
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8) Phat Le
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Education: Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Thiel Fellowship.
Company: Sleeker
“Helping Auto Shops and Drivers Communicate Efficiently”
To date:
Sleeker helps every conversation between auto shops and drivers find its way to the right person so that vehicles are fixed faster and with fewer headaches. Businesses earn more revenue and drivers can easily schedule and pay for vehicle maintenance on their own terms. Sleeker’s founder, Phat, personally felt the pain points of both parties while spending the past three years launching apps for automotive businesses. He was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Jaguar Land Rover and maintains a close relationship with them since they are one of Sleeker’s largest investors.
To watch:
Today, Sleeker is helping businesses communicate with drivers. In the world of tomorrow, they plan to help them communicate directly with vehicles.
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9) Georges Clement
Snapshot:
Age: 27
Co-founders: Ashley Treni, Dan Kass
Education: University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduate.
Company: JustFix.nyc.
“Technology for Housing Justice”
To date:
Launched in 2015, JustFix.nyc supports renters facing landlord harassment and neglected housing conditions with technology to build well-documented legal cases and connect with community and legal advocates. Founded by three Robin Hood Foundation Fellows, incubated by Blue Ridge Labs and Fast Forward, Grand Prize Winner of NYC BigApps 2015. Featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, ABC News.
To watch:
JustFix.nyc has planned expansion to two new cities in 2018.
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10) Robert Harary
Snapshot:
Age: 20
Co-founders: Daita Goswamy
Education: George Washington University: Elliott School of International Affairs
Company: OneH.
“Connecting companies with investors from around the world based on what they have in common. “
To date:
Launching in 2017, OneH connects innovative technology companies with investors from around the world based on what they have in common. Before starting OneH, Robert was a marketing director at a publicly traded technology company before becoming one of the youngest angel group managers in the country through the firm he founded in his senior year of high school, GlassHorse Ventures. He sits on the advisory board of Silicon Valley companies alongside Guy Kawasaki and Leonardo DiCaprio. Daita is a serial entrepreneur. While attending New York University — where she majored in
The Political Economics of Disruptive Innovation — she founded Suppr, a mobile application that allows users to find new friends and restaurants in their city. With hundreds of companies applying to raise capital, OneH is gearing up for their launch.
To watch:
With hundreds of companies applying to raise capital, OneH is launching Briefs in September. Briefs are short, public snapshots of your business shareable with investors, friends, family and new partners that outline your market, business model, team and traction are as as easily updatable as a Facebook status. They’re currently raising their seed round to help fuel their growth and connect even more companies with the capital they need to build their vision to life. If you’re a startup looking to raise capital, meet new partners, or just get the word out about your business, create a Brief at OneH.com
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11) Matt Gira
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Co-founders: Danny Vessells, John Boss
Education: Hope College, graduate.
Company: Fathom.
“The future of underwater exploration through an affordable, easy to use, underwater drone.”
To date:
Fathom is making underwater exploration accessible to the masses through their first product, the Fathom One, an affordable, easy to use, underwater drone. The Fathom One was launched on Kickstarter last fall, resulting in over $170,000 in pre-orders and most recently, Fathom is part of the latest class for TechStars Mobility.
To watch:
Fathom will be shipping their first units before the end of 2017 and will be at the TechStars Mobility Demo Day on October 18th in Detroit, Michigan.
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12) Anthony Zhang
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Education: Thiel Fellowship.
Company: JoyRun.
‘JoyRun is a peer-to-peer platform that makes group deliveries within a community social, affordable and rewarding.’
To date:
Anthony joined JoyRun in December 2016 through the acquisition of his college food delivery platform, EnvoyNow. JoyRun announced a $8.6MM Series A round a couple months ago, and is rapidly is expanding to all universities in the US.
To watch:
Anthony is also a founding contributor at Advo, a millennial publication serving well-researched, unpretentious advice on etiquette and culture and is excited to unveil a new project very soon.
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13) Cory Levy
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Co-founders: Michael Callahan
Education: University of Illinois, dropout.
Company: After School.
‘Replacing Facebook for teens’
To date:
After School launched in 2015, and presently has millions of teens as users on the app. Cory and the team recently raised a $16.4M Series A.
