2022年《财富》全球40位40岁以下商界精英
《财富》全球40位40岁以下商界精英年度榜单上,皆是2022年引领商业的领袖。今年榜上有名的创始人、高管、投资者和活动家也擅长创造和抓住机会。在他们当中,有人为他人赋权,有人针对影响数百万人的疾病探索新疗法,有人努力将人们联系在一起,有人努力巩固在运动和演艺生涯里获得的成功。他们在各自的行业中披荆斩棘,甚至开辟新道路。这份榜单将他们分为五类;以下是对他们的更多介绍。
风险投资和初创企业
维米莫·阿比(Wemimo Abbey),30岁
Esusu Financial联合创始人兼联席首席执行官
维米莫·阿比在尼日利亚拉各斯的贫民窟长大,两岁丧父。后来他和母亲前往美国明尼苏达州,然而在想办法为阿比筹集大学学费时,因为没有信用评分而被好几家银行拒之门外。他的母亲只得典当了父亲的戒指,承担400%利息的贷款,还向教会成员借钱。正因为早期的窘迫经历,他才选择了现在的行业:事实上,每10个成年人中就有一人没有信用记录,阿比的初创公司Esusu正在努力改变现状。Esusu向主要信用机构报告租金按时支付的情况,利用数据弥补种族财富差距,这样一来,租房者只要按时支付租金就能够获得并不断提升其信用评分。这家金融科技公司还为经济困难的租房者提供零利息的租金减免解决方案。阿比表示,Esusu的客户在全美50个州租赁了近300万套房屋,公司的年增长率为600%。今年1月在完成1.3亿美元的B轮融资后,Esusu成为美国为数不多的、由黑人创立的独角兽企业。
约翰·柯蒂斯(John Curtius),36岁
Cedar Investment Management创始人
2022年10月,约翰·柯蒂斯辞去风险投资公司老虎环球基金(Tiger Global)合伙人一职,创立了自己的基金Cedar Investment Management。他在老虎基金曾经主导约250笔交易,安排了对Databricks、Snyk、Toast、Snowflake、SentinelOne、GitLab和Kustomer等知名软件初创公司的投资。柯蒂斯告诉《财富》杂志,计划于2023年年中开展业务的Cedar主要侧重A轮到C轮融资,也可以充分发挥他在B2B软件、金融科技和市场领域投资12年积攒的专业知识。“软件是全世界最好的商业模式。”柯蒂斯说,“而且能够提供可观的风险调整后收益机会。”在Cedar和老虎基金之前,柯蒂斯在银湖资本(Silver Lake)和埃利奥特管理公司(Elliott Management)开启了投资生涯。
迪伦·菲尔德(Dylan Field),30岁
Figma联合创始人兼首席执行官
2012年,迪伦·菲尔德从布朗大学(Brown University)退学获得蒂尔奖学金(Thiel Fellow),参加了为大学生创业者提供机会建立公司的10万美元资助计划。他创建了基于网络的图形设计平台Figma,如今已经成为全球众多公司团队首选的设计工具。报道称,菲尔德创办Figma约十年后成为亿万富翁:2022年9月,Adobe以200亿美元收购了该公司,成为今年最大一笔并购案,他的净资产也因此超过20亿美元。Figma具备协作转发功能,用户可以在网页平台内进行虚拟白板、迭代和测试,从而成为产品团队的最爱。收购交易完成后,Figma将继续独立运营,但对用户的影响仍然未知。
李进(Li Jin),32岁
Variant Fund联合创始人兼普通合伙人
如果李进的愿景实现,互联网的下一步发展方向就将是“由用户掌控的网络”。她创立的早期加密基金Variant最近为第三只主要投向加密领域和Web3的基金筹集了4.5亿美元,目标是创造公正和公平的世界。李进毕业于哈佛大学(Harvard University),曾经在风投公司安德森·霍洛维茨(Andreessen Horowitz)工作,她表示经常受到卡尔·马克思的思想启发,长期以来一直努力为创作者劳动者在薪酬、保护和劳动实践方面争取更多的发言权。她主张制定“保护现代互联网员工”的劳动法。李进这么做有自己的原因:她一直坚持写作,目前在Substack上发表时事通讯。正如她所说,“激情经济主要关注‘内容’,所有权经济主要关注‘怎样做到’”:即人们怎样能够在赚取收入的同时做喜欢的事情,创造性地表达自我。
卢西亚娜·利克桑德鲁(Luciana Lixandru),38岁
红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)合伙人
2020年,风险投资巨头红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)决定在欧洲设立落脚点,其深知需要找一位熟悉欧洲背景和投资愿景的主要合伙人,帮忙从零开始建立英国分公司。卢西亚娜·利克桑德鲁是理想人选,她在罗马尼亚长大,就读于美国乔治城大学(Georgetown University),后来在Accel成为杰出的投资人。2020年,她成为红杉在欧洲的第一位合伙人。作为罗马尼亚软件公司UiPath和协作视觉平台Miro的早期投资者,利克桑德鲁希望为消费者和企业寻找可以开辟“新类别”的公司。今年3月,她与别人联合发起了为期两个月的孵化器项目Arc,向世界各地的创始人提供开发和推广项目的课程。
迪娜·沙基尔(Deena Shakir),37岁
Lux Capital合伙人
随着“罗诉韦德案”(Roe v. Wade)的反转,从公共政策到私营部门,针对女性健康的投资愈发关键。在硅谷,迪娜·沙基尔已经迅速成为该领域领先的风险投资人。在管理40亿美元资产的Lux Capital,沙基尔是唯一的女性合伙人,曾经支持雇主福利平台Maven Clinic、生育科技公司Alife Health和儿科初创公司Summer Health。她曾经在谷歌(Google)工作,也曾经在美国国务院(State Department)任职,在她的支持下,Maven成为女性和家庭健康领域里的第一家独角兽公司。
弗朗西斯卡·怀特海德(Francesca Whitehead),29岁
Fifth Wall副总裁
众所周知,可持续性是全球企业的首要任务。至于如何实现?大家并不太清楚。弗朗西斯卡·怀特海德已经成为气候领域里的资深投资人,主要支持开发技术帮助企业和消费者降低排放的公司。她主导了G2VP对无氮肥料制造商Pivot Bio和可持续B2B时尚平台Trove的投资。怀特海德在中国香港和越南长大,刚开始对气候领域感兴趣是因为在台风季里亲眼看到了全球变暖的实际影响。作为年轻的混血移民,她独特的视角有助于发现其他人可能错过的投资机会和创始人。目前(截至2022年11月),她在可持续房地产投资公司Fifth Wall担任副总裁。
卡克·威廉(Cack Wilhelm),38岁
机构风险合伙公司(IVP)普通合伙人
卡克·威廉的职业生涯始于职业跑者,但此后多年里她一直努力成为数据基础设施领域中的顶级投资人。2022年,威廉的投资组合的业绩十分亮眼,她也成为自1983年以来,IVP第一位晋升为普通合伙人的女性。迄今为止,她主导了对数据平台Monte Carlo和Obsidian Security的投资,也跟投了数据软件公司Cribl的2亿美元C轮融资。之前她曾经主导IVP投资由女性创办的员工薪酬独角兽Papaya Global,以及软件交付平台CircleCI。在成为合伙人后,她表示,目标是为更多的女性跻身风投领域高层铺平道路。
文化和社会
佩奇·布克斯(Paige Bueckers),21岁
康涅狄格大学(University of Connecticut)篮球运动员
由于前交叉韧带撕裂,在2022–23赛季的多数比赛中,佩奇·布克斯只能坐在场边。但这位康涅狄格大学(University of Connecticut)的明星球员表示,决心明年重返赛场,尤其是大学校级比赛场:她拒绝了加入美国女子职业篮球联赛(WNBA)的机会,决定在康涅狄格大学哈士奇队(University of Connecticut Husky)再打一年。这一决定和去年布克斯与品牌佳得乐(Gatorade)签署的多年代言协议密切相关。这是佳得乐与美国全国大学生体育协会(NCAA)的球员的首次合作,布克斯也成为NCAA规则改变后受益最大的大学球星之一,根据新规,大学运动员可以通过自身姓名、图片和肖像来获利。多数从事职业篮球的男运动员的年薪都有数百万美元,然而WNBA球员的年薪仅为几万美元。NCAA规则调整证明,布克斯之类的新晋女性运动员有能力促进女性运动,甚至能够比学校、联盟或组织做得更好。
亚历克斯·库珀(Alex Cooper),28岁
Call Her Daddy播客主持人
亚历克斯·库珀一直想成名,但不知道具体怎么做。她之前是波士顿大学(Boston University)的足球明星,研究生第一份工作被解雇时,她和当时室友兼最好的朋友索菲亚·富兰克林决定制作播客Call her Daddy。“当时没有人制作像我和足球队的队友在更衣室里说私房话一样的节目。”库珀告诉《财富》杂志。“全世界没有如此粗鲁、诚实的女人。”Barstool Sports的创始人戴夫·波特诺伊发现了这个播客,聘请库珀和弗兰克林当员工,也顺势收购了节目的知识产权。节目效果非常好,两个月内该播客的下载量从1.2万次增至200万次,第一年后两位主持人想争取更好的条件。最终,库珀赢得了节目所有权,如今她达成了播客里最赚钱的交易之一:以6,000万美元授权Spotify独家运营Call Her Daddy节目三年。她还将节目内容转向名人访谈、临床医生提供的心理健康信息和处理人际关系建议。在此过程中,她也成为Spotify最受欢迎的女性播客主持人。
蕾哈娜(Rihanna),34岁
歌手、企业家;Fenty Beauty品牌创始人、Savage X Fenty公司创始人
蕾哈娜是歌手出身,后来成了创始人,其个人资产净值也在不断攀升:据《福布斯》(Forbes)报道,现在她的身价为14亿美元,而她名下的化妆品品牌Fenty Beauty的价值至少是这个数字的两倍。她还有内衣和休闲服公司Savage X Fenty,去年B轮融资中筹集了1.15亿美元,有报道称目前价值2.7亿美元。蕾哈娜创业一帆风顺,但她并未完全放弃演出。2023年超级碗(Super Bowl)的中场休息节目里,她将担任主角,最近她为《黑豹2:瓦坎达万岁》(Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)配乐录制了新歌,也是六年来首次发行音乐作品。粉丝们在她社交媒体发的帖子里不断找寻发专辑的迹象。然而,最终粉丝发现她只是利用庞大的平台来推广公司的产品,鼓励粉丝投票,还有关注气候危机和种族不平等。
乔尔·甘布尔(Joelle Gamble),31岁
美国劳工部(U.S. Department of Labor)首席经济学家
在经济学家里,乔尔·甘布尔相当特别。她不仅是美国劳工部(U.S. Department of Labor)第二位担任首席经济学家的黑人女性,还公开表达稳步改革倾向。她在向来不够多元的环境里也很突出:美国联邦政府雇用的经济学家中只有29%是女性,只有10%是少数族裔。甘布尔从普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)获得硕士学位,她认为经济学等领域中有不同的观点和代表至关重要,而在历史上,经济学一直存在同质性。“不管是否承认,你的经历都会影响接近世界的方式。”甘布尔表示。“我是黑人女性,坦率地说,我在经济政策领域付出了巨大努力。”甘布尔以改革经济学为背景,不断突破界限,经常在推特(Twitter)上讨论最新的工作报告和劳动力趋势。“政府做出的改变,哪怕是最小规模的行动也会对企业和工人产生巨大的影响。”她说。“我只是从未想过可以有机会帮助如此多的人。”
哈比·拉梅(Khaby Lame),22岁
TikTok网红
哈比·拉梅在意大利都灵郊外的政府公房里长大,2022年6月成为全球粉丝最多的TikTok网红。新冠疫情来袭时,他失去了工厂里的工作,开始在TikTok上发布搞笑视频。这位22岁的年轻人发布无台词的短视频,面无表情地取笑过于复杂的生活技巧,收获了广泛关注,也吸引了粉丝和赞助商。他曾经与雨果博斯(Hugo Boss)、谷歌和币安(Binance)等品牌合作,在TikTok频道上播放大约6秒钟的短片就能够获得六位数的收入。拉梅的经纪人对《财富》杂志表示,今年拉梅有望赚到1,000万美元,主要来自品牌合作。然而,他的目光瞄准了好莱坞:拉梅在闲暇时间通过看英语动画片来努力学习英语,希望最终可以从小屏幕跃入大屏幕。
基利安·姆巴佩(Kylian Mbappé),23岁
巴黎圣日耳曼足球俱乐部(Paris Saint-Germain)及法国国家队职业足球运动员
基利安·姆巴佩之所以闻名,主要是因为他超群的运动能力和直言不讳。2022年6月,他批评法国足协(French Football Federation)未对球迷的种族主义侮辱采取强硬立场,9月,他拒绝给快餐店和博彩赞助商拍照,因为不符合他的价值观。今年夏天他考虑离开巴黎圣日耳曼足球俱乐部(Paris Saint-Germain)前往皇家马德里足球俱乐部(Real Madrid)时,接到了法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙打来的电话劝他留下。报道称,马克龙告诉姆巴佩他对法国“太重要了”,可能成为(或者可能已经成为)超越体育的国家象征。与此同时,今年姆巴佩1.28亿美元的收入也让他成为全球收入最高的球员,自2014年以来,这是第一次利昂内尔·梅西和克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多以外的球员获此殊荣。新兴的姆巴佩金融帝国包括制作公司Zebra Valley,今年6月,该公司与美国职业篮球联赛(NBA)签订了为期多年的协议;“Inspired by KM”儿童基金会;还有与耐克(Nike)、宇舶(Hublot)、艺电(EA)和帕尼尼(Panini)达成的代言协议。
克里斯蒂安·斯莫尔斯(Christian Smalls),34岁
亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)主席
尽管面对电子商务巨头,克里斯蒂安·斯莫尔斯还是在2021年成功推动了亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)的成立。一年后,美国纽约州斯塔滕岛的JFK8物流中心的多数员工投票支持成立工会。作为工会运动的代言人,斯莫尔斯担任多种角色,呼吁政界人士支持,筹集资金,还号召其他厂区的工人加入运动。斯莫尔斯在斯塔滕岛胜利以来,亚马逊的其他两个物流中心投了反对票,但他仍然在努力组织亚马逊在美国的110个积极物流中心,希望在新型劳工运动前沿成立全国性的工会。“我这一生都在以各种方式组织劳工运动。”斯莫尔斯说。“我意识到当前时刻面临历史性的财富不均,而且各大公司都在剥削劳动力,但无法反击。”
丽娜·维特(Lena Waithe),38岁
演员、制片、编剧;Hillman Grad创始人
近二十年来,芝加哥人丽娜·维特一直努力推动好莱坞文化变革。大学毕业后,她飞往洛杉矶从事电视工作,后来因为在喜剧《无为大师》(Master of None)中出色的写作而成为首位获得艾美奖(Emmy Awards)的黑人女性。她同时是制片人、作家、演员,多平台娱乐公司Hillman Grad的创始人,还是业内同性恋平权的倡导者。维特自己是偏男性角色的有色人种女同性恋,她从自身经历中汲取灵感,创作并监制了《二十岁》(Twenties),也是BET网络上第一部以同性恋为主角的剧集。维特还是Showtime电视剧《芝加哥故事》(The Chi)的创作者,这部反映成长的电视剧主要关注芝加哥南区居民之间的关系。在屏幕外,维特通过Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab讲述边缘创作者的故事,为其提供入行的机会。
