Muzafar K. Bazaarwala is the founder and chief executive of ZK Saasto Bazaars (Pvt) Limited, which bills itself as the first company in Pakistan built to organize and modernize weekly bazaars as a branded, repeatable format. Operating out of Karachi, his business turns the country's informal weekly markets, where households buy groceries, fresh produce, meat and clothes, into a structured platform aimed at small traders and everyday shoppers. An INSEAD-trained entrepreneur, marketer and self-described salesperson, he has courted government bodies in Sindh, the Prime Minister's Youth Programme and the US Embassy, and he is a vocal commentator on Pakistan's startup scene, dissecting Shark Tank Pakistan pitches line by line on LinkedIn.
Ron Cohen, M.D., is a biotech entrepreneur with a 30-year record of building companies that ship medicines for the nervous system. He founded Acorda Therapeutics in 1995 from his apartment and grew it into a public company that brought multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's therapies to market. After Acorda's sale to Merz in 2024, he evaluated roughly two dozen startups before taking the CEO seat at Oryon Cell Therapies in March 2026, a Belmont, Massachusetts company developing autologous neuron replacement therapy for Parkinson's. He is a past Chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Sami Inkinen is a Finnish-born, Stanford-trained entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Virta Health, a company on a mission to reverse metabolic disease in one billion people through nutrition, technology, and AI. He earlier co-founded the real estate marketplace Trulia, taking it public in 2012 before its merger with Zillow. A self-described 'incurable data geek' and world-class endurance athlete, he is a triathlon age-group world champion and, in 2014, rowed 2,750 miles unsupported across the Pacific from California to Hawaii with his wife in a record-setting 45 days to raise awareness about sugar and metabolic disease.
Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a brain-and-body nutrition brand he built from a Kickstarter campaign into a nine-figure CPG company selling plant-based protein bars, hydration mixes, and instant coffee in more than 10,000 retail doors. A Harvard psychology and neuroscience graduate who once sold software to oil-and-gas companies, he formulated his first products with no food-science background, scaled IQBAR past 100 million bars sold, and now hosts the founder podcast Eating Glass.
William Hicks is the co-founder and CEO of Magic Mind, the mental-performance shot that wants to retire your second cup of coffee. A Princeton cum laude grad who left Barclays after deciding investment banking was too soulless to stomach, he went on to co-found the lupini-bean snack company BRAMI before partnering with James Beshara to build Magic Mind into a brand poured into the morning routines of tens of thousands of people. He preaches '90-day trailing average emotions' as the only sane way to survive the violence of startup life.
Yao Zhang is the founder and CEO of RoboTerra, a robotics-education company that teaches kids around the world to code and build robots. A Columbia-trained education economist who walked away from a finished PhD's worth of dissertation work to build hardware, she was named a 2016 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of RoboHub's Top 25 Women in Robotics. RoboTerra has reached 1,000+ institutions across more than 40 countries, splitting its life between Silicon Valley and China.
Matt Britton is the founder and CEO of Suzy, an AI-powered consumer intelligence platform used by enterprise brands to get real-time answers from real people. A two-time #1 Amazon business bestselling author (YouthNation, Generation AI) and one of the most in-demand keynote speakers on AI and generational change, he has spent 25+ years decoding how the next generation buys, works, and lives. Before Suzy he built youth-marketing agency Mr Youth into MRY, a 500-person global shop sold to Publicis, and spun out Crowdtap, which became Suzy in 2017.
Nuseir Yassin, better known as Nas Daily, turned a self-imposed dare - a one-minute video every day for 1,000 days - into a media company that now reaches hundreds of millions of people each month. The Harvard economics graduate and former Venmo developer left a comfortable salary to chase a simpler question: how do you make a stranger care about a place, a person, or an idea in sixty seconds? The answer became Nas Company, an ecosystem spanning Nas Daily, Nas Academy, Nas Studios, the creator platform Nas.io, and the AI-driven agency 1000 Media.
Sharath Kuruganty is a serial entrepreneur, community builder, and angel investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Holder of an O-1/EB-1A 'Alien of Extraordinary Ability' visa, he has founded and exited two SaaS startups, is the #1 hunter on Product Hunt with 140+ launches, hosts 'The Undefeated Underdogs' podcast, and is currently building GuestLab.ai - an AI-powered research assistant for podcast hosts. Known for his 'build in public' philosophy, he grew from 200 to 22,000+ Twitter followers and advocates that no-code tools are a superpower for aspiring founders.
Adriene Mishler is the Austin, Texas-based yoga instructor, actress, and entrepreneur behind Yoga With Adriene, the largest yoga channel on YouTube with over 13.4 million subscribers and 1.7 billion views. Since launching the channel in 2012 with business partner Chris Sharpe, she has democratized yoga through her philosophy of 'Find What Feels Good,' building a global community around accessible, authentic practice. In 2015 she co-founded the FWFG subscription platform, and in 2026 launched Veta, her own yoga gear brand.