To watch:
The After School app will be expanding to new major markets, even hinting at a possible collegiate version of the application.
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14) Jonathan Maxim
Snapshot:
Age: 29
Co-founders: Dhakshina Kasthuri
Education: SDSU, Bachelors & MBA.
Company: Vea Fitness
“Rewarding Fitness”
To date:
Vea Fitness, launched in September 2016 with $100K pre-seed funding, has helped Americans run, bike and walk over 27K miles and burn over 2.8M calories. In tandem with amazing partner brands New Balance, CORE Hydration, Thrive Market, Snap Kitchen and 25+ more healthy brands — Vea helps motivate people to workout through monthlong group fitness challenges where users can win $1,000+ in rewards just for working out, as well earn individual rewards like product discounts and free workout gear. With an average session time of 9:03 — double the industry index and 81% of challenge participants working out 7+ days in a row, it’s clear that by creating a fun, rewarding and social fitness experience has the power to transform lives and deeply engage communities.
To watch:
Vea Fitness is on track to close its 1.2M Seed round by EOY, and hit 15,000 users — and rolled out nationally with a big brand partner (non disclosed at this time), as well as seal it’s celebrity endorsement deal to reach a broader network of fitness influencers, and magnify its effect as a platform for engaging end users.
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15) Regina Vatterott
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Co-founders: Abe Matamoros
Education: Dropout
Company: EllieGrid
“The Pill Box with Brains & Beauty”
To date:
Launched in 2015, EllieGrid is an IoT solution for medication management, projecting 980K units sold in four years ($100M revenue). EllieGrid is a profitable B2C product, that has run a successful crowdfunding campaign ($200k), and won 15+ awards around the country, including IBM Health Hackathon, and Health 2.0 in San Francisco. The team brought a hardware company to market with less than $100k.
To watch:
EllieGrid is currently raising their growth seed, hiring developers, and shipping in 2017.
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16) Kai Kloepfer
Snapshot:
Age: 20
Education:MIT, sophomore.
Company: Biofire Technologies
“Building smarter guns with biometrics”
To date:
Biofire is building the future of firearms, incorporating smart technology into guns to greatly increase safety by recognizing the owner before firing. The startup has been covered in the WSJ, NYT, CBS Evening News and a viral video with over 30M views and continues to push to market. Currently raising a seed round lead by Ron Conway.
To watch:
Biofire will launch its first consumer Smart Gun soon.
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17) Blake Marggraff
Snapshot:
Age: 24
Co-founders: Evan Huang, Avik Som, Joe McDonald
Education: Washington University in St. Louis, graduate.
Company: Epharmix
“Evidence-based digital health”
To date:
The Epharmix team’s mission is simple: be the standard of care in digital health. With twenty-three disease-specific tools and seven peer-reviewed journal publications since the company’s inception in 2015, Epharmix helps dozens of commercial and academic healthcare providers increase patient engagement and leverage outpatient care management to succeed in innovative at-risk contracts with payers and employers. Investors include XPRIZE founder Dr. Peter Diamandis, Nobel laureate Dr. Walter Gilbert, and HealthX Ventures.
To watch:
Epharmix is leveraging rare data to help move the healthcare industry from reactive to preventative, and the team is aggressively hiring this year.
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18) Anne Kavanagh
Snapshot:
Age: 29
Co-founders: Sean McKenzie and UJ Rosas
Company: Zera (hellozera.com)
“It’s more than just listings, it’s living.”
To date:
Launched in beta in 2016, Zera has spent the last 12 months working on technology and molding product to adapt to the markets current needs. For the last 4 months they’ve been a fellow at 1776 on the Brooklyn navy yard campus and have been quietly working on some international and non for profit partnerships that will allow us to scale quickly over the 12 months to come. Zera is self funded and will be cash flow positive in the first 3 months of going live. Other recent “wins” include: top 12 in ebay startup challenge and top 100 startups by tech.co. Zera currently has over 58,000 properties available to search on the app. They are one of the first ai based real estate products to market that are focused on search and optimized living.
To watch:
Anne and her team will be expanding Zera as AI’s impact on real estate continues to grow.
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19) Cade Netscher
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Co-founders: Noah Pritt
Education: Duke University, graduate.