金融和加密货币
安妮-维克托伊尔·奥里奥特(Anne-Victoire Auriault),34岁
高盛集团全球市场部(Goldman Sachs, Global Markets Division)合伙人
安妮-维克托伊尔·奥里奥特已经在高盛集团(Goldman Sachs)工作十年有余,但直到2019年被任命为执行董事后才真正开始“平步青云”。受任执行董事的次年,她成为该公司历史上最年轻的女性合伙人之一。奥里奥特说:“此次任命证明,女性交易员也有机会成为合伙人,这一点非常重要,尤其是考虑到我一直十分重视家庭且鼓励团队成员做到工作与生活的健康平衡。我得到晋升后,很多女性主动与我联系,让我意识到,这件事情对她们而言也具有拐点意义。”2022年,奥里奥特应邀加入负责管理公司文化事务的高盛合伙人委员会,她也是该公司全球市场包容性和多样性委员会的成员。奥里奥特表示,未来几年,她期待能够“承担更多职责,成为客户真正的合作伙伴”,她还补充道:“一开始,我主要负责美国市场事务,现在则管理着全球团队。下一步,我希望可以涉足更多的领域,并将不同产品的成功经验制度化。”
卡纳夫·卡里亚(Kanav Kariya),26岁
Jump Crypto总裁
卡纳夫·卡里亚以实习生身份加入Jump Trading(一家加密货币公司创业孵化器),并于去年受任成为该公司经过品牌重塑、拥有170名员工的数字资产部门——Jump Crypto的掌门人。此后,在其领导之下,Jump Crypto在加密货币领域完成了数十亿美元的投资,成为Web3领域里的一支重要力量。在谈及有关未来的宏伟蓝图时,卡里亚告诉《财富》杂志,他希望Jump Crypto能够成为“重要的基础设施建设者,在行业规模不断扩大的过程中贡献自己的力量”。虽然当前加密货币市场依旧低迷,但卡里亚领导的Jump Crypto依然在“主动出击”。仅在一年左右时间里,Jump Crypto投资的加密货币公司就已经超过了100家。
玛丽-凯瑟琳·拉德尔(Mary-Catherine Lader),37岁
Uniswap Labs首席运营官
怀着对去中心化金融(DeFi)未来前景的坚定信念,玛丽-凯瑟琳·拉德尔毅然放弃了自己在华尔街的事业,投身加密货币领域,并迅速崭露头角。虽然市场持续低迷,但她仍然在Uniswap Labs(该公司控制着以太坊上最大的去中心化交易所)为实现自己的梦想——让去中心化金融得到主流社会的认可而不懈努力。虽然受“加密寒冬”( Crypto Winter)的影响,业内风投近乎绝迹,但Uniswap Labs还是在2022年10月拿到了1.65亿美元的B轮融资(去中心化金融公司最大单笔股权融资之一),最新估值达到16.6亿美元。对于曾经领导贝莱德(BlackRock)首个区块链项目的拉德尔而言,本轮融资表明她对Uniswap的发展寄予厚望。该公司希望借助即将推出的NFT聚合器(NFT aggregator),成为业内顶级的综合性链上交易市场。
迈克尔·麦卡弗里(Michael McCaffrey),27岁
The Block首席执行官
迈克尔·麦卡弗里的金融生涯始于高盛集团和花旗银行(Citi),在许多人眼中,这两家公司与加密货币天然对立。2018年,他踏上了较为小众的发展道路,选择加入The Block,成为该公司的首批员工,彼时,这家在Medium上发布信息的币圈媒体的规模还很小。如今,麦卡弗里已经成为这个冉冉升起的区块链媒体帝国的首席执行官,带领团队为加密货币行业提供深度数据分析。为将The Block发展成“币圈的彭博社”,麦卡弗里正在大力推进两个项目:其一是与一家名为Access Protocol的公司合作,让读者可以用通证来购买线上内容,而不再需要单独进行订阅;其二是打造一套全新的信息情报产品,帮助企业更好地认识加密货币生态。麦卡弗里希望借助这两个项目打通企业和消费者两大读者群体。
阿兰·迈耶(Alain Meier),29岁
Plaid身份主管
在斯坦福大学(Stanford University)攻读本科学位时,阿兰·迈耶已经开始研究那些能够帮助金融科技公司及其客户验证用户身份的技术。2013年,迈耶与他人共同创办了Cognito(一个可以提升身份验证速度并确保准确度的平台),并出任首席执行官一职。2022年1月,该公司被其以2.5亿美元的价格出售给Plaid。该笔收购完成前,Plaid的许多客户已经在使用Cognito的技术,包括开展“先买后付”业务的Affirm公司和专注于企业金融的金融科技公司Brex。此后,Plaid进一步扩大业务重心,对银行账户与金融科技应用程序进行连接,并开始深耕加密货币业务。该公司最近还推出了Wallet Onboard,将加密货币钱包与去中心化Web3应用程序进行连接。正如迈耶在Inspired Capital的Inspired in 15播客节目中所解释的那样,由于“使用假名”(pseudonymization of identity),或者说“虚构角色”是该行业的一大特点,Web3会让身份验证变得更为复杂;与此同时,监管机构又在打击匿名交易。迈耶和整个金融科技行业都在努力解决这些现实问题,在骗局层出不穷的加密货币行业里提升参与者的可信度。
妮可·穆尼兹(Nicole Muniz),38岁
Yuga Labs首席执行官
在不到一年的时间里,妮可·穆尼兹就将Yuga Labs打造成了NFT行业中的明星企业。在穆尼兹的领导下,Yuga Labs成功推出了备受市场追捧的系列NFT——无聊猿猴游艇俱乐部(Bored Ape Yacht Club),还收购了另外两个热门系列产品——CryptoPunks和Meebits,将所有的相关知识产权授予了NFT持有者。如此高光表现也吸引到了投资者的目光。今年3月,穆尼兹帮助Yuga Labs在a16z Crypto领衔的融资中筹集到了4.5亿美元,使该公司的市值一跃达到40亿美元。目前,穆尼兹力图以Yuga Labs在NFT领域里取得的成功为基础,借助开发中的“Otherside”元宇宙平台推动公司业绩“再上层楼”。今年4月,该公司通过出售55,000份“Otherdeeds”虚拟地契创造了约3.2亿美元的收入。
安东尼奥·怀特(Antonio White),35岁
美国银行(Bank of America)高级副总裁兼公共政策执主管
安东尼奥·怀特曾经担任美国财政部(U.S. Treasury Department)负责社区参与事务的副助理部长一职,彼时,他可以说是该机构“方向调整”的象征,不仅在经济政策方面如此,在践行种族公平理念方面也是如此。怀特当时负责领导改革后的公共联络办公室,通过《美国救援计划》(American Rescue Plan)发放了1万亿美元资金来帮助社区和企业应对新冠疫情造成的影响。他将与民权团体、工会和贸易协会等具有“共同价值观”的组织进行联系列为优先任务,在美国财政部开了先河。他还参与了2021年5月向州、市政府发放3,500亿美元援助方案的制定工作。2011年,怀特以白宫实习生的身份投身公共服务,通过这份工作,他“开始了解到,虽然公共政策从制定到施行要花费很长的时间,而一旦开始施行,就会产生巨大的影响”。他补充说,从那时起,“我就迷上了这个事业”。今年秋天,怀特把自己在行政部门积累的经验带到了美国银行(Bank of America),担任负责公共政策的高级副总裁。这家银行将利用他在华盛顿积累的专业经验推进实现负责任的增长。
克塞尼亚·尤迪娜(Ksenia Yudina),35岁
UNest创始人兼首席执行官
2022年年初,克塞尼亚·尤迪娜大部分的时间都在努力将身陷战区的员工转移出来。她领导的UNest位于美国加利福尼亚州北好莱坞地区,共有42名员工,今年年初俄罗斯军队进攻基辅时,其中12人身在乌克兰、俄罗斯或白俄罗斯。这家公司是让父母为孩子的教育进行投资和储蓄的数字经纪商。今年3月,尤迪娜的团队经常在晚间和周末寻找能够将员工转移到安全地带的路线,他们还设法向开发者及其家人支付现金。与此同时,他们也在为推出UNest旗下加密货币做着准备工作(虽然略有延迟,但该加密货币还是于今年9月正式推出)。作为一名俄罗斯人,这场战争对尤迪娜而言可以说是“感同身受”。尤迪娜18岁时来到美国,加入Capital Group前从事的是酒店管家工作。尤迪娜从一众风投公司为UNest筹集到了3,800万美元,参与投资的公司包括Anthos Capital、Artemis Fund、富兰克林邓普顿(Franklin Templeton)和Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures。最近,UNest又与iHeartMedia达成合作,后者将向其投资800万美元,并将在iHeartRadio为其刊发广告。
技术和创新
恩里克·亚松森(Enric Asunción),37岁
Wallbox联合创始人兼首席执行官
恩里克·亚松森来自西班牙巴塞罗那,现任Wallbox(行业领先的电动汽车智能家庭充电系统供应商)首席执行官一职,是一名不折不扣的电动汽车专家。在参与创立Wallbox之前,他曾经在汽车工程公司Applus+ IDIADA工作,后又加入特斯拉(Tesla),负责欧洲区的家庭充电业务。现在,他的公司在欧洲拥有两家工厂,在中国有一家,另有一家新工厂位于美国,2021年10月,Wallbox成为首家成功登陆纽约证券交易所(NYSE)的西班牙科技公司。由于电动汽车市场目前仍然处于早期阶段,而Wallbox的业务又已经覆盖120个国家,亚松森认为公司未来将大有作为,不仅在电动汽车充电领域里拥有大量的机会,在社会整体向可再生能源过渡的过程中也有很大的发挥空间。Wallbox的系统能够双向充电,在停电时,可以使用车载电池为家中的电器供电。
亚历克西斯·巴雷亚特(Alexis Barreyat),27岁
BeReal联合创始人兼首席执行官
在运动相机公司GoPro工作几年之后,来自法国的技术专家和山地自行车爱好者——亚历克西斯·巴雷亚特在2019年与他人一同创办了社交媒体应用程序BeReal。这是一款提示用户在随机指定时间发布自己与周围环境照片的应用程序,不给用户“构图”时间,用一种诙谐的方式对社交媒体那种精心设计自拍照的风气发起了挑战。今年以来,BeReal大受Z世代用户的欢迎,一举杀入主流市场,不仅在应用程序下载排行榜上名列前茅,甚至连《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)也专门用一段小品对其优点进行了演绎。据《金融时报》(Financial Times)报道,巴雷亚特旗下这家位于巴黎的小型创业公司最近刚以6亿美元的估值筹集到了6,000万美元,还引起了Instagram和TikTok等巨头竞争对手的注意,二者均已经在近期推出了类似功能。
吉米·陈(Jimmy Chen),35岁
Propel创始人兼首席执行官
对于6,000万依靠政府保障的美国低收入群体来说,关心自己的财务状况可能颇为麻烦,也颇为乏味。通过其创办的Propel公司及其免费应用程序,吉米·陈正在帮助500万美国人关注自己的财务健康问题。吉米承认,为美国低收入人群提供银行服务确实“难度颇高”,但他乐于接受挑战。之所以选择投身这一领域,一方面是因为他看到了技术在社会公益事业上的应用潜力,另一方面是自己在成长过程中家中也曾经遭遇经济困难,所以能够感同身受。吉米用自己的实际行动证明,企业家不仅可以与政府官僚机构携手合作,还能够提高后者的工作质量。在吉米的带领下,Propel也在提升慈善事业的效率,通过与非营利组织GiveDirectly合作,其向佛罗里达、波多黎各两地受飓风影响的Propel用户发放了2亿美元的救济资金。
薇薇安·楚(Vivian Chu),35岁
Diligent Robotics联合创始人兼首席技术官
薇薇安·楚是Diligent Robotics的联合创始人兼首席技术官,该公司已经筹集近5,000万美元,用于开发供医院使用的社交智能机器人。该公司的旗舰产品是Moxi,一个可以协助护士完成分娩工作的机器人。在确定自己不适合从事软件工程工作之后,薇薇安选择投身机器人领域,因为她意识到,她能够制造出可以改善他人生活和工作环境的产品。在祖父母日渐老去,进入养老院生活后,薇薇安发现,机器人技术在医疗保健领域里大有用武之地,因此,她将这一领域选作自己的“主攻方向”。她表示,自己开发的机器人不会抢走他人的工作岗位,而是能够帮助护士们完成其不愿意做的工作,让她们可以“多陪陪病人或者多点喘息时间”。
玛丽安娜·科斯塔(Mariana Costa),36岁
Laboratoria联合创始人兼首席执行官
科技行业在拉美蓬勃发展,同时也是重要的致富途径,为确保女性能够在该领域里拥有一席之地,玛丽安娜·科斯塔与他人携手创办了Laboratoria。科斯塔估计,到今年年底,该技术培训营将可以在数个拉美国家培训3,000名女性,去年参加该培训营的女性在完成培训后的就业率达到近90%。科斯塔说,在通过谷歌奖学金参加一次会议时,她观看了“黑人女孩代码营”(Black Girls Code)的创始人金伯利·布莱恩特的演讲,自己(投身这项事业是因为)也是因为受到了布莱恩特的启发。谷歌如今是Laboratoria的主要捐助者之一。目前,科斯塔正在推进一项全新事业,她打算将其发展成为公司内部的新部门——Laboratoria+。该项目将致力于帮助那些已经在从事科技工作的女性成长为领军人物,推动该行业的未来发展。
帕维尔·杜罗夫(Pavel Durov),38岁
Telegram创始人兼首席执行官
帕维尔·杜罗夫曾经被称为“俄罗斯的马克·扎克伯格”。但在他创办的社交媒体公司VKontakte惹怒克里姆林宫后,他逃离了这个国家,并利用出售公司所得的3亿美元推出了Telegram。自杜罗夫上次在2018年入选《财富》“全球40位40岁以下商界精英”以来,Telegram飞速崛起。杜罗夫估计,该平台现有超过7亿活跃用户,日新增用户达200万之多。无论是伊朗示威民众、俄军指挥官、乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基,还是美国前总统唐纳德·特朗普的无数MAGA(Make America Great Again,“让美国再次伟大”)支持者,都把这个不加审查的加密平台当作自己的传声筒,在此宣泄自己或愤怒或悲伤的情绪,发布各种突发新闻,宣传自己的理念。有人估计,杜罗夫的身价现在已经达到150亿美元,不过他在自己寄居的迪拜依然过着低调的生活(去年他还获得了法国的公民身份),只通过自己的Telegram频道与外界进行联系。他在今年10月曾经写道:“Telegram无需进行额外宣传。”从现在的情况来看,这么说还是略显谦虚了。
苏珊·李(Susan Li),36岁
Meta首席财务官
自2008年以来,苏珊·李(音译)便一直在Meta工作,当时这家还被称为Facebook的初创公司只有很少的几名员工,“分散在帕洛阿托市中心的几栋大楼里”。今年11月1日,苏珊·李成为Meta的新任首席财务官,接替此前曾经长期担任这一职位的戴夫·韦纳。苏珊·李进入公司最高管理层的时机非常关键,目前,这家互联网企业正在试图围绕元宇宙技术进行业务转型,而广告业务营收的下降也让其切身感到了经济放缓的刺痛。面对摆在眼前的双重挑战,这位斯坦福大学的校友的工作并不轻松,要在艰难的成本削减(包括要在履新首月进行大规模裁员)和战略投资之间取得平衡。作为昔日的财务副总裁,苏珊·李也曾经带领公司度过一些难关,具备完成这项任务所需要的丰富实战经验。