Alain de Botton is a Swiss-born British philosopher, author, and entrepreneur who has written 15+ books translated into 30+ languages, co-founded The School of Life in 2008, and built a global movement dedicated to making philosophy practically useful for everyday life - covering love, work, anxiety, and what it means to live wisely.
Alex Hormozi is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and author who built and exited seven companies without outside capital before founding Acquisition.com, a holding company with 16+ portfolio businesses generating $200M+ in annual revenue. His $100M book series has sold over 5 million copies, including $100M Money Models which broke the Guinness World Record for fastest-selling non-fiction book in August 2025. He co-runs Acquisition.com with his wife and CEO Leila Hormozi and is a co-owner of Skool.com.
Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio host, 9x national bestselling author, and founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. Reaching over 18 million listeners weekly through The Ramsey Show, he built a personal finance empire from personal bankruptcy into a company generating a record $300 million in 2025. His 7 Baby Steps and debt snowball method have guided millions of Americans toward financial freedom.
Ed Mylett is a self-made entrepreneur, bestselling author, peak performance coach, and one of the most followed personal development voices on the internet. Starting from a home shaped by his father's addiction and a college baseball career cut short by injury, he rose to become one of the youngest CEO Marketing Directors at World Financial Group, built a multi-hundred-million-dollar business career, and then reinvented himself as a globally recognized speaker and podcast host. His show, The Ed Mylett Show, draws millions of listeners with unfiltered conversations on success, mindset, and building an extraordinary life.
Jay Shetty is a British-Indian author, podcast host, and former monk who turned three years of monastic life in India into the world's #1 health and wellness podcast, 'On Purpose,' which has surpassed 1 billion listens. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and TIME100 Creator, he is the author of two bestsellers, Chief Purpose Officer at Calm, and co-founder of multiple ventures including a production company and a talent agency. In May 2026, Netflix and Spotify signed a deal worth up to $100 million to exclusively carry video versions of his podcast.
Lewis Howes is a former professional athlete turned media entrepreneur, best known as the host of 'The School of Greatness' podcast - one of the world's top podcasts with over 500 million downloads. A three-time New York Times bestselling author, Howes transformed a career-ending wrist injury and a spell sleeping on his sister's couch into a multi-platform media empire spanning podcasts, books, television, and the Greatness Network. Recognized by the Obama White House as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30, he has interviewed everyone from Tony Robbins to Alanis Morissette.
Linus Sebastian is the co-founder and Chief Vision Officer of Linus Media Group (LMG), the Canadian digital media company behind Linus Tech Tips - one of YouTube's most-watched technology channels with 16+ million subscribers and 9.2+ billion views. A college dropout who turned a side gig filming product videos for computer retailer NCIX into a media empire, Sebastian built LMG into a ~120-person company operating multiple YouTube channels. Known for his ADHD-fueled energy, hands-on gear reviews, and the occasional on-camera equipment drop, he stepped back from the CEO role in 2023 to focus on creative vision while his wife Yvonne Ho co-runs the business.
Mel Robbins is a bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and one of the most-booked motivational speakers in the world. The creator of the 5 Second Rule and The Let Them Theory, she turned a near-bankruptcy crisis at 41 into a media empire with 40 million followers, a top-3 global podcast, and books translated into 65 languages. As CEO of 143 Studios, she produces content for corporate partners including Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase, and LinkedIn.
Patrick Bet-David is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, author, and media personality who fled Iran as a child refugee, served in the 101st Airborne Division, and built PHP Agency into a 40,000-agent life insurance firm before selling it for roughly $250 million. He founded Valuetainment, one of the most-watched business YouTube channels in the world, and hosts the PBD Podcast - a long-form show spanning politics, culture, and business with millions of listeners. A Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 'Your Next Five Moves' and 'Choose Your Enemies Wisely,' Bet-David is known for blunt straight talk, a relentless work ethic forged in a German refugee camp, and a genuine belief that every refugee or immigrant story can have a second act.
Steven Bartlett is a British entrepreneur, investor, author, and podcast host who dropped out of university after a single lecture to build Social Chain - a social media marketing company that went public at a $200M+ valuation before he turned 28. He hosts The Diary of a CEO, the second most-listened podcast globally on Spotify Wrapped 2025, with over 15 million YouTube subscribers. He is the youngest-ever Dragon on BBC's Dragons' Den and the founder of Steven.com, a creator holding company valued at $425 million.
Tom Bilyeu is a serial entrepreneur, media founder, and podcast host who co-founded Quest Nutrition - achieving 57,000% growth in three years before selling for $1 billion - then pivoted to build Impact Theory, a media company generating over 1 billion views through content centered on entrepreneurship, mindset, AI, and geopolitics. A USC-trained filmmaker turned business builder, Bilyeu channels his obsession with human potential into daily content, courses, live events, and a graphic novel series, positioning himself as one of the most prolific voices in the creator-entrepreneur space.
Adrian Ridner is the CEO and Co-Founder of Study.com, one of the world's most visited online education platforms serving 34+ million monthly users. An Argentine-Jewish immigrant who navigated multiple countries before settling in California, Ridner built Study.com from a bootstrapped startup in 2002 into a 4,100-person company offering 20,000+ micro-video lessons and 