Company: Neurun
“Neurun is an app that will help you find, sign up, and mentally prepare for your next race. “
To date:
Neurun is revolutionizing the way runners train their brain for a race. Within the last year, the company has been selected as one of the top 50 most innovative sport companies in the world for 2017 by the Hype Foundation, received over $400K in angel round funding, and is on track to close out over $1MM in contracts with major race series across the world.
To watch:
They plan to be at multiple races in every major US city by the end of 2018 and are anticipating their user base to grow by the thousands.
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20) Joshua Miller
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Education: Duke University, senior.
Company: FarmShots
“Growing with you”
To date:
FarmShots builds products that solve key problems in agriculture using satellite imagery. With customers in 30+ countries, FarmShots serves ranchers, farmers, and insurance agencies world wide.
To watch:
FarmShots is expanding from its current line of 3 products to a set of ten in different verticals within agriculture.
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21) Jihad Kawas
Snapshot:
Age: 20
Co-founders: Dani Arnaout
Education: Thiel Fellowship.
Company: Abstract Layer.
“Helping mobile app developers finish twice the work in half the time.”
To date:
Abstract Layer is building a revolutionary suite of software development tools to reduce app development time through automation. A task that requires a mobile developer 3 hours, can now be done in under a minute with Abstract Layer’s technology. The first product of Abstract Layer is currently in Beta, and will be publicly available in September 2017.
To watch:
Abstract Layer’s goal is to automate the process of native app development, enabling engineers to focus on more important problems instead of losing time on redundant tasks. They are now looking to hire brilliant engineers to help develop our suite of products, and expand our technology to more mobile developers around the world.
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22) Mackenzie Casey
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Education: Monash University, graduate.
Company: HUMM.
“It pays to be on trend.”
To date:
HUMM is the ‘AirBnb of Fashion’, allowing women to monetize their wardrobe by renting their designer clothing to other women. The iOS app boasts a fully-integrated platform, consisting of in-app messenger, ship and meet up options, payment protection and insurance coverage. The vastly popular app features celebrities’ closets where all proceeds are donated to the company’s foundation. The HUMM Foundation issues financial grants to striving female entrepreneurs.The board of advisors includes THINX Co-Founder, Antonia Dunbar and GlamSquad Founder, Jason Perri.
To watch:
HUMM is launching in the U.S. end of 2017 and Europe mid-2018. The startup has been accepted into Google’s invite-only Advantages Program and plans to release an Android version in November. They will be participating in a Series A in the coming months.
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23) Lani Lazzari
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Education: Thiel Fellowship.
Company: Simple Sugars
“All-natural skincare especially for sensitive skin”
To date:
Simple Sugars is an all-natural skincare line especially for sensitive skin. Featured on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank in 2013, Simple Sugars skyrocketed to success literally overnight and instantly became one of the most successful products ever featured on the show, in addition to receiving an investment from billionaire Mark Cuban. Simple Sugars had been profitable since that day and has sold over $9MM worth of products to date.
To watch:
Simple Sugars is going to continue revolutionizing skincare for sensitive skin with some exciting new products coming in 2018.
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24) Max Schoenfeld
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Co-founders: Jacob Goodman
Education: Alum, Washington University in St. Louis
Company: College Truckers
“Empowering student entrepreneurs across the country to start, run, and sell their first company”
To date:
College Truckers is a bootstrapped, full-service storage & shipping company for college students, started in late 2014. They’ve maintained 100% year-over-year organic growth, and have been profitable since 2015. Their proprietary model empowers and funds freshman and sophomore student entrepreneurs on campuses nationwide (called Campus Co-Founders) to start a branch on their campus, earn sweat equity in that branch, and then sell that equity to a new generation of students upon their graduation. College Truckers Campus Co-Founders make between $5,000 and $15,000 per year for their work, and are entrusted with running the day-to-day marketing and operations on their campus. Their first class of Campus Co-Founders graduated this past May, successfully selling their equity to the next generation and heading off to jobs in investment banking, consulting, and the startup world. Co-Founders Max and Jacob were classmates at WashU, where they ran a similar company serving the WashU community before selling it for a 7-figure valuation upon their graduation in 2014.