RJ·斯卡林格(RJ Scaringe),39岁
Rivian创始人兼首席执行官
RJ·斯卡林格自记事起便是一位“车迷”,在拿到麻省理工学院(MIT)的汽车工程博士学位后,他于2009年创立了电动汽车创业公司Rivian。此后,他先是签下了亚马逊这个大客户,后又带领Rivian成功上市,募集到120亿美元,创下Facebook之后最大的IPO纪录,并凭借Rivian首款车型——R1T电动皮卡一举拿下享有盛誉的MotorTrend年度卡车奖。但在过去一年里,该公司遇到了许多困难,由于微芯片缺货,斯卡林格不得不将Rivian的年度生产目标调降一半,而将高额价格强加给已下单客户的做法则使公司的公关陷入被动。Rivian的股价已经受到影响,但公司业务仍然在斯卡林格的带领之下不断向前推进,不仅新增一款电动SUV产品,似乎还有望实现其全年(尽管是降低了)生产目标。
健康与生物科学
埃伦·鲍利(Eren Bali),38岁
Carbon Health联合创始人兼首席执行官
国际象棋对很多人来说是一个颇费脑力的活动,然而,在耗费精力努力改善医疗服务的未来之后,埃伦·鲍利发现,国际象棋是一种具有一定放松作用的消遣方式。从土耳其移民至美国旧金山湾区之后,鲍利亲身体验了美国破败的医疗系统,并踏上了医疗系统的拆分重构之旅,以增加医疗服务获取渠道,降低成本,并提供混合医疗服务。为了实现这一目标,鲍利与他人联合创建了Carbon Health,这是一家由初级治疗和急救设施组成的连锁医院,提供远程医疗和现场就医预约服务。该公司称,其服务目前已经面向美国四分之三的人口开放,而且计划进一步扩大。Carbon Health允许病患通过智能手机预约当日现场或者线上就医,并获取病例和测试结果。公司将进军糖尿病护理领域并开创业界的一个先河:在提供血糖监测的同时让病患直接获取首要医疗提供商的线上和线下服务。未来,Carbon Health将整合基础医疗与精神健康服务。
弗洛里安·布兰德(Florian Brand),36岁
Atai Life Sciences联合创始人兼首席执行官
弗洛里安·布兰德是德国生物制药公司Atai Life Sciences的首席执行官,该公司正在尝试利用新技术和药物,来开发新的精神健康疗法,尤其是利用裸盖菇(psilocybin mushrooms)和其他精神类物质,这些物质的医疗用途直到最近才开始受到人们的重视。拥有商业背景而不是医学背景的布兰德亲眼看到,朋友和家庭成员难以找到充足的传统疗法来治疗抑郁和其他精神健康疾病,随后,他便投身到了这一领域当中。布兰德看到了该领域治疗方案多元化的需求,而且Atai已经成立或收购了数家正在研究不同潜在治疗方案的子公司。该公司希望在未来几年内收集到临界量的数据,而且正在与监管方合作,为未来的治疗方案铺平道路。
安吉特·古普塔(Ankit Gupta),35岁
Bicycle Health创始人兼首席执行官
美国卫生与公众服务部(Department of Health and Human Services)称,解决美国阿片类药物危机的首要任务是改善人们获取治疗方案和恢复服务的渠道。然而,40%的美国郡县都缺乏能够提供药物辅助治疗方案的设施。安吉特·古普塔横空出世,他创建的Bicycle Health旨在通过专业远程医疗服务来填补阿片类药物使用紊乱症治疗的空白。古普塔于2017年成立该公司,当时,他收购了加州红杉城的一家小诊所。随后在2020年,政府法规有所放宽,开始允许在线上开立更多的阿片治疗药物处方。自那时起,Bicycle Health扩张至29个州,治疗了20,000名病患,并筹集了8,300万美元的风投资金。Bicycle称,公司的留存率比标准的现场就医诊所高出40%,而且众多病患的就医成本也有所降低,这一点归功于远程医疗带来的便利性。古普塔对《财富》杂志表示,今年6月Bicycle获得的5,000万美元,他计划借助这笔资金在接下来几个季度中再度将业务拓展至6个州,并改善Bicycle的技术,同时追加包含Bicycle服务的健康计划的数量。
杰米·卡拉克(Jamie Karraker),33岁;马蒂厄·加马奇-阿塞林(Mattieu Gamache-Asselin),33岁
Alto Pharmacy联合创始人
2015年,马蒂厄·加马奇-阿塞林和杰米·卡拉克辞去了Facebook的工程师工作,怀揣着颠覆线下处方药业务的初衷,联合创立了Alto Pharmacy。不过在一开始,他们收购并经营了一家实体药房,此举为他们提供了大量有助于经验改善的洞见(例如取消传真机需求的重要性)。如今,公司的技术简化了开药医师、药剂师与病患之间的开药流程,药物将送至患者家门口。这些改善的目标在于:确保更多需要处方药的民众可以真正收到和使用这些药物。Alto得到了消费者的极力赞赏,其净推荐者分数达到了86分,并获得了5.5亿美元的风投资本资金。其他令人印象深刻的成就包括,其2022年营收达到了10亿美元大关,并于今年夏季挖来了亚马逊核心高管团的艾丽西娅·波勒·戴维斯,担任其新首席执行官。
克里斯蒂娜·萨夫兰(Kristina Saffran),30岁
Equip联合创始人兼首席执行官
在克里斯蒂娜·萨夫兰从进食障碍中恢复之后,她在过去近15年的时间里一直在努力打造其他人能够使用的有效疗法。在3,000万美国进食障碍病患中,仅有20%可以得到帮助,而且该病的风险十分之高:与进食障碍有关的死亡风险和成本超过了大多数其他精神障碍疾病。2008年,萨夫兰成立了Project HEAL,为那些无法负担治疗费用的人群提供治疗资助。不过她意识到,仅靠此类非营利性机构无法满足这方面的缺口,因此她决定进军私营领域,并在2019年与他人联合创建了Equip Health。Equip致力于提供基于家庭的治疗方案,采用了基于实证的门诊治疗模式,面向青少年和年轻成年人,并通过虚拟方式提供服务。到目前为止,该公司已经服务了1,000个家庭,在今年早些时候的B轮融资中筹集了5,800万美元,而且与美国的多家主要保险公司开展了合作,包括安泰(Aetna)、信诺(Cigna)和联合健康集团(UnitedHealthcare)。
埃莱诺·“克鲁”·史密斯(Elenoe “Crew” Smith),38岁
Vertex Pharmaceuticals综合药理学总监
自中学以来,埃莱诺·“克鲁”·史密斯一直致力于应对和研究镰状细胞病(SCD)。镰状细胞病主要出现在非洲后裔人群中,史密斯说,由于在维京群岛长大,她认识的SCD患者比癌症患者还要多。史密斯的职业生涯始于波士顿儿童医院(Boston Children’s Hospital),如今她是Vertex Pharmaceuticals的综合药理学总监,正在为SCD打造治疗方案。到目前为止,史密斯一直在研究潜在的小分子药物,以研制用于治疗SCD的可用药物和疗法。史密斯告诉《财富》杂志:“令我感到高兴的是,众多国家都有所觉醒,并意识到这是一个重要的健康问题。”由于该疾病的患者多为黑人,一直以来,一些社会成见和结构性种族歧视阻碍了SCD治疗的进展。然而,史密斯表示,她看到病患、科学和政策团体在寻找公平治疗方案、开展深入研究方面展现出了更大的动力。
大卫·维韦罗(David Vivero),39岁
Amino Health联合创始人兼首席执行官
19岁时,大卫·维韦罗被诊断患有罕见病遗传性血色素沉着症。在辞去Zillow公司的租赁业务副总裁一职数年后,维韦罗申请医疗保险却因为自己的病症而被拒保。随后,他耗费了数周的时间尝试弄清楚自己如何才能购买保险。维韦罗并没有向错综复杂的美国医疗系统妥协,他与他的联合创始人决定简化这一流程,并创建了医疗价格透明平台和福利导航器Amino Health。维韦罗对《财富》杂志表示,人们一生中在进行一些重大医疗投资时往往没有多少可供参考的信息,而且存在诸多的不便因素。他解释说:“我们尝试将其便利化,从而在医疗领域里提供绝佳的可选方案。”到目前为止,他们做的十分成功。Amino称,相对于非用户,用户借助公司平台界面选到高质量、低成本提供商的概率提升了两倍至三倍。维韦罗说:“事实证明,我们可以让人们转而为自己做出更好的决策。”
张欣立(Alice Zhang),33岁
维智基因(Verge Genomics)联合创始人兼首席执行官
2022年秋季,张欣立到访位于荷兰的人类药物研究中心(Centre for Human Drug Research),见证了一个重要的里程碑:维智基因的肌萎缩侧索硬化(ALS)药物的首次人类临床试验。该流程于2015年开始,当时,张欣立放弃了其在神经科学的硕士/博士学位计划,联合成立了维智。在她看来,自己使用人工智能来测绘这一疾病的研究或将带来大规模的影响,而且她打算为一些最难以治疗的疾病开发药物,包括ALS、帕金森综合征(Parkinson’s)和阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer’s)。对比其他药物开发技术,维智使用人类组织样本来测序,并构建疾病的生物特征数据图,目的是为了找到那些能够通过疗法来干预的环节。去年冬天,维智在B轮融资中筹集了9,800万美元,投资者包括贝莱德、礼来(Eli Lilly)、Threshold Ventures等公司。(财富中文网)
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
《财富》全球40位40岁以下商界精英年度榜单上,皆是2022年引领商业的领袖。今年榜上有名的创始人、高管、投资者和活动家也擅长创造和抓住机会。在他们当中,有人为他人赋权,有人针对影响数百万人的疾病探索新疗法,有人努力将人们联系在一起,有人努力巩固在运动和演艺生涯里获得的成功。他们在各自的行业中披荆斩棘,甚至开辟新道路。这份榜单将他们分为五类;以下是对他们的更多介绍。
风险投资和初创企业
维米莫·阿比(Wemimo Abbey),30岁
Esusu Financial联合创始人兼联席首席执行官
维米莫·阿比在尼日利亚拉各斯的贫民窟长大,两岁丧父。后来他和母亲前往美国明尼苏达州,然而在想办法为阿比筹集大学学费时,因为没有信用评分而被好几家银行拒之门外。他的母亲只得典当了父亲的戒指,承担400%利息的贷款,还向教会成员借钱。正因为早期的窘迫经历,他才选择了现在的行业:事实上,每10个成年人中就有一人没有信用记录,阿比的初创公司Esusu正在努力改变现状。Esusu向主要信用机构报告租金按时支付的情况,利用数据弥补种族财富差距,这样一来,租房者只要按时支付租金就能够获得并不断提升其信用评分。这家金融科技公司还为经济困难的租房者提供零利息的租金减免解决方案。阿比表示,Esusu的客户在全美50个州租赁了近300万套房屋,公司的年增长率为600%。今年1月在完成1.3亿美元的B轮融资后,Esusu成为美国为数不多的、由黑人创立的独角兽企业。
约翰·柯蒂斯(John Curtius),36岁
Cedar Investment Management创始人
2022年10月,约翰·柯蒂斯辞去风险投资公司老虎环球基金(Tiger Global)合伙人一职,创立了自己的基金Cedar Investment Management。他在老虎基金曾经主导约250笔交易,安排了对Databricks、Snyk、Toast、Snowflake、SentinelOne、GitLab和Kustomer等知名软件初创公司的投资。柯蒂斯告诉《财富》杂志,计划于2023年年中开展业务的Cedar主要侧重A轮到C轮融资,也可以充分发挥他在B2B软件、金融科技和市场领域投资12年积攒的专业知识。“软件是全世界最好的商业模式。”柯蒂斯说,“而且能够提供可观的风险调整后收益机会。”在Cedar和老虎基金之前,柯蒂斯在银湖资本(Silver Lake)和埃利奥特管理公司(Elliott Management)开启了投资生涯。
迪伦·菲尔德(Dylan Field),30岁
Figma联合创始人兼首席执行官
2012年,迪伦·菲尔德从布朗大学(Brown University)退学获得蒂尔奖学金(Thiel Fellow),参加了为大学生创业者提供机会建立公司的10万美元资助计划。他创建了基于网络的图形设计平台Figma,如今已经成为全球众多公司团队首选的设计工具。报道称,菲尔德创办Figma约十年后成为亿万富翁:2022年9月,Adobe以200亿美元收购了该公司,成为今年最大一笔并购案,他的净资产也因此超过20亿美元。Figma具备协作转发功能,用户可以在网页平台内进行虚拟白板、迭代和测试,从而成为产品团队的最爱。收购交易完成后,Figma将继续独立运营,但对用户的影响仍然未知。
李进(Li Jin),32岁
Variant Fund联合创始人兼普通合伙人
如果李进的愿景实现,互联网的下一步发展方向就将是“由用户掌控的网络”。她创立的早期加密基金Variant最近为第三只主要投向加密领域和Web3的基金筹集了4.5亿美元,目标是创造公正和公平的世界。李进毕业于哈佛大学(Harvard University),曾经在风投公司安德森·霍洛维茨(Andreessen Horowitz)工作,她表示经常受到卡尔·马克思的思想启发,长期以来一直努力为创作者劳动者在薪酬、保护和劳动实践方面争取更多的发言权。她主张制定“保护现代互联网员工”的劳动法。李进这么做有自己的原因:她一直坚持写作,目前在Substack上发表时事通讯。正如她所说,“激情经济主要关注‘内容’,所有权经济主要关注‘怎样做到’”:即人们怎样能够在赚取收入的同时做喜欢的事情,创造性地表达自我。
卢西亚娜·利克桑德鲁(Luciana Lixandru),38岁
红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)合伙人
2020年,风险投资巨头红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)决定在欧洲设立落脚点,其深知需要找一位熟悉欧洲背景和投资愿景的主要合伙人,帮忙从零开始建立英国分公司。卢西亚娜·利克桑德鲁是理想人选,她在罗马尼亚长大,就读于美国乔治城大学(Georgetown University),后来在Accel成为杰出的投资人。2020年,她成为红杉在欧洲的第一位合伙人。作为罗马尼亚软件公司UiPath和协作视觉平台Miro的早期投资者,利克桑德鲁希望为消费者和企业寻找可以开辟“新类别”的公司。今年3月,她与别人联合发起了为期两个月的孵化器项目Arc,向世界各地的创始人提供开发和推广项目的课程。
迪娜·沙基尔(Deena Shakir),37岁
Lux Capital合伙人
随着“罗诉韦德案”(Roe v. Wade)的反转,从公共政策到私营部门,针对女性健康的投资愈发关键。在硅谷,迪娜·沙基尔已经迅速成为该领域领先的风险投资人。在管理40亿美元资产的Lux Capital,沙基尔是唯一的女性合伙人,曾经支持雇主福利平台Maven Clinic、生育科技公司Alife Health和儿科初创公司Summer Health。她曾经在谷歌(Google)工作,也曾经在美国国务院(State Department)任职,在她的支持下,Maven成为女性和家庭健康领域里的第一家独角兽公司。
弗朗西斯卡·怀特海德(Francesca Whitehead),29岁
Fifth Wall副总裁
