00:00Today on Forbes, by the numbers, meet the Forbes Under-30 Class of 2026.
00:07The 2026 Forbes 30 Under-30 List was released yesterday, Tuesday.
00:13This Under-30 Class marks the list's 15th year.
00:17That's 15 years spotlighting the country's brightest young entrepreneurs.
00:22Over that time, the Under-30 List has proven to be the farm league
00:25for America's next generation of business leaders.
00:28In fact, 46 Under-30 honorees have gone on to become Forbes billionaires.
00:34Much has changed since Forbes' first Under-30 List debuted in January 2012.
00:40The number of categories has expanded as new industries flourish.
00:44The funding and revenue numbers generated by listers have soared.
00:49And the competition has grown fiercer than ever.
00:52Each year, more than 10,000 people apply, and the bar to make the list continues to rise.
00:59Despite sweeping change, the requirements to be a pioneering entrepreneur remain constant.
01:05Imagination, intelligence, and plenty of grit.
01:09The honorees on this year's Forbes 30 Under-30 have these traits in spades and are using them to shape the future.
01:14And now, in the midst of an AI revolution, they're leading the charge.
01:20The new class is using machine learning to do everything from building robotic astronauts
01:24to creating powerful tools that let anyone become a genius coder or master artist.
01:29To create the Under-30 List, Forbes reporters harness their authoritative reporting, robust sources, and independent experts.
01:38Judges this year include pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo, actress Yara Shahidi, billionaire entrepreneur Palmer Luckey,
01:46AI50 startup founder May Habib, and basketball player Kyle Kuzma.
01:51More than 10,000 candidates were evaluated on their impact, financials, and potential to scale.
01:57The result?
01:59600 young leaders across 20 industries who are impacting both culture and economies.
02:05Take Jesse Zhang, the founder of the $1.5 billion valuation Decagon.
02:11He's raised $255 million from investors to sell AI agents that can handle customer service tasks
02:18for consumer companies like Duolingo and ClassPass.
02:22Zhang says, quote,
02:23Whenever there's a big technology shift, it just opens the door for a lot of companies.
02:28But the number of great ideas is usually pretty small.
02:31Your job as a founder is to try to figure out what those are.
02:35Under-30 honorees are reinventing old industries, too.
02:39Take 27-year-olds Eric Herrera and Jesse Evans,
02:43who are manufacturing proteins that can dissolve rocks to make mining less invasive and harmful.
02:49Catherine Sizov, who is 29 years old, is tapping AI and smart sensors to prevent food waste
02:55and ensure the ripest produce hits the grocery stores.
02:59Jonathan Lord, also 29, is building electric boat engines.
03:03Think the Tesla of the sea.
03:07Entertainers are proving entrepreneurial, too.
03:10Claudia Sulewski, who is 29 years old, turned her YouTube channel into a body care brand
03:15that's raking in an estimated $15 million this year.
03:19Alex Warren, who is 25, transformed a gig at social media creator collective Hype House into a chart-topping song.
03:26His hit Ordinary has more than 5 billion global streams, and into a U.S. arena tour.
03:34Meanwhile, Under-30 alumna Lily Reinhardt, whose big break came with CW's teen hit Riverdale,
03:40has turned her growing movie stardom, and her 30 million social media followers,
03:45into a fast-growing skincare company, Personal Day,
03:48which brought in an estimated $10 million in its first calendar year.
03:52This year's under-30 honorees are backed by the biggest funders.
03:57This year's class counts more than $3.8 billion in cumulative investments,
04:02up from $3.6 billion last year.
04:05And they have global influence, with a combined 200 million social followers.
04:09The average age of under-30s held constant this year, at age 27.
04:15And the youngest is 17-year-old Momin Ahmed from the Education List.
04:20He's building Model UN Academy, a platform that's helped more than 17,000 students
04:24in more than 100 countries gain access to Model UN guides and resources.
04:2941% of the individuals that appear on this year's list self-identify as a person of color.
04:36And 22% are immigrants, who hail from countries including China, India, Mexico, Korea, and Australia,
04:44among other home countries.
04:467 in 10 of this year's class are members of Gen Z, born in 1997 or later.
04:52This is up from 50% last year, and will be the final list with any Millennials listed.
04:57For full coverage, check out Alexandra York and Zoya Hassan's piece on Forbes.com.
05:06This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
05:08Thanks for tuning in.
Comments