To watch:
College Truckers is expecting to continue its rapid organic growth, aiming to have a presence on 75 campuses nationwide by mid-2018. It is also planning to launch a new international vertical, aimed at capitalizing on the growing Chinese market and making the transition easier for students who will be studying at American universities.
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25) Tiffany Zhong
Snapshot:
Age: 20
Education: UC Berkeley Dropout
Company: Zebra Intelligence
“Helping companies get custom, authentic video-based feedback from real high school and college students”
To date:
Tiffany has spent the last 4 years of her life building her brand and experiences around becoming the “go-to teen” for many investors and founders. She recently dropped out of UC Berkeley after finishing freshman year to double down on Zebra Intelligence. She is already working with many household name consumer brands.
To watch:
Tiffany will be hiring a remote operations manager and college user research fellows to support company efforts to engage with the youngest generation.
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26) Monty Hasan
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Co-founders: Anthony Zhang, Mckenna Weinstein
Education: University of Southern California, senior.
Company: Topiku
“Handcrafted hats made from 100% upcycled + recycled Indonesian waste”
To date:
Topiku means “my hat” in Indonesian. They’re creating the foundation for sustainable community growth in developing areas in Indonesia through a wholesome process of transforming trash into hats and ethical employment. By upcycling + recycling waste materials, they prevent them from ending up in landfills as well as incentivize manufacturers to hold onto their waste. Profits can then be reinvested into waste management education, clean up programs, as well as sponsorship for health insurance. Coming off a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, they’ve built a strong village-to-village supply chain network that will allow us to scale up in the coming months.
To watch:
2017 is an exciting year as the team is expanding to multiple collaborations with other brands seeking sustainable hat manufacturing. Furthermore, with supply chain bottlenecks (inherent when working with trash) solved this past year, they can now ramp up production and begin accepting more wholesale requests. Most exciting, however, is getting ready to enter the Indonesian market with speaking gigs at events such as Jakarta Fashion Week.
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27) Nicole Birkner
Snapshot:
Age: 17
Education: Stanford University, freshman.
Company: Fresquiticos
“100% natural and healthy sodas, made with tropical fruit flavors and Agave Nectar”
To date:
Fresquiticos Naturart was born in 2015 when Nicole Birkner, then 15, decided to create a healthy carbonated drink so that her parents would allow her to drink sodas during weekdays. After creating the product, she participated in the Diamond Challenge, where she competed against 300+ companies around the world and won second place ($6500 in seed funding). In the past year, Nicole has been able to successfully place Fresquiticos in the best local gourmet, artisan and craft retail sales outlets in Costa Rica. Fresquiticos has a socially-conscious foundation, which includes sourcing fruit from small producers in Costa Rica and contributing to the Costa Rican educational system. Nicole Birkner has been invited to participate as speaker in several events, with the purpose of encouraging young entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life, such as the national TEDx Pura Vida.
To watch:
Nicole is ready to launch Fresquiticos in three major supermarket chains in Costa Rica, which will catapult sales by an estimated 300–400% and allow our product to obtain national exposure. Looking a bit further into the future, they have been contacted by potential investors and distributing companies interested in the expansion of Fresquiticos all the way from Colombia, on to Central America, Mexico, United States and beyond.
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28) Sadaf Ayaz
Snapshot:
Age: 18
Education: Hunter College, junior.
Company: REV 21 Media
“Inform. Inspire. Empower”
To date:
REV 21 Media is a media empire that creates content for the aware youth who want to be heard and who want to listen. They want to create conversations to try to erase the divide between people from different backgrounds and experiences around the US and the world. REV 21 officially launched in February with a team of 100 young volunteer students from high school and college around the US who fill writing, administrative, and production roles. Since the launch, they have been able to slowly grow our audience to almost 75,000+ unique readers per month between the ages of 15–35 years old with a relatively equal audience of males and females — these statistics are completely organic and were attained without investing money in advertisement.
To watch:
REV 21 Media is currently working on video production projects and will be starting its monthly digital magazine this Fall. As a platform that wants to create physical change along with conversations, they are going to be launching our non-profit organization this August with the start of our Book Giveaway to Impoverished Areas in NY. Over the next few months, they are looking to strengthen our demographic of content creators in order to create a more diverse group of content creators to start new conversations.