众所周知,可持续性是全球企业的首要任务。至于如何实现?大家并不太清楚。弗朗西斯卡·怀特海德已经成为气候领域里的资深投资人,主要支持开发技术帮助企业和消费者降低排放的公司。她主导了G2VP对无氮肥料制造商Pivot Bio和可持续B2B时尚平台Trove的投资。怀特海德在中国香港和越南长大,刚开始对气候领域感兴趣是因为在台风季里亲眼看到了全球变暖的实际影响。作为年轻的混血移民,她独特的视角有助于发现其他人可能错过的投资机会和创始人。目前(截至2022年11月),她在可持续房地产投资公司Fifth Wall担任副总裁。
卡克·威廉(Cack Wilhelm),38岁
机构风险合伙公司(IVP)普通合伙人
卡克·威廉的职业生涯始于职业跑者,但此后多年里她一直努力成为数据基础设施领域中的顶级投资人。2022年,威廉的投资组合的业绩十分亮眼,她也成为自1983年以来,IVP第一位晋升为普通合伙人的女性。迄今为止,她主导了对数据平台Monte Carlo和Obsidian Security的投资,也跟投了数据软件公司Cribl的2亿美元C轮融资。之前她曾经主导IVP投资由女性创办的员工薪酬独角兽Papaya Global,以及软件交付平台CircleCI。在成为合伙人后,她表示,目标是为更多的女性跻身风投领域高层铺平道路。
文化和社会
佩奇·布克斯(Paige Bueckers),21岁
康涅狄格大学(University of Connecticut)篮球运动员
由于前交叉韧带撕裂,在2022–23赛季的多数比赛中,佩奇·布克斯只能坐在场边。但这位康涅狄格大学(University of Connecticut)的明星球员表示,决心明年重返赛场,尤其是大学校级比赛场:她拒绝了加入美国女子职业篮球联赛(WNBA)的机会,决定在康涅狄格大学哈士奇队(University of Connecticut Husky)再打一年。这一决定和去年布克斯与品牌佳得乐(Gatorade)签署的多年代言协议密切相关。这是佳得乐与美国全国大学生体育协会(NCAA)的球员的首次合作,布克斯也成为NCAA规则改变后受益最大的大学球星之一,根据新规,大学运动员可以通过自身姓名、图片和肖像来获利。多数从事职业篮球的男运动员的年薪都有数百万美元,然而WNBA球员的年薪仅为几万美元。NCAA规则调整证明,布克斯之类的新晋女性运动员有能力促进女性运动,甚至能够比学校、联盟或组织做得更好。
亚历克斯·库珀(Alex Cooper),28岁
Call Her Daddy播客主持人
亚历克斯·库珀一直想成名,但不知道具体怎么做。她之前是波士顿大学(Boston University)的足球明星,研究生第一份工作被解雇时,她和当时室友兼最好的朋友索菲亚·富兰克林决定制作播客Call her Daddy。“当时没有人制作像我和足球队的队友在更衣室里说私房话一样的节目。”库珀告诉《财富》杂志。“全世界没有如此粗鲁、诚实的女人。”Barstool Sports的创始人戴夫·波特诺伊发现了这个播客,聘请库珀和弗兰克林当员工,也顺势收购了节目的知识产权。节目效果非常好,两个月内该播客的下载量从1.2万次增至200万次,第一年后两位主持人想争取更好的条件。最终,库珀赢得了节目所有权,如今她达成了播客里最赚钱的交易之一:以6,000万美元授权Spotify独家运营Call Her Daddy节目三年。她还将节目内容转向名人访谈、临床医生提供的心理健康信息和处理人际关系建议。在此过程中,她也成为Spotify最受欢迎的女性播客主持人。
蕾哈娜(Rihanna),34岁
歌手、企业家;Fenty Beauty品牌创始人、Savage X Fenty公司创始人
蕾哈娜是歌手出身,后来成了创始人,其个人资产净值也在不断攀升:据《福布斯》(Forbes)报道,现在她的身价为14亿美元,而她名下的化妆品品牌Fenty Beauty的价值至少是这个数字的两倍。她还有内衣和休闲服公司Savage X Fenty,去年B轮融资中筹集了1.15亿美元,有报道称目前价值2.7亿美元。蕾哈娜创业一帆风顺,但她并未完全放弃演出。2023年超级碗(Super Bowl)的中场休息节目里,她将担任主角,最近她为《黑豹2:瓦坎达万岁》(Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)配乐录制了新歌,也是六年来首次发行音乐作品。粉丝们在她社交媒体发的帖子里不断找寻发专辑的迹象。然而,最终粉丝发现她只是利用庞大的平台来推广公司的产品,鼓励粉丝投票,还有关注气候危机和种族不平等。
乔尔·甘布尔(Joelle Gamble),31岁
美国劳工部(U.S. Department of Labor)首席经济学家
在经济学家里,乔尔·甘布尔相当特别。她不仅是美国劳工部(U.S. Department of Labor)第二位担任首席经济学家的黑人女性,还公开表达稳步改革倾向。她在向来不够多元的环境里也很突出:美国联邦政府雇用的经济学家中只有29%是女性,只有10%是少数族裔。甘布尔从普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)获得硕士学位,她认为经济学等领域中有不同的观点和代表至关重要,而在历史上,经济学一直存在同质性。“不管是否承认,你的经历都会影响接近世界的方式。”甘布尔表示。“我是黑人女性,坦率地说,我在经济政策领域付出了巨大努力。”甘布尔以改革经济学为背景,不断突破界限,经常在推特(Twitter)上讨论最新的工作报告和劳动力趋势。“政府做出的改变,哪怕是最小规模的行动也会对企业和工人产生巨大的影响。”她说。“我只是从未想过可以有机会帮助如此多的人。”
哈比·拉梅(Khaby Lame),22岁
TikTok网红
哈比·拉梅在意大利都灵郊外的政府公房里长大,2022年6月成为全球粉丝最多的TikTok网红。新冠疫情来袭时,他失去了工厂里的工作,开始在TikTok上发布搞笑视频。这位22岁的年轻人发布无台词的短视频,面无表情地取笑过于复杂的生活技巧,收获了广泛关注,也吸引了粉丝和赞助商。他曾经与雨果博斯(Hugo Boss)、谷歌和币安(Binance)等品牌合作,在TikTok频道上播放大约6秒钟的短片就能够获得六位数的收入。拉梅的经纪人对《财富》杂志表示,今年拉梅有望赚到1,000万美元,主要来自品牌合作。然而,他的目光瞄准了好莱坞:拉梅在闲暇时间通过看英语动画片来努力学习英语,希望最终可以从小屏幕跃入大屏幕。
基利安·姆巴佩(Kylian Mbappé),23岁
巴黎圣日耳曼足球俱乐部(Paris Saint-Germain)及法国国家队职业足球运动员
基利安·姆巴佩之所以闻名,主要是因为他超群的运动能力和直言不讳。2022年6月,他批评法国足协(French Football Federation)未对球迷的种族主义侮辱采取强硬立场,9月,他拒绝给快餐店和博彩赞助商拍照,因为不符合他的价值观。今年夏天他考虑离开巴黎圣日耳曼足球俱乐部(Paris Saint-Germain)前往皇家马德里足球俱乐部(Real Madrid)时,接到了法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙打来的电话劝他留下。报道称,马克龙告诉姆巴佩他对法国“太重要了”,可能成为(或者可能已经成为)超越体育的国家象征。与此同时,今年姆巴佩1.28亿美元的收入也让他成为全球收入最高的球员,自2014年以来,这是第一次利昂内尔·梅西和克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多以外的球员获此殊荣。新兴的姆巴佩金融帝国包括制作公司Zebra Valley,今年6月,该公司与美国职业篮球联赛(NBA)签订了为期多年的协议;“Inspired by KM”儿童基金会;还有与耐克(Nike)、宇舶(Hublot)、艺电(EA)和帕尼尼(Panini)达成的代言协议。
克里斯蒂安·斯莫尔斯(Christian Smalls),34岁
亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)主席
尽管面对电子商务巨头,克里斯蒂安·斯莫尔斯还是在2021年成功推动了亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)的成立。一年后,美国纽约州斯塔滕岛的JFK8物流中心的多数员工投票支持成立工会。作为工会运动的代言人,斯莫尔斯担任多种角色,呼吁政界人士支持,筹集资金,还号召其他厂区的工人加入运动。斯莫尔斯在斯塔滕岛胜利以来,亚马逊的其他两个物流中心投了反对票,但他仍然在努力组织亚马逊在美国的110个积极物流中心,希望在新型劳工运动前沿成立全国性的工会。“我这一生都在以各种方式组织劳工运动。”斯莫尔斯说。“我意识到当前时刻面临历史性的财富不均,而且各大公司都在剥削劳动力,但无法反击。”
丽娜·维特(Lena Waithe),38岁
演员、制片、编剧;Hillman Grad创始人
近二十年来,芝加哥人丽娜·维特一直努力推动好莱坞文化变革。大学毕业后,她飞往洛杉矶从事电视工作,后来因为在喜剧《无为大师》(Master of None)中出色的写作而成为首位获得艾美奖(Emmy Awards)的黑人女性。她同时是制片人、作家、演员,多平台娱乐公司Hillman Grad的创始人,还是业内同性恋平权的倡导者。维特自己是偏男性角色的有色人种女同性恋,她从自身经历中汲取灵感,创作并监制了《二十岁》(Twenties),也是BET网络上第一部以同性恋为主角的剧集。维特还是Showtime电视剧《芝加哥故事》(The Chi)的创作者,这部反映成长的电视剧主要关注芝加哥南区居民之间的关系。在屏幕外,维特通过Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab讲述边缘创作者的故事,为其提供入行的机会。
金融和加密货币
安妮-维克托伊尔·奥里奥特(Anne-Victoire Auriault),34岁
高盛集团全球市场部(Goldman Sachs, Global Markets Division)合伙人
安妮-维克托伊尔·奥里奥特已经在高盛集团(Goldman Sachs)工作十年有余,但直到2019年被任命为执行董事后才真正开始“平步青云”。受任执行董事的次年,她成为该公司历史上最年轻的女性合伙人之一。奥里奥特说:“此次任命证明,女性交易员也有机会成为合伙人,这一点非常重要,尤其是考虑到我一直十分重视家庭且鼓励团队成员做到工作与生活的健康平衡。我得到晋升后,很多女性主动与我联系,让我意识到,这件事情对她们而言也具有拐点意义。”2022年,奥里奥特应邀加入负责管理公司文化事务的高盛合伙人委员会,她也是该公司全球市场包容性和多样性委员会的成员。奥里奥特表示,未来几年,她期待能够“承担更多职责,成为客户真正的合作伙伴”,她还补充道:“一开始,我主要负责美国市场事务,现在则管理着全球团队。下一步,我希望可以涉足更多的领域,并将不同产品的成功经验制度化。”
卡纳夫·卡里亚(Kanav Kariya),26岁
Jump Crypto总裁
卡纳夫·卡里亚以实习生身份加入Jump Trading(一家加密货币公司创业孵化器),并于去年受任成为该公司经过品牌重塑、拥有170名员工的数字资产部门——Jump Crypto的掌门人。此后,在其领导之下,Jump Crypto在加密货币领域完成了数十亿美元的投资,成为Web3领域里的一支重要力量。在谈及有关未来的宏伟蓝图时,卡里亚告诉《财富》杂志,他希望Jump Crypto能够成为“重要的基础设施建设者,在行业规模不断扩大的过程中贡献自己的力量”。虽然当前加密货币市场依旧低迷,但卡里亚领导的Jump Crypto依然在“主动出击”。仅在一年左右时间里,Jump Crypto投资的加密货币公司就已经超过了100家。
玛丽-凯瑟琳·拉德尔(Mary-Catherine Lader),37岁
Uniswap Labs首席运营官
怀着对去中心化金融(DeFi)未来前景的坚定信念,玛丽-凯瑟琳·拉德尔毅然放弃了自己在华尔街的事业,投身加密货币领域,并迅速崭露头角。虽然市场持续低迷,但她仍然在Uniswap Labs(该公司控制着以太坊上最大的去中心化交易所)为实现自己的梦想——让去中心化金融得到主流社会的认可而不懈努力。虽然受“加密寒冬”( Crypto Winter)的影响,业内风投近乎绝迹,但Uniswap Labs还是在2022年10月拿到了1.65亿美元的B轮融资(去中心化金融公司最大单笔股权融资之一),最新估值达到16.6亿美元。对于曾经领导贝莱德(BlackRock)首个区块链项目的拉德尔而言,本轮融资表明她对Uniswap的发展寄予厚望。该公司希望借助即将推出的NFT聚合器(NFT aggregator),成为业内顶级的综合性链上交易市场。
迈克尔·麦卡弗里(Michael McCaffrey),27岁
The Block首席执行官
迈克尔·麦卡弗里的金融生涯始于高盛集团和花旗银行(Citi),在许多人眼中,这两家公司与加密货币天然对立。2018年,他踏上了较为小众的发展道路,选择加入The Block,成为该公司的首批员工,彼时,这家在Medium上发布信息的币圈媒体的规模还很小。如今,麦卡弗里已经成为这个冉冉升起的区块链媒体帝国的首席执行官,带领团队为加密货币行业提供深度数据分析。为将The Block发展成“币圈的彭博社”,麦卡弗里正在大力推进两个项目:其一是与一家名为Access Protocol的公司合作,让读者可以用通证来购买线上内容,而不再需要单独进行订阅;其二是打造一套全新的信息情报产品,帮助企业更好地认识加密货币生态。麦卡弗里希望借助这两个项目打通企业和消费者两大读者群体。
阿兰·迈耶(Alain Meier),29岁
Plaid身份主管
在斯坦福大学(Stanford University)攻读本科学位时,阿兰·迈耶已经开始研究那些能够帮助金融科技公司及其客户验证用户身份的技术。2013年,迈耶与他人共同创办了Cognito(一个可以提升身份验证速度并确保准确度的平台),并出任首席执行官一职。2022年1月,该公司被其以2.5亿美元的价格出售给Plaid。该笔收购完成前,Plaid的许多客户已经在使用Cognito的技术,包括开展“先买后付”业务的Affirm公司和专注于企业金融的金融科技公司Brex。此后,Plaid进一步扩大业务重心,对银行账户与金融科技应用程序进行连接,并开始深耕加密货币业务。该公司最近还推出了Wallet Onboard,将加密货币钱包与去中心化Web3应用程序进行连接。正如迈耶在Inspired Capital的Inspired in 15播客节目中所解释的那样,由于“使用假名”(pseudonymization of identity),或者说“虚构角色”是该行业的一大特点,Web3会让身份验证变得更为复杂;与此同时,监管机构又在打击匿名交易。迈耶和整个金融科技行业都在努力解决这些现实问题,在骗局层出不穷的加密货币行业里提升参与者的可信度。
妮可·穆尼兹(Nicole Muniz),38岁
Yuga Labs首席执行官
在不到一年的时间里,妮可·穆尼兹就将Yuga Labs打造成了NFT行业中的明星企业。在穆尼兹的领导下,Yuga Labs成功推出了备受市场追捧的系列NFT——无聊猿猴游艇俱乐部(Bored Ape Yacht Club),还收购了另外两个热门系列产品——CryptoPunks和Meebits,将所有的相关知识产权授予了NFT持有者。如此高光表现也吸引到了投资者的目光。今年3月,穆尼兹帮助Yuga Labs在a16z Crypto领衔的融资中筹集到了4.5亿美元,使该公司的市值一跃达到40亿美元。目前,穆尼兹力图以Yuga Labs在NFT领域里取得的成功为基础,借助开发中的“Otherside”元宇宙平台推动公司业绩“再上层楼”。今年4月,该公司通过出售55,000份“Otherdeeds”虚拟地契创造了约3.2亿美元的收入。