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29) Harrison Forman
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Education: University of Michigan, graduate.
Company: Brunch Media
“Never Consumed Alone”
To date:
Launched in 2016, Brunch Media is a new digital media company based out of San Francisco, CA. Their approach is to highlight relatable struggles in your 20’s through podcasts, video, and shows for a diverse Millennial audience.
Instead of covering what we eat at our favorite meal of the week, Brunch Media covers the discussions over brunch — failed Tinder dates, Bali trips, job-hopping and daily existential questions like “what am I doing with my life.”
It’s been featured in Elite Daily, INSIDER, Movie Time Guru, Date/Able, and more. Built a loyal audience of 15K and general reach over 100K. First publisher to incorporate Facebook Live in a mini-series centered around dating called UpDating — taking viewers into an actual first date setup via a dating app.
The Founder is a Facebook alum, published writer, and former local TV host.
To watch:
Brunch Media will be be launching first slate of both scripted & unscripted series this summer.
Brunch Media is currently raising a seed round of funding to accelerate growth through new production and hiring.
Brunch Media has ambitious revenue targets over the next six months through branded & licensed content.
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30) Vincent Ning
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Education: University of Virginia, graduate.
Company: Scaphold.io
“GraphQL backend as a service”
To date:
Launched in May 2016, Scaphold offers the best GraphQL backend as a service platform to help developers build production apps rapidly. Scaphold gives the power of Facebook’s API technology called GraphQL that’s used to run their mobile, web, and VR apps, to the rest of the world. So far, National Geographic, Visa, and NBC Universal have already used their service to run several of their apps scalably. The Y Combinator Winter 2017 company has raised $1.5 million to continue expanding its reach to more large enterprises who need help with API management and data consolidation.
To watch:
With Scaphold’s recent round of funding, they are looking to expand their team and offer more solutions for large companies who run cloud services in both public and private cloud environments.
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31) Laila Alawa
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Co-founders: Mashal Waqar
Education: Wellesley College, graduate. University of Cambridge, Certificate of Leadership & Social Entrepreneurship.
Company: The Tempest
“Changing the narrative of diverse millennial women in the world.”
To date:
Launched in 2016, The Tempest marks the advent of the next wave of media, creating a global media empire by and for diverse millennial women. The two-year old startup has more than 1,200 contributors in twenty countries and has developed out revenue streams, and counts among its clients THINX, Unity Productions Foundation, and Lunapads. The Tempest’s CEO Laila Alawa previously served at the White House and Congress.
To watch:
Following explosive growth internationally, The Tempest launched in its first international country: the United Arab Emirates. The Tempest is opening its UAE office with a native team. The Tempest will be entering a Series A round in Spring 2018.
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32) Shelby Gogulski
Snapshot:
Age: 18
Co-founders: Gordon Gogulski
Education: Senior in High School-Homeschool
Company: Yourself Expression-My Bella Jewels
“Create Wear Change”
To date:
Yourself Expression — My Bella Jewels was launched in 2014 as a fun hobby. Since its inception, the company has been featured on The View in 2015, Shark Tank in 2016 and launched on Carnival Cruise Lines in 2017.
To watch:
Shelby and her team are working to expand to more cruise ships in 2017, further bringing her custom designs into the souvenir industry.
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33) Isabella Liu
Snapshot:
Age: 17
Education: Redwood High School, senior.
Company: Elix Incubator
“The first social impact incubator for teen entrepreneurs.”
To date:
Revolutionizing how teens do business, Elix Incubator is the first platform for teens to build scalable, financially sustainable social enterprise solutions. An internationally recognized program with an investment fund projected to hit $100K by the end of 2017, Elix’s impressive portfolio includes 20+ companies in the IoT space, 3D printing, refugee relief, alternative energy, and health equity. With Elix incubatees hailing from Costa Rica to Thailand, Elix’s global reach is truly pioneering teen innovation.
To watch:
Elix Incubator will grow their investment fund to $5M by launching Elix Capital and expand their influence through Elix Connect (a conference network and mentorship program). These companies will be subsidiaries of The Elix Group.
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34) Megan Grassell
Snapshot:
Age: 21
Education: Thiel fellowship.
Company: Yellowberry
“We’re the brand girls want to grow up with. Let’s start with her first bra!”