安东尼奥·怀特(Antonio White),35岁
美国银行(Bank of America)高级副总裁兼公共政策执主管
安东尼奥·怀特曾经担任美国财政部(U.S. Treasury Department)负责社区参与事务的副助理部长一职,彼时,他可以说是该机构“方向调整”的象征,不仅在经济政策方面如此,在践行种族公平理念方面也是如此。怀特当时负责领导改革后的公共联络办公室,通过《美国救援计划》(American Rescue Plan)发放了1万亿美元资金来帮助社区和企业应对新冠疫情造成的影响。他将与民权团体、工会和贸易协会等具有“共同价值观”的组织进行联系列为优先任务,在美国财政部开了先河。他还参与了2021年5月向州、市政府发放3,500亿美元援助方案的制定工作。2011年,怀特以白宫实习生的身份投身公共服务,通过这份工作,他“开始了解到,虽然公共政策从制定到施行要花费很长的时间,而一旦开始施行,就会产生巨大的影响”。他补充说,从那时起,“我就迷上了这个事业”。今年秋天,怀特把自己在行政部门积累的经验带到了美国银行(Bank of America),担任负责公共政策的高级副总裁。这家银行将利用他在华盛顿积累的专业经验推进实现负责任的增长。
克塞尼亚·尤迪娜(Ksenia Yudina),35岁
UNest创始人兼首席执行官
2022年年初,克塞尼亚·尤迪娜大部分的时间都在努力将身陷战区的员工转移出来。她领导的UNest位于美国加利福尼亚州北好莱坞地区,共有42名员工,今年年初俄罗斯军队进攻基辅时,其中12人身在乌克兰、俄罗斯或白俄罗斯。这家公司是让父母为孩子的教育进行投资和储蓄的数字经纪商。今年3月,尤迪娜的团队经常在晚间和周末寻找能够将员工转移到安全地带的路线,他们还设法向开发者及其家人支付现金。与此同时,他们也在为推出UNest旗下加密货币做着准备工作(虽然略有延迟,但该加密货币还是于今年9月正式推出)。作为一名俄罗斯人,这场战争对尤迪娜而言可以说是“感同身受”。尤迪娜18岁时来到美国,加入Capital Group前从事的是酒店管家工作。尤迪娜从一众风投公司为UNest筹集到了3,800万美元,参与投资的公司包括Anthos Capital、Artemis Fund、富兰克林邓普顿(Franklin Templeton)和Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures。最近,UNest又与iHeartMedia达成合作,后者将向其投资800万美元,并将在iHeartRadio为其刊发广告。
技术和创新
恩里克·亚松森(Enric Asunción),37岁
Wallbox联合创始人兼首席执行官
恩里克·亚松森来自西班牙巴塞罗那,现任Wallbox(行业领先的电动汽车智能家庭充电系统供应商)首席执行官一职,是一名不折不扣的电动汽车专家。在参与创立Wallbox之前,他曾经在汽车工程公司Applus+ IDIADA工作,后又加入特斯拉(Tesla),负责欧洲区的家庭充电业务。现在,他的公司在欧洲拥有两家工厂,在中国有一家,另有一家新工厂位于美国,2021年10月,Wallbox成为首家成功登陆纽约证券交易所(NYSE)的西班牙科技公司。由于电动汽车市场目前仍然处于早期阶段,而Wallbox的业务又已经覆盖120个国家,亚松森认为公司未来将大有作为,不仅在电动汽车充电领域里拥有大量的机会,在社会整体向可再生能源过渡的过程中也有很大的发挥空间。Wallbox的系统能够双向充电,在停电时,可以使用车载电池为家中的电器供电。
亚历克西斯·巴雷亚特(Alexis Barreyat),27岁
BeReal联合创始人兼首席执行官
在运动相机公司GoPro工作几年之后,来自法国的技术专家和山地自行车爱好者——亚历克西斯·巴雷亚特在2019年与他人一同创办了社交媒体应用程序BeReal。这是一款提示用户在随机指定时间发布自己与周围环境照片的应用程序,不给用户“构图”时间,用一种诙谐的方式对社交媒体那种精心设计自拍照的风气发起了挑战。今年以来,BeReal大受Z世代用户的欢迎,一举杀入主流市场,不仅在应用程序下载排行榜上名列前茅,甚至连《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)也专门用一段小品对其优点进行了演绎。据《金融时报》(Financial Times)报道,巴雷亚特旗下这家位于巴黎的小型创业公司最近刚以6亿美元的估值筹集到了6,000万美元,还引起了Instagram和TikTok等巨头竞争对手的注意,二者均已经在近期推出了类似功能。
吉米·陈(Jimmy Chen),35岁
Propel创始人兼首席执行官
对于6,000万依靠政府保障的美国低收入群体来说,关心自己的财务状况可能颇为麻烦,也颇为乏味。通过其创办的Propel公司及其免费应用程序,吉米·陈正在帮助500万美国人关注自己的财务健康问题。吉米承认,为美国低收入人群提供银行服务确实“难度颇高”,但他乐于接受挑战。之所以选择投身这一领域,一方面是因为他看到了技术在社会公益事业上的应用潜力,另一方面是自己在成长过程中家中也曾经遭遇经济困难,所以能够感同身受。吉米用自己的实际行动证明,企业家不仅可以与政府官僚机构携手合作,还能够提高后者的工作质量。在吉米的带领下,Propel也在提升慈善事业的效率,通过与非营利组织GiveDirectly合作,其向佛罗里达、波多黎各两地受飓风影响的Propel用户发放了2亿美元的救济资金。
薇薇安·楚(Vivian Chu),35岁
Diligent Robotics联合创始人兼首席技术官
薇薇安·楚是Diligent Robotics的联合创始人兼首席技术官,该公司已经筹集近5,000万美元,用于开发供医院使用的社交智能机器人。该公司的旗舰产品是Moxi,一个可以协助护士完成分娩工作的机器人。在确定自己不适合从事软件工程工作之后,薇薇安选择投身机器人领域,因为她意识到,她能够制造出可以改善他人生活和工作环境的产品。在祖父母日渐老去,进入养老院生活后,薇薇安发现,机器人技术在医疗保健领域里大有用武之地,因此,她将这一领域选作自己的“主攻方向”。她表示,自己开发的机器人不会抢走他人的工作岗位,而是能够帮助护士们完成其不愿意做的工作,让她们可以“多陪陪病人或者多点喘息时间”。
玛丽安娜·科斯塔(Mariana Costa),36岁
Laboratoria联合创始人兼首席执行官
科技行业在拉美蓬勃发展,同时也是重要的致富途径,为确保女性能够在该领域里拥有一席之地,玛丽安娜·科斯塔与他人携手创办了Laboratoria。科斯塔估计,到今年年底,该技术培训营将可以在数个拉美国家培训3,000名女性,去年参加该培训营的女性在完成培训后的就业率达到近90%。科斯塔说,在通过谷歌奖学金参加一次会议时,她观看了“黑人女孩代码营”(Black Girls Code)的创始人金伯利·布莱恩特的演讲,自己(投身这项事业是因为)也是因为受到了布莱恩特的启发。谷歌如今是Laboratoria的主要捐助者之一。目前,科斯塔正在推进一项全新事业,她打算将其发展成为公司内部的新部门——Laboratoria+。该项目将致力于帮助那些已经在从事科技工作的女性成长为领军人物,推动该行业的未来发展。
帕维尔·杜罗夫(Pavel Durov),38岁
Telegram创始人兼首席执行官
帕维尔·杜罗夫曾经被称为“俄罗斯的马克·扎克伯格”。但在他创办的社交媒体公司VKontakte惹怒克里姆林宫后,他逃离了这个国家,并利用出售公司所得的3亿美元推出了Telegram。自杜罗夫上次在2018年入选《财富》“全球40位40岁以下商界精英”以来,Telegram飞速崛起。杜罗夫估计,该平台现有超过7亿活跃用户,日新增用户达200万之多。无论是伊朗示威民众、俄军指挥官、乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基,还是美国前总统唐纳德·特朗普的无数MAGA(Make America Great Again,“让美国再次伟大”)支持者,都把这个不加审查的加密平台当作自己的传声筒,在此宣泄自己或愤怒或悲伤的情绪,发布各种突发新闻,宣传自己的理念。有人估计,杜罗夫的身价现在已经达到150亿美元,不过他在自己寄居的迪拜依然过着低调的生活(去年他还获得了法国的公民身份),只通过自己的Telegram频道与外界进行联系。他在今年10月曾经写道:“Telegram无需进行额外宣传。”从现在的情况来看,这么说还是略显谦虚了。
苏珊·李(Susan Li),36岁
Meta首席财务官
自2008年以来,苏珊·李(音译)便一直在Meta工作,当时这家还被称为Facebook的初创公司只有很少的几名员工,“分散在帕洛阿托市中心的几栋大楼里”。今年11月1日,苏珊·李成为Meta的新任首席财务官,接替此前曾经长期担任这一职位的戴夫·韦纳。苏珊·李进入公司最高管理层的时机非常关键,目前,这家互联网企业正在试图围绕元宇宙技术进行业务转型,而广告业务营收的下降也让其切身感到了经济放缓的刺痛。面对摆在眼前的双重挑战,这位斯坦福大学的校友的工作并不轻松,要在艰难的成本削减(包括要在履新首月进行大规模裁员)和战略投资之间取得平衡。作为昔日的财务副总裁,苏珊·李也曾经带领公司度过一些难关,具备完成这项任务所需要的丰富实战经验。
RJ·斯卡林格(RJ Scaringe),39岁
Rivian创始人兼首席执行官
RJ·斯卡林格自记事起便是一位“车迷”,在拿到麻省理工学院(MIT)的汽车工程博士学位后,他于2009年创立了电动汽车创业公司Rivian。此后,他先是签下了亚马逊这个大客户,后又带领Rivian成功上市,募集到120亿美元,创下Facebook之后最大的IPO纪录,并凭借Rivian首款车型——R1T电动皮卡一举拿下享有盛誉的MotorTrend年度卡车奖。但在过去一年里,该公司遇到了许多困难,由于微芯片缺货,斯卡林格不得不将Rivian的年度生产目标调降一半,而将高额价格强加给已下单客户的做法则使公司的公关陷入被动。Rivian的股价已经受到影响,但公司业务仍然在斯卡林格的带领之下不断向前推进,不仅新增一款电动SUV产品,似乎还有望实现其全年(尽管是降低了)生产目标。
健康与生物科学
埃伦·鲍利(Eren Bali),38岁
Carbon Health联合创始人兼首席执行官
国际象棋对很多人来说是一个颇费脑力的活动,然而,在耗费精力努力改善医疗服务的未来之后,埃伦·鲍利发现,国际象棋是一种具有一定放松作用的消遣方式。从土耳其移民至美国旧金山湾区之后,鲍利亲身体验了美国破败的医疗系统,并踏上了医疗系统的拆分重构之旅,以增加医疗服务获取渠道,降低成本,并提供混合医疗服务。为了实现这一目标,鲍利与他人联合创建了Carbon Health,这是一家由初级治疗和急救设施组成的连锁医院,提供远程医疗和现场就医预约服务。该公司称,其服务目前已经面向美国四分之三的人口开放,而且计划进一步扩大。Carbon Health允许病患通过智能手机预约当日现场或者线上就医,并获取病例和测试结果。公司将进军糖尿病护理领域并开创业界的一个先河:在提供血糖监测的同时让病患直接获取首要医疗提供商的线上和线下服务。未来,Carbon Health将整合基础医疗与精神健康服务。
弗洛里安·布兰德(Florian Brand),36岁
Atai Life Sciences联合创始人兼首席执行官
弗洛里安·布兰德是德国生物制药公司Atai Life Sciences的首席执行官,该公司正在尝试利用新技术和药物,来开发新的精神健康疗法,尤其是利用裸盖菇(psilocybin mushrooms)和其他精神类物质,这些物质的医疗用途直到最近才开始受到人们的重视。拥有商业背景而不是医学背景的布兰德亲眼看到,朋友和家庭成员难以找到充足的传统疗法来治疗抑郁和其他精神健康疾病,随后,他便投身到了这一领域当中。布兰德看到了该领域治疗方案多元化的需求,而且Atai已经成立或收购了数家正在研究不同潜在治疗方案的子公司。该公司希望在未来几年内收集到临界量的数据,而且正在与监管方合作,为未来的治疗方案铺平道路。
安吉特·古普塔(Ankit Gupta),35岁
Bicycle Health创始人兼首席执行官
美国卫生与公众服务部(Department of Health and Human Services)称,解决美国阿片类药物危机的首要任务是改善人们获取治疗方案和恢复服务的渠道。然而,40%的美国郡县都缺乏能够提供药物辅助治疗方案的设施。安吉特·古普塔横空出世,他创建的Bicycle Health旨在通过专业远程医疗服务来填补阿片类药物使用紊乱症治疗的空白。古普塔于2017年成立该公司,当时,他收购了加州红杉城的一家小诊所。随后在2020年,政府法规有所放宽,开始允许在线上开立更多的阿片治疗药物处方。自那时起,Bicycle Health扩张至29个州,治疗了20,000名病患,并筹集了8,300万美元的风投资金。Bicycle称,公司的留存率比标准的现场就医诊所高出40%,而且众多病患的就医成本也有所降低,这一点归功于远程医疗带来的便利性。古普塔对《财富》杂志表示,今年6月Bicycle获得的5,000万美元,他计划借助这笔资金在接下来几个季度中再度将业务拓展至6个州,并改善Bicycle的技术,同时追加包含Bicycle服务的健康计划的数量。
杰米·卡拉克(Jamie Karraker),33岁;马蒂厄·加马奇-阿塞林(Mattieu Gamache-Asselin),33岁
Alto Pharmacy联合创始人
2015年,马蒂厄·加马奇-阿塞林和杰米·卡拉克辞去了Facebook的工程师工作,怀揣着颠覆线下处方药业务的初衷,联合创立了Alto Pharmacy。不过在一开始,他们收购并经营了一家实体药房,此举为他们提供了大量有助于经验改善的洞见(例如取消传真机需求的重要性)。如今,公司的技术简化了开药医师、药剂师与病患之间的开药流程,药物将送至患者家门口。这些改善的目标在于:确保更多需要处方药的民众可以真正收到和使用这些药物。Alto得到了消费者的极力赞赏,其净推荐者分数达到了86分,并获得了5.5亿美元的风投资本资金。其他令人印象深刻的成就包括,其2022年营收达到了10亿美元大关,并于今年夏季挖来了亚马逊核心高管团的艾丽西娅·波勒·戴维斯,担任其新首席执行官。
克里斯蒂娜·萨夫兰(Kristina Saffran),30岁
Equip联合创始人兼首席执行官
在克里斯蒂娜·萨夫兰从进食障碍中恢复之后,她在过去近15年的时间里一直在努力打造其他人能够使用的有效疗法。在3,000万美国进食障碍病患中,仅有20%可以得到帮助,而且该病的风险十分之高:与进食障碍有关的死亡风险和成本超过了大多数其他精神障碍疾病。2008年,萨夫兰成立了Project HEAL,为那些无法负担治疗费用的人群提供治疗资助。不过她意识到,仅靠此类非营利性机构无法满足这方面的缺口,因此她决定进军私营领域,并在2019年与他人联合创建了Equip Health。Equip致力于提供基于家庭的治疗方案,采用了基于实证的门诊治疗模式,面向青少年和年轻成年人,并通过虚拟方式提供服务。到目前为止,该公司已经服务了1,000个家庭,在今年早些时候的B轮融资中筹集了5,800万美元,而且与美国的多家主要保险公司开展了合作,包括安泰(Aetna)、信诺(Cigna)和联合健康集团(UnitedHealthcare)。
埃莱诺·“克鲁”·史密斯(Elenoe “Crew” Smith),38岁
Vertex Pharmaceuticals综合药理学总监
自中学以来,埃莱诺·“克鲁”·史密斯一直致力于应对和研究镰状细胞病(SCD)。镰状细胞病主要出现在非洲后裔人群中,史密斯说,由于在维京群岛长大,她认识的SCD患者比癌症患者还要多。史密斯的职业生涯始于波士顿儿童医院(Boston Children’s Hospital),如今她是Vertex Pharmaceuticals的综合药理学总监,正在为SCD打造治疗方案。到目前为止,史密斯一直在研究潜在的小分子药物,以研制用于治疗SCD的可用药物和疗法。史密斯告诉《财富》杂志:“令我感到高兴的是,众多国家都有所觉醒,并意识到这是一个重要的健康问题。”由于该疾病的患者多为黑人,一直以来,一些社会成见和结构性种族歧视阻碍了SCD治疗的进展。然而,史密斯表示,她看到病患、科学和政策团体在寻找公平治疗方案、开展深入研究方面展现出了更大的动力。
大卫·维韦罗(David Vivero),39岁
Amino Health联合创始人兼首席执行官
19岁时,大卫·维韦罗被诊断患有罕见病遗传性血色素沉着症。在辞去Zillow公司的租赁业务副总裁一职数年后,维韦罗申请医疗保险却因为自己的病症而被拒保。随后,他耗费了数周的时间尝试弄清楚自己如何才能购买保险。维韦罗并没有向错综复杂的美国医疗系统妥协,他与他的联合创始人决定简化这一流程,并创建了医疗价格透明平台和福利导航器Amino Health。维韦罗对《财富》杂志表示,人们一生中在进行一些重大医疗投资时往往没有多少可供参考的信息,而且存在诸多的不便因素。他解释说:“我们尝试将其便利化,从而在医疗领域里提供绝佳的可选方案。”到目前为止,他们做的十分成功。Amino称,相对于非用户,用户借助公司平台界面选到高质量、低成本提供商的概率提升了两倍至三倍。维韦罗说:“事实证明,我们可以让人们转而为自己做出更好的决策。”
张欣立(Alice Zhang),33岁
维智基因(Verge Genomics)联合创始人兼首席执行官
2022年秋季,张欣立到访位于荷兰的人类药物研究中心(Centre for Human Drug Research),见证了一个重要的里程碑:维智基因的肌萎缩侧索硬化(ALS)药物的首次人类临床试验。该流程于2015年开始,当时,张欣立放弃了其在神经科学的硕士/博士学位计划,联合成立了维智。在她看来,自己使用人工智能来测绘这一疾病的研究或将带来大规模的影响,而且她打算为一些最难以治疗的疾病开发药物,包括ALS、帕金森综合征(Parkinson’s)和阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer’s)。对比其他药物开发技术,维智使用人类组织样本来测序,并构建疾病的生物特征数据图,目的是为了找到那些能够通过疗法来干预的环节。去年冬天,维智在B轮融资中筹集了9,800万美元,投资者包括贝莱德、礼来(Eli Lilly)、Threshold Ventures等公司。(财富中文网)
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
Fortune’s annual 40 Under 40 list shines a spotlight on influential individuals shaping business in 2022. The founders, executives, investors, and activists on this year’s list are creating and seizing opportunity. They’re empowering others. They’re exploring new treatments for diseases that affect millions. They’re connecting people. They’re building upon their successes as athletes and entertainers. They’re trailblazing in their industries. And they’re even building new ones. They’re divided into five broad categories; learn more about them below.
Venture and Startups
Wemimo Abbey
Age:30 title:Cofounder and Co-CEO company:Esusu Financial
Wemimo Abbey grew up in the slums of Lagos, and lost his father when he was two. He and his mother moved to Minnesota, where they were turned away from several banks while looking for a way to pay for Abbey to go to college, because they didn’t have a credit score. His mother pawned his father’s ring, took out a 400% interest loan, and borrowed money from members of their church. That early experience inspired his current path: Indeed, one in every 10 adults has no credit history, and Abbey’s startup Esusu is working to change that. Esusu uses data to bridge the racial wealth gap by reporting on-time rent payments to major credit bureaus, so renters establish and improve their credit scores when they pay on time. The fintech company also offers 0% interest rent relief solutions for renters experiencing financial hardship. Abbey says Esusu’s customers have a reach of 3 million rental units across all 50 states, and the company has seen 600% growth year over year. After a $130 million Series B funding round in January, Esusu became one of a very few Black-owned unicorns in the U.S.
John Curtius
Age:36 title:Founder company:Cedar Investment Management
John Curtius left his role as partner at venture capital firm Tiger Global in October 2022 to start his own fund, Cedar Investment Management. He led roughly 250 deals at Tiger, arranging investments in notable software startups including Databricks, Snyk, Toast, Snowflake, SentinelOne, GitLab, and Kustomer. Cedar, which he plans to launch in mid-2023, will focus on Series A through Series C rounds, Curtius tells Fortune, and draw on his expertise gained from 12 years of investing in B2B software, fintech, and marketplaces. “Software is the best business model in the world,” Curtius says, “and can offer incredibly compelling risk-adjusted return opportunities.” Prior to Cedar and Tiger, Curtius started his investing career with stints at Silver Lake and Elliott Management.
Dylan Field
Age:30 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Figma
In 2012 Dylan Field dropped out of Brown University to become a Thiel Fellow, participating in a $100,000 grant program that gives college entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their companies. He created a web-based graphic design platform, Figma, which has since become a go-to design tool for teams at a range of firms around the world. Field reportedly became a billionaire about a decade after founding Figma: In September 2022 Adobe acquired the company for $20 billion—bolstering his net worth beyond $2 billion in one of the year’s largest mergers. Figma became a cult favorite among product teams for its collaboration-forward features, allowing users to virtually whiteboard, iterate, and test within the web-based platform. The plan is for Figma to remain independent within Adobe, and the effect of this on users remains unknown.
Li Jin
Age:32 title:Cofounder and General Partner company:Variant Fund
If Li Jin has her way, the next evolution of the internet will be the “user-owned web.” Variant, her early stage crypto-focused fund, recently raised $450 million for a third fund focused on making the world just and fair—by investing in crypto and Web3. The Harvard graduate and Andreessen Horowitz alum, who has said she’s often inspired by the ideological work of Karl Marx, has long fought for ways to give creator-workers more of a say with regard to their compensation, protections, and labor practices. She advocates an evolution toward labor laws “that protect modern internet-based workers.” This is personal for Jin: She herself is a longtime writer who currently publishes a newsletter on Substack. As she puts it, “The passion economy is the ‘what,’ and the ownership economy is the ‘how’”: how people can do what they love and express themselves creatively, while earning an income.
Luciana Lixandru
Age:38 title:Partner company:Sequoia Capital
When venture titan Sequoia decided to establish a permanent foothold in Europe in 2020, the firm knew it needed a leading partner with European expertise and investing vision to help build the U.K.-based division from the ground up. Luciana Lixandru, who grew up in Romania and went to Georgetown University in the U.S. before becoming a standout investor at Accel, was the ideal pick. She became Sequoia’s first European partner in 2020. As an early investor in UiPath, the Romania-based software company, and Miro, the collaborative visual platform, Lixandru says she looks for firms that create “new categories” for consumers and enterprises. This March, she co-launched Arc, a two-month-long incubator program for founders from across the world that delivers a course on how to develop and market their chosen project.