To date:
Yellowberry launched in 2014 to create colorful, fun and age-appropriate bras specifically for 8–14 year-old girls. Sold primarily through their ecommerce site, Yellowberry has been featured in a partnership with Aerie, Nordstrom stores and Aeon stores in Japan. Today Yellowberry makes bras, underwear, loungewear and activewear with an extra boost of confidence exclusively for girls.
To watch:
Yellowberry will introduce new product categories in 2017 as well as continue to expand globally. Girls everywhere deserve a brand that celebrates and supports them be themselves, girls deserve Yellowberry!
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35) Rebecca Liebman
Snapshot:
Age: 24
Co-founders: Michael Liebman
Education: Clark University, graduate.
Company: LearnLux
“Bettering the way people make financial decisions.”
To date:
LearnLux reinvents how people in their 20’s and 30’s make
their first big financial decisions and connects them to the resources
they need to take action. They have built a community of the most valuable customer segment in financial services and are working with top financial institutions to change the industry. LearnLux’s CEO Rebecca Liebman was in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016.
To watch:
Rebecca and her team are doubling down in 2017 to truly disrupt an industry that wasn’t made to benefit most people.
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36) Benjamin Stern
Snapshot:
Age: 18
Education: Viera High School, graduate.
Company: Nohbo
“Changing the World, One Ball at a Time”
To date:
Nohbo, featured on ABC’s Shark Tank, secured an investment from billionaire investor Mark Cuban. Following it’s successful appearance, Nohbo launched an Indiegogo campaign, which was fully funded within 3 days, and sold over 200% of its original goal. Nohbo’s steady growth within the hotel market will make it a viable and commercialized solution to solving excess plastic personal care bottle waste in the years to come.
To watch:
Nohbo Drops, an evolution upon the Nohbo Balls, will be released in Fall of 2017. We are targeting subscription box companies first, and following that, will approach the individual consumer base.
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37) Ann Makosinski
Snapshot:
Age: 19
Education: University of British Columbia, junior.
Company: Makotronics Enterprises
“Alternative Energy Harvesting”
To date:
Makotronics Enterprises was launched in 2016 when Ann turned 19 (the legal age to incorporate in BC), The patent was issued for Ann’s heat powered flashlight on August 1 2017, and Makotronics is currently talking to potential investors. Ann continues to grow her brand by giving global keynotes and appearances. She is one of TIMES and Forbes 30 Under 30, and has appeared twice on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and survived encephalitis.
To watch:
Ann is releasing an exciting announcement in September, 2017 regarding her brand. She is also pursuing a book and media deal.
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38) William Zhou
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Co-founders: Ryan McKay-Fleming, Suraj Srinivas
Education: University of Waterloo, graduate.
Company: Chalk
“Data-Driven Education Is Finally Here”
To date:
Chalk helps schools to achieve data driven decision making in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. To date, Chalk has grown to support 400+ schools like Menlo Park City School District, Susquehanna Township School District, and KIPP schools.
To watch:
Chalk is expected to triple the number customers from 2016 and double its head count.
39) Lisa Wang
Snapshot:
Age: 28
Co-founders: Yin Lin
Education: Yale University, graduate.
Company: SheWorx
“The global platform empowering female entrepreneurs to build and scale successful companies. “
To date:
SheWorx is driving the movement for gender parity in funding and is the leading event series for high growth female entrepreneurs. SheWorx has launched in 7 global cities, reached 25,000 female entrepreneurs, and curated over 100 roundtables and summits providing women with actionable business strategies and access to top mentors and investors. 87% of investors who attend the leading SheWorx100 Summit Series meet female entrepreneurs they see potential to invest in. In 2017, the SheWorx100 Summit Series brought together 600 female founders and 100 top VCs to close the funding gap.
To watch:
SheWorx is expanding to 25 additional cities and raising a fund to invest in the female entrepreneurs in the SheWorx community.
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40) Hanson Grant
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Education: Babson College, graduate.
Company: Think Board
“We create dry erase films that turn any surface into a whiteboard — just peel and stick!”
To date:
After launching a Kickstarter out of the dorm room in 2014, Think Board took off. With national recognition from The TODAY Show, Home Shopping Network, NBC, and many others, it’s no question why Think Board was named the Top Collegiate Consumer Brand in the US (2016) and why their founder was named one of the top 25 student entrepreneurs in the US (EO 2016). Think Board has sold over 35,000 units to date, with customers on all 7 continents.
To watch:
Hanson’s bold prediction for the company: Think Board will grow 300% in 2017
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41) Brennan Agranoff
Snapshot:
Age: 17
Education: Sherwood High School, senior.
Company: HoopSwagg
“Keep your Feet Unique”
To date:
HoopSwagg is on a mission to replace plain old socks with those that are wacky, fun, unique, stylish, and may be one of the most comfortable socks you’ll slide up your foot. HoopSwagg was founded in 2013 by Brennan Agranoff who is now 17 years old and was recently name Entrepreneur of the Year by Baylor University after completing the acquisition of a pioneering competitor. HoopSwagg has been featured by media outlets around the world including CNN, Forbes, ABC, Buzzfeed, NBC, DailyMail, NY Times, and Galileo TV. With annual sales of 1M/year and a social media reach of nearly a half million fans and followers, HoopSwagg is poised to continue its speedy ascent to the top of the billion dollar sock market.
To watch:
HoopSwagg recently launched a fundraising platform for High School Varsity Basketball Programs that is now open for the 2017–18 school year. They will also be launching a new product line that includes a knee high sock designed for Soccer and Softball, just in time for a unique retail experience that is expected to launch prior to the 2017 holiday season.
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42) Julia Peng
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Co-founders: Alice Yang
Education: University of Pennsylvania & University of Toronto, graduate.
Company: VivaVax
“Innovating healthcare delivery. “
To date:
VivaVax protects sensitive drugs from heat fluctuations during transport. The company was the winner of the Wharton Venture Award, and is a graduate of the Next 36 program and the Biomedical Zone. Currently at the Halcyon House.
To watch:
Julia and her team are off to the races, focused on hiring scientists and chemists.
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43) Carlos Lei Santos
Snapshot:
Age: 25
Co-founders: Andre Francisco
Education: University of Porto, graduate.
Company: HypeLabs
“SDKs that allow devices to communicate even without internet.”
To date:
Incorporated in 2016, HypeLabs develops software that allow any device to communicate even when there’s no internet by using P2P mesh networks. Since taking part of AngelPad S16 the company hasn’t stop growing, counting today with more than 300 companies and developers on a private beta and more than 1000 companies waiting to use it next.
To watch:
HypeLabs is now opening it’s second office, in San Francisco, and looking for people to hire. The first open version of their technology is also coming in the beginning of Q4 2017, allowing anyone to integrate such capabilities into their own solutions.
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44) Jacob Goodman and Josh Arbit
Snapshot:
Age: 25, 26
Co-founders: Jolijt Tamanaha and Lizzie Sivitz
Education: Washington University at St. Louis, Graduates
Company: Fresh Prints
“Custom apparel so sexy you’ll shirt your pants ;)”
To date:
Fresh Prints is a custom apparel startup (making t-shirts, tanks, and more) run by more than 130 student entrepreneurs and 20 full-time team members. Each incredible student is given the capital, training, and support to start Fresh Prints at their school. The company is profitable and entirely bootstrapped, grossing $2.7M in revenue last year.
To watch:
Fresh Prints is on track to gross over $5M in revenue in 2017. They’re also hiring to double theirr full time headcount and recruit another 400 student entrepreneurs by the end of 2018.
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45) Tara Bosch
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Education: The University of British Columbia, dropout. Thiel Fellowship.
Company: SmartSweets
“Innovating the first candy that kicks sugar- Naturally.”
To date:
SmartSweets is making waves on their mission to kick sugar, revolutionizing candy through innovation of the first confectionary products that kick sugar- Naturally. From recipe testing in her kitchen to launching on store shelves nationally less than a year later, SmartSweets are in 650+ locations nation-wide, doubling in the next 6 months with key retail partners including Whole Foods and Bed, Bath Beyond. SmartSweets has been featured in Forbes, Fox Business, dubbed “life-changing” by PopSugar Magazine and is the winner of several entrepreneurial awards, including being named a 2017 Peter Thiel Fellow and Canadian Entrepreneur’s Top 20 under 23, among others.