Deena Shakir
Age:37 title:Partner company:Lux Capital
The reversal of Roe v. Wade has made investing in women’s health—from public policy to the private sector—even more critical. In Silicon Valley, Deena Shakir has quickly become a go-to VC in the space. The only female partner at Lux Capital, a firm with $4 billion in assets under management, Shakir has backed employer-benefits platform Maven Clinic, fertility tech company Alife Health, and pediatrics startup Summer Health. The Google alumna and former State Department staffer even helped mint Maven as the first unicorn in the women’s and family health category.
Francesca Whitehead
Age:29 title:Vice President company:Fifth Wall
It’s clear sustainability is a huge priority for global businesses. How to get there? That’s not always so clear. Francesca Whitehead has become a go-to investor in the climate space, backing firms that create tech to help businesses and consumers cut down on emissions. She led G2VP’s investment in Pivot Bio, maker of a nitrogen-free fertilizer, and Trove, a sustainable B2B fashion platform. Whitehead was first drawn to working in the climate space growing up in Hong Kong and Vietnam and seeing the tangible impact of global warming during typhoon season. Her unique perspective as a young, biracial immigrant helps her spot investment opportunities and founders others might miss. As of November 2022, she is a VP at Fifth Wall, a sustainable real estate investing firm.
Cack Wilhelm
Age:38 title:General Partner company:IVP
Cack Wilhelm started her career as a professional runner, but in the years since, she’s applied her long-standing competitive drive to becoming a top investor in the data infrastructure space. In 2022, Wilhelm became the first woman promoted to general partner at IVP since 1983, a role she took on after a standout year for her portfolio. So far, she’s led investments in data platforms Monte Carlo and Obsidian Security, as well as joined data software firm Cribl’s $200 million Series C round. She previously led IVP’s investments in Papaya Global, the woman-founded employee payroll unicorn, and CircleCI, a software delivery platform. In her role as partner, she says she aims to pave the way for more women to be top decision-makers in the venture space.
Culture and Society
Paige Bueckers
Age:21 title:Basketball Player company:University of Connecticut
Paige Bueckers is on the sidelines for the majority of the 2022–23 basketball season with a torn ACL. But the University of Connecticut star has said she’s determined to get back onto the court next year, specifically at the college level: She’s turned down the opportunity to join the WNBA to remain a Husky for another year. This decision is closely related to the multiyear endorsement deal Bueckers signed last year with Gatorade. It was that brand’s first partnership with an NCAA player—making Bueckers one of the biggest college stars to benefit from the NCAA rule change that allows collegiate athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness. While most male athletes who graduate into professional basketball can expect annual salaries in the millions, expected compensation in the WNBA is in the thousands. The NCAA rule change proves that entrepreneurial female athletes like Bueckers have what it takes to promote women’s sports—as well as or better than their schools, leagues, or organizations ever could.
Alex Cooper
Age:28 title:Podcaster company:Call Her Daddy
Alex Cooper always wanted to be famous, she just wasn’t sure how. When the former Boston University soccer star got laid off from her first postgrad job, she and her then-roommate and best friend, Sofia Franklyn, decided to start the raunchy podcast Call Her Daddy. “No one was talking the way me and my teammates back in college on the soccer team would talk in the locker room,” Cooper tells Fortune. “There was no woman out there being so raw and honest.” Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy discovered the podcast and hired Cooper and Franklyn as employees, taking ownership of its intellectual property. The show went viral—going from 12,000 to 2 million downloads in two months—and after the first year, the cohosts wanted a better deal. Ultimately, Cooper won ownership of the show, and today she has one of the most lucrative deals in podcasting: $60 million to license Call Her Daddy exclusively to Spotify for three years. She’s also pivoted the show’s content to celebrity interviews, clinician-advised mental health information, and relationship advice. In the process, she’s become Spotify’s most popular female podcaster.
Rihanna
Age:34 title:Singer and Entrepreneur company:Fenty, Savage X Fenty
The singer turned founder’s personal estimated net worth keeps climbing: She’s now worth $1.4 billion, per Forbes, while the value of Fenty Beauty, her cosmetics line known for its inclusive products, is at least twice that. Then there’s Savage X Fenty, her lingerie and loungewear company, which last year raised $115 million in a Series B funding round and is now reportedly worth $270 million. Even as she reaches these entrepreneurial milestones, Rihanna has not fully pivoted away from performing. She’s slated to headline the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, and she recently recorded a new song for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, her first musical release in six years. Her fans constantly scour her social media posts for any sign of a future album. They instead find her using her enormous platform to promote her companies’ products, encourage her followers to vote, and bring attention to the climate crisis and racial injustice.
Joelle Gamble
Age:31 title:Chief Economist company:U.S. Department of Labor
Among economists, Joelle Gamble stands out. She’s not only just the second Black woman to serve as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, but she has an openly progressive bent. She also stands out in an environment not known for diversity: Just 29% of economists employed by the federal government are women, and only 10% identify as a minority. For Gamble, who earned her master’s from Princeton University, it’s critical to have different perspectives and representation in fields like economics, which has been historically homogenous. “Your experiences, whether you acknowledge them or not, inform how you approach the world,” Gamble says. “I am a Black woman, and I frankly struggled a great deal to get seen in econ policy spaces.” With a background in progressive economics, Gamble continues to push boundaries, routinely taking to Twitter to discuss the latest job reports and other workforce trends. “The scale of change that the government can make, even the smallest administrative action, has huge implications for businesses and workers,” she says. “I just never thought I would have that opportunity to help people on that scale.”
Khaby Lame
Age:22 title:TikToker
Khaby Lame, who became the world’s most-followed TikToker in June 2022, grew up in government housing outside Turin, Italy. When the pandemic hit, he was laid off from his factory job and began posting funny videos on TikTok. His wordless video skits, in which the 22-year-old pokes fun at overly complicated life hacks in deadpan style, have a universal appeal that’s attracted fans and sponsors. He’s worked with brands such as Hugo Boss, Google, and Binance, which pay him six figures for approximately six-second features on his TikTok channel. His manager tells Fortune that the social star is on track to make $10 million this year, largely from brand deals. His sights, however, are set on Hollywood: He spends his downtime watching cartoons in English and studying the language so he can eventually jump from the small to big screen.
Kylian Mbappé
Age:23 title:Professional Footballer company:Paris Saint-Germain and France
Kylian Mbappé has made a name for himself through both his athletic ability and outspokenness. In June 2022, he criticized the French Football Federation for not taking a strong enough stance on racist insults from fans, and in September, he refused to participate in photo shoots for fast food and betting sponsors because they didn’t align with his values. When he was considering leaving his hometown club of Paris Saint-Germain this summer for Real Madrid, he received a personal phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron urging him to stay. Macron reportedly told Mbappé he was “too important” for France and could become (or perhaps already was) a national symbol that transcended sport. Meanwhile, Mbappé’s $128 million in earnings this year have made him the highest-paid player in the world—the first time since 2014 the distinction didn’t go to either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. The burgeoning Mbappé financial empire includes production company Zebra Valley, which inked a multiyear deal with the NBA in June; a children’s foundation, Inspired by KM; and endorsement deals with Nike, Hublot, EA, and Panini.
Christian Smalls
Age:34 title:Interim President company:Amazon Labor Union
Despite facing the Goliath of e-commerce, Christian Smalls successfully led the formation of the Amazon Labor Union in 2021. A year later, a majority of workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, N.Y., voted in favor of unionization. As the face of the movement, Smalls wears many hats, calling for support from politicians, raising funds, and rallying workers at other facilities to join the movement. While two other Amazon fulfillment centers have voted no since Smalls’ Staten Island victory, he’s committed to organizing all of Amazon’s 110 active fulfillment centers in the U.S. and to establishing a nationwide union at the forefront of the new labor movement. “My whole life, I’ve been organizing in one way or another,” Smalls says. “I recognized the moment we were in with historic wealth inequality and these corporations exploiting our labor, and I couldn’t not fight back.”
Lena Waithe
Age:38 title:Actor, Producer, and Screenwriter company:Hillman Grad
Chicago native Lena Waithe has been working toward revolutionizing the culture in Hollywood for nearly two decades. She jetted to L.A. following college graduation to get her start in television, and later became the first Black woman to win an Emmy for outstanding writing in a comedy series on Master of None. The producer, writer, actor, and founder of multi-platform entertainment company Hillman Grad is an advocate for queer representation in the industry. Pulling inspiration from her own experiences as a masculine-presenting queer woman of color, Waithe wrote and executive produced Twenties, the first series on the BET network to center on a queer lead character. Waithe is also the creator of Showtime series The Chi, a coming-of-age drama that highlights the bond among residents living on Chicago’s South Side. Off-screen, Waithe amplifies marginalized storytellers’ voices through the Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, providing them with an opportunity to break into the industry.
Finance and Crypto
Anne-Victoire Auriault
Age:34 title:Partner company:Goldman Sachs, Global Markets Division
Anne-Victoire Auriault has been at Goldman Sachs for more than a decade, but her rise truly began when she was appointed managing director in 2019. The following year, she became one of the youngest women in the company’s history to achieve the rank of partner. “I think it was important to see that it’s possible to make partner as a female trader, particularly one who is devoted to her family and emphasizes a healthy work-life balance to her team,” Auriault says. “I had a lot of women reach out to me after I was promoted, letting me know how it represented an inflection point for them.” Auriault accepted an offer in 2022 to join Goldman’s partnership committee, which stewards the firm’s culture. She’s also a member of the global markets inclusion and diversity committee. In the coming years, Auriault says she’s looking forward to “continuing to scale my business and being a true partner to our clients,” adding, “initially my remit was focused on the U.S. Now, I’m managing the team globally. Next, I’d love to expand into more areas, and institutionalize the success we’ve seen across different product suites.”
Kanav Kariya
Age:26 title:President company:Jump Crypto
Kanav Kariya started as an intern at a Jump Trading startup incubator for crypto companies, but last year, the company handed him the reins of its rebranded, 170-person digital assets division, Jump Crypto. Since then, he’s overseen billions in investments in the crypto space and helped position the company as a major player in Web3. As for future ambitions, Kariya tells Fortune that he wants Jump Crypto to be a “key infrastructure builder that is part of the furniture of the industry as it scales.” Even as the crypto downturn rages on, Kariya’s Jump Crypto is undeterred. In just about a year, it has invested in more than 100 crypto companies.
Mary-Catherine Lader
Age:37 title:COO company:Uniswap Labs
With a strong belief in the future of decentralized finance, Mary-Catherine Lader left her Wall Street career behind with ease—and has quickly emerged as a powerhouse within the crypto realm. At Uniswap Labs, the company behind the largest decentralized exchange on Ethereum, Lader has pursued her mission to bring DeFi to the mainstream, ongoing market downturn notwithstanding. Though Crypto Winter nearly decimated VC funding in the sector, Uniswap Labs was able to announce a fresh $1.66 billion valuation and $165 million Series B in October 2022, marking one of the largest single equity raises for a DeFi company. To Lader, who formerly led BlackRock’s first blockchain working group, the round signifies her high hopes for Uniswap’s growth. With upcoming plans to introduce an NFT aggregator, the company aims to become the top on-chain marketplace for all digital value.
Michael McCaffrey
Age: 27 title:CEO company:The Block
Michael McCaffrey launched his career in finance on what many would consider the side opposite from crypto, working at Goldman Sachs and Citi. He decided to take the path less traveled, joining The Block in 2018 as one of its first employees when the crypto publication was staffed by a tiny team writing on Medium. Today, McCaffrey is CEO of the budding blockchain media empire, which produces in-depth data breakdowns of the crypto industry. McCaffrey has been hard at work on two projects that he hopes will help achieve his goal of turning The Block into the “Bloomberg of crypto.” The first is partnering with an outfit called Access Protocol that will allow readers to pay for web-based content with tokens instead of having to buy individual subscriptions. The second is a new suite of intelligence products that will help companies better understand the crypto ecosystem. With both, McCaffrey hopes to bridge the worlds of business and consumer readership.
Alain Meier
Age:29 title:Head of Identity company:Plaid
Alain Meier has been working since his Stanford undergrad years on technologies to help fintech companies and their customers prove their users are who they say they are. In 2013, Meier cofounded Cognito, a platform that expedites and secures identity verification, and he served as CEO until its sale to Plaid for a reported $250 million in January 2022. Many of Plaid’s customers were already using Cognito’s tech by the time of the acquisition, including buy-now-pay-later company Affirm and corporate-finance-focused fintech Brex. Since then, Plaid has expanded upon its focus of connecting bank accounts to fintech apps and has dived into crypto. The company recently launched Wallet Onboard, which connects crypto wallets to decentralized Web3 apps. As Meier explained on an episode of Inspired Capital’s Inspired in 15 podcast, Web3 complicates identity verification given that “pseudonymization of identity,” or “personas,” are so key to the landscape; meanwhile, regulators have cracked down on anonymous transactions. Meier and the fintech industry at large are working to square these realities, and to improve trust in scam-riddled crypto.
Nicole Muniz
Age:38 title:CEO company:Yuga Labs
In less than a year, Nicole Muniz has turned Yuga Labs into a household name in the NFT industry. Under Muniz’s leadership, Yuga Labs, which had already created one of the most popular NFT collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired two other popular collections, CryptoPunks and Meebits, giving the holders of those NFTs all associated intellectual property rights. Investors have started to take notice. In March, Muniz helped the company raise $450 million in a round led by a16z Crypto that values it at $4 billion. Now, Muniz is building on Yuga Labs’ success in NFTs through a metaverse platform it is developing called Otherside. In April, the sale of 55,000 virtual land deeds called Otherdeeds raked in about $320 million.
Antonio White
Age:35 title:Senior Vice President and Public Policy Executive company:Bank of America
In his role as deputy assistant secretary for community engagement at the U.S. Treasury Department, Antonio White embodied the agency’s adapted focus, not just on economic policy but on its racially equitable implementation. White led the revamped public liaison’s office as it disbursed $1 trillion in American Rescue Plan funding to help communities and businesses cope with the effects of the COVID pandemic. In a first for the Treasury Department, he also prioritized outreach to organizations with “mutually shared values” such as civil rights groups, labor unions, and trade associations. He was involved as well in planning the disbursement of $350 billion in aid to city and state governments in May 2021. He got his start in public service as a 2011 intern at the White House, where he “started to understand how even though public policy can take a long time to get from A to Z, once it gets to Z, it can have a massive impact.” From there, he adds, “I was hooked.” This fall he brought his executive-branch experience to Bank of America as senior vice president of public policy. The bank will look to leverage his Washington expertise as it delivers on its mission of responsible growth.
Ksenia Yudina
Age:35 title:Founder and CEO company:UNest
Ksenia Yudina spent much of early 2022 trying to move about one-quarter of her employees out of a war zone. Of her 42 staffers at UNest—the North Hollywood, Calif.–based digital brokerage for parents aiming to invest and save for their children’s education—12 were located in Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus when Russian troops invaded Kyiv at the beginning of this year. In March, Yudina’s team spent nights and weekends finding routes to move employees to safety and issuing cash payments to developers and their families. At the same time, they were prepping for the rollout of UNest’s cryptocurrency offering, which formally launched, albeit with a slight delay, in September. The war has been personal for Yudina, who herself is Russian. She fled to the United States at age 18, working as a hotel housekeeper before landing a job at Capital Group. Yudina has raised $38 million for UNest from venture capital firms including Anthos Capital, the Artemis Fund, Franklin Templeton, and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures. And recently, the firm inked a partnership with iHeartMedia, which is investing $8 million in UNest and will advertise the company across iHeartRadio.
Tech and Innovation
Enric Asunción
Age:37 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Wallbox
Enric Asunción is CEO of Wallbox, a leading provider of smart, at-home charging systems for electric cars. Asunción, who hails from Barcelona, is already an EV veteran: Before cofounding Wallbox, he worked for automotive engineering firm Applus+ IDIADA, then Tesla, where he was responsible for home charging in Europe. Now his company has two factories in Europe, one in China, and a new one in the U.S.—and in October 2021 Wallbox became the first Spanish tech firm to list on the NYSE. With the EV market still in its early days, and Wallbox’s presence in 120 countries to date, Asunción sees massive opportunities ahead, not just for charging EVs but also in the wider transition to renewable energy: Because Wallbox’s system is bidirectional, it can also use EV batteries to power the home in the event of a power outage.
Alexis Barreyat
Age:27 title:Cofounder and CEO company:BeReal
After a couple of years working at action-camera outfit GoPro, Alexis Barreyat, a French techie and mountain biking aficionado, cofounded social media app BeReal in 2019. The app prompts users to post pictures of themselves and their surroundings at randomly assigned times—a playful rebellion against the carefully architected selfies of social media. BeReal became a sensation with Gen Z users this year, crashing into the mainstream with such force that it topped app-download lists while Saturday Night Live devoted a sketch to its merits. Barreyat’s small, Paris-based startup recently raised $60 million in funding at a $600 million valuation according to the Financial Times, and larger rivals like Instagram and TikTok have taken notice: Both recently launched similar features.
Jimmy Chen
Age:35 title:Founder and CEO company:Propel
For the 60 million low-income Americans who rely on government safety nets, keeping an eye on finances can be a confusing and tedious affair. Through his company, Propel, and its free-to-use app, founder Jimmy Chen is helping 5 million Americans focus on their financial health. Becoming the banking provider for low-income America is certainly a “tall order,” Chen admits, but he’s up for the challenge. Inspired by technology’s potential for social good and the financial challenges his family experienced growing up, Chen is proving entrepreneurship can not only work alongside government bureaucracy, but improve it. Chen and Propel are making philanthropy more efficient, too, partnering with nonprofit GiveDirectly to issue $200 million in relief funds to Propel users affected by hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Vivian Chu
Age:35 title:Cofounder and CTO company:Diligent Robotics
Vivian Chu is the cofounder and chief technology officer of Diligent Robotics, a company that has raised nearly $50 million to develop socially intelligent robots for use in hospitals. Its flagship product is Moxi, a robot that performs delivery tasks for nurses. Having decided software engineering wasn’t for her, Chu got into robotics when she realized she could make things that could change one’s living and working environment; her health care focus came from watching her grandparents age and go into a nursing home, which showed her where such technology could have a big impact. She says her work is not about taking away jobs, but rather taking away the parts of jobs that nurses hate doing, enabling them to “spend more time with their patients or just have a moment to breathe.”
Mariana Costa
Age:36 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Laboratoria
Mariana Costa cofounded Laboratoria to ensure that women are part of Latin America’s growing tech sector, a vital vehicle for economic opportunity. The tech boot camp will have trained 3,000 women across several Latin American countries by the end of this year, Costa estimates, with a post–boot-camp job placement rate of nearly 90% last year. Costa says she was inspired by Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant, whom she saw speaking at a conference that she attended through a scholarship from Google—which today is one of Laboratoria’s leading donors. Currently she’s working on a new venture, intended to be a division within the company called Laboratoria+. It will focus on helping women who are already in tech grow in their careers so that they can become leaders and influence the future of the sector.
Pavel Durov
Age:38 title:Founder and CEO company:Telegram
Pavel Durov was once dubbed Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg. But after his social media company VKontakte ignited the Kremlin’s wrath, he fled the country and used the $300 million from its sale to launch Telegram. Since Durov last made the 40 Under 40 in 2018, Telegram’s rise has been stratospheric. Durov estimates it now has more than 700 million active users, with 2 million new subscribers daily. Iranian protesters, Russian commanders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and countless MAGA supporters of Donald Trump have turned the encrypted, uncensored platform into a megaphone of rage, grief, breaking news, and propaganda. By some estimates, Durov is now worth $15 billion, though he maintains a low profile in his adopted home of Dubai (he also snapped up French citizenship last year), restricting his communications to his own Telegram channel. “Telegram doesn’t need additional promotion,” he wrote in October. These days, that is an understatement.
Susan Li
Age:36 title:CFO company:Meta
Susan Li has been at Meta since 2008 when the startup then known as Facebook was just a handful of employees “scattered across a few buildings” in downtown Palo Alto. On Nov. 1 she became Meta’s new finance chief, succeeding longtime CFO Dave Wehner. Li enters the C-suite at a pivotal moment, as the internet company attempts to reorient its business around metaverse technology and as advertising revenue feels the sting of a slowing economy. The twin challenges mean the Stanford University alumna will have her work cut out for her, balancing difficult cost cuts (including major layoffs during her first month in the new role) with strategic investments. Having helped steer the company through some of its past ups and downs, Li, who was previously VP of finance, comes equipped for the task with a deep reservoir of firsthand knowledge.
RJ Scaringe
Age:39 title:Founder and CEO company:Rivian
RJ Scaringe has been obsessed with cars for as long as he can remember, and, after earning a doctorate in automotive engineering at MIT, he went on to found EV startup Rivian in 2009. Since then, he’s signed on marquee customer Amazon; raised $12 billion in the largest IPO since Facebook’s; and won the prestigious MotorTrend Truck of the Year award with Rivian’s first model, the R1T electric pickup. The past year has been bumpy: Scaringe had to slash Rivian’s annual production targets in half, owing to a lack of microchips, and an effort to foist a hefty price hike on customers who had already placed an order resulted in a PR black eye. The company’s stock has been battered, but Scaringe’s EV company is pushing forward, adding a new electric SUV to the lineup and appearing on track to meet its full-year (albeit lowered) production goals.
Health and Bioscience
Eren Bali
Age:38 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Carbon Health
Chess is a mentally taxing activity for many, but after spending his days striving to improve the future of health care services, Eren Bali finds the game to be a relatively relaxing way to unwind. After immigrating to the San Francisco Bay Area from Turkey, Bali experienced the broken U.S. health care system firsthand and embarked on a path toward dismantling it and reimagining it with increased access, lower costs, and hybrid care. To achieve this, Bali cofounded Carbon Health, a chain of primary- and urgent-care facilities that offer both telehealth and in-person appointments. The company says its services are now available to more than three-quarters of the U.S. population, and it plans to expand further. Carbon Health allows patients to book same-day appointments in person or online and access medical records and test results via smartphone. It is venturing into diabetes care with a first-of-its-kind program combining glucose monitoring with direct access to primary care providers, both virtually and in person. Looking forward, Carbon Health has plans to integrate primary health care with mental health services.
Florian Brand
Age:36 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Atai Life Sciences
Florian Brand is CEO of Atai Life Sciences, a German biopharmaceuticals company that is trying to develop new mental health treatments based on novel technology and drugs—notably psilocybin mushrooms and other psychoactive substances whose medical uses have only recently started being taken seriously. Brand, who has a business rather than medical background, delved into the field after witnessing friends and family members struggle to find adequate conventional treatments for their depression and other mental health disorders. Brand notes the need for diverse treatments in the space, and Atai has set up or bought a number of subsidiaries that are each investigating different potential routes. The company hopes to gather a critical mass of data within the next couple of years, and is working with regulators to pave the way for future treatments.
Ankit Gupta
Age:35 title:Founder and CEO company:Bicycle Health
The No. 1 priority in addressing the opioid crisis in America is improving access to treatment and recovery services, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Yet 40% of U.S counties lack facilities that offer medication-assisted treatment. Enter Ankit Gupta, whose Bicycle Health aims to fill that gap with specialized telehealth services for opioid use disorder. Gupta founded the company in 2017, when he bought a single clinic in Redwood City, Calif. Then in 2020, government regulations were relaxed to allow for more opioid-treatment medications to be prescribed online. Since then, Bicycle Health has expanded to 29 states, treated 20,000 patients, and raised $83 million in venture funding. Bicycle says it has a 40% higher rate of retention than standard in-person clinics, as well as a lower cost for many patients, owing to the ease of access via telehealth. With the $50 million in funding Bicycle received in June 2022, Gupta tells Fortune he plans to expand to six more states over the next couple of quarters, improve Bicycle’s tech, and grow the number of health plans offering Bicycle’s services.
Jamie Karraker and Mattieu Gamache-Asselin
Age:33,33 title:Cofounders company:Alto Pharmacy
Mattieu Gamache-Asselin and Jamie Karraker left engineering jobs at Facebook to found Alto Pharmacy in 2015. Their goal was to disrupt the very offline business of prescription drugs, but first they bought and ran a brick-and-mortar pharmacy, which gave them plenty of experience-improving insights (such as the importance of eliminating the need for fax machines). Today, the company’s technology streamlines the drug-prescription process for prescribers, pharmacists, and patients—who get their meds delivered to their homes. The goal of those improvements: making sure that more people who need prescription drugs actually receive and use them. Alto has been rewarded with rave reviews from consumers—a net promoter score of 86—and $550 million in venture capital funding. Other impressive milestones: The company hit $1 billion in revenue in 2022, and landed Amazon S-Team exec Alicia Boler Davis as its new CEO this summer.
Kristina Saffran
Age:30 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Equip
For nearly 15 years, since recovering from an eating disorder herself, Kristina Saffran has been working to make effective treatment accessible to others. Only 20% of the 30 million Americans who suffer from disordered eating ever get help, and the stakes are high: The mortality risk and costs associated with eating disorders exceed those of most other psychiatric disorders. In 2008, Saffran founded Project HEAL to fund treatment for those who couldn’t afford it. Realizing such a nonprofit couldn’t fill the gaps in care alone, she decided to try the private sector, cofounding Equip Health in 2019. Equip’s focus is family-based treatment, an evidence-backed outpatient treatment model for adolescents and young adults, which it provides virtually. Equip has so far served 1,000 families; it raised $58 million in a Series B earlier this year and has partnered with a number of the nation’s major insurers, including Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare.
Elenoe “Crew” Smith
Age:38 title:Director, Integrated Pharmacology company:Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Elenoe “Crew” Smith has dedicated herself to addressing and researching sickle cell disease (SCD) ever since she was in middle school. Sickle cell disease is predominantly found in individuals of African descent, and Smith says that while growing up in the Virgin Islands she knew more people that had SCD than cancer. Smith started her career as a researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, and she’s now creating treatments for SCD as a director at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. So far, Smith is researching potential small molecules in pursuit of creating accessible medicines and therapies to address SCD. “I’m just excited that so many worlds are waking up and realizing that this is an important health problem,” Smith tells Fortune. Because the disease mostly affects Black individuals, there have been some social determinants and structural racism that stalled progress in treating SCD. But Smith adds that she’s seeing more momentum in the patient, scientific, and policy communities toward finding equitable care and conducting in-depth research.
David Vivero
Age:39 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Amino Health
At age 19, David Vivero was diagnosed with hereditary hemochromatosis, a rare condition. Some years later, after leaving his job as VP of rentals at Zillow, Vivero applied for health insurance and found that he was denied coverage because of his condition. He then spent weeks trying to figure out how he could afford a plan. Instead of accepting the health care system in the U.S. for the labyrinth that it is, Vivero and his cofounders decided to demystify the process by creating a health care price transparency platform and benefits navigator, Amino Health. Vivero tells Fortune that some of the most significant purchases in one’s life regarding health care are often made with little information—and a lot of inconveniences. “We try to make it convenient to make really great choices in health care,” he explains. So far, they’ve been successful, as Amino says its interface increased the rate at which people choose high-quality, low-cost providers by two to three times compared with nonusers. “We are provably able to shift people toward making a better decision for themselves,” he says.
Alice Zhang
Age:33 title:Cofounder and CEO company:Verge Genomics
In fall 2022, Alice Zhang traveled to the Centre for Human Drug Research in the Netherlands for a momentous milestone: Verge Genomics’ first in-human clinical trial of its ALS drug. The process began in 2015, when Zhang abandoned her MD/Ph.D. degree program in neuroscience to cofound Verge. She believed her research using artificial intelligence to map diseases could have a massive-scale impact, and she set out to develop drugs for some of the most difficult-to-treat conditions, including ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. In contrast to other drug development techniques, Verge uses samples of human tissue to sequence and create a data map of a disease’s biological profile, in an effort to pinpoint areas that can be addressed with treatment. Last winter, Verge raised $98 million in Series B funding from BlackRock, Eli Lilly, Threshold Ventures, and others.