To watch:
SmartSweets has experienced rocket-ship growth and is continuing to drive innovation through development of new products, while expanding rapidly to increase accessibility to our products on store shelves for consumers (including a up-coming US Launch)
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46) Uzoma Ayogu
Snapshot:
Age: 21
Co-founders: Isaiah Udotong, Ikenna Nzewi
Education: Duke University, graduate.
Company: Releaf
“Africa’s trust network of verified trade leads and customers”
To date:
Releaf serves as B2B LinkedIn for Africa. They did a soft launch of their trust network in mid July 2017 and have already facilitated over 100 business connections in Nigeria and grown the network to over 300 businesses. They are a part of Y Combinator’s Summer 17 batch. CEO Isaiah Udotong (MIT ’18) has worked at Facebook as a software engineer for two summers, won the freshman hackathon and presented to Zuck; COO, Ikenna Nzewi (Yale ’17) has interned at Bain and is the recipient of Africa’s most selective (<2%) entrepreneurial fellowship (Harambe Entrepreneurial Alliance); CTO Uzoma Ayogu is a member of Duke’s Board of Trustees and has worked at GE as a systems engineer and deferred his offer to do Product at Microsoft.
To watch:
At the conclusion of YC and fundraising all co-founders will be moving back to Nigeria to really scale the business.
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47) Keiana Cave
Snapshot:
Age: 19
Education: University of Michigan, sophomore.
Company: Mare
“Making the world a better place. No, really!”
To date:
Inventing molecules to solve major world problems- from oil spill cleanup to carcinogenic skincare products. Mare has raised $1.2 million from Chevron to operate on the University of Michigan.
To watch:
Mare is on track to be acquired by Chevron. Keiana will start a new company utilizing the same skillsets and a smarter business plan.
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48) Rory O’Reilly
Snapshot:
Age: 22
Co-founders: Kieran O’Reilly
Education: Harvard, dropout. Thiel fellowship.
Company: Gifs.com.
“We empower people to edit videos, while simultaneously gathering data to train AI”
To date:
Gifs.com is your short form video creator. A small team of 10, Gifs.com is led by two cofounders who are also brothers, both attending Harvard, dropping out, and receiving the Thiel Fellowship. The team has raised a little under $4M, and were named Forbes 30u30 as well as the Top 19 Interesting Kids at Harvard. The company has made over 10,000,000 gifs with over 1 billion views.
To watch:
The Gifs.com team will be bringing on more funding as they focus on further developing the AI component of the brand.
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49) Will Jamieson
Snapshot:
Age: 23
Education: College of Charleston
Company: Stream
“Watch, Stream, and Comment on Live Videos”
To date:
Will is a seasoned entrepreneur who has had past success with YikYak as a founding member who developed the app. YikYak allowed millions of users to anonymously post comments on forums in a threadlike fashion. Stream is even BETTER !
Stre.am a live streaming application used around the world, which generates over 100 years of watched video content a month. Stream currently offers three different products. They include a consumer application for live streaming your life to your friends and fans. As well as, an enterprise application to allow brands to aggregate and redistribute content. Lastly, the event manager is used to capture video at events and redistribute it to media, web, jumbotron, or mobile boosting fan engagement.
To watch:
To date Stream has raised $6,000,000 in funding and has worked with huge corporations like the NFL and NASA. Stream is the exclusive live streaming partner used by NASA and was the live streaming service they used to stream the most recent total solar eclsiple August 2017. Not once did Stream lose live streaming connection during the eclipse, an amazing feat to accomplish.
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50) Claire Coder
Snapshot:
Age: 20
Education: Ohio State University, Dropout.
Company:Aunt Flow.
“Changing the world, one cycle at a time.”
To date:
Toilet paper is offered for free, why not tampons? Aunt Flow is the only company that responds to this question by selling businesses tampons so they can offer them for free in bathrooms. With customers in 47 states and business clients ranging from Stanford to Harvard, Aunt Flow has been featured in Forbes, TeenVogue and recognized as Ohio’s Best Startup. Claire Coder is a second time founder who started her business at age 16 and exited by age 18.
To watch:
Aunt Flow will donate over 100,000 tampons and close their $500k round by the end of 2017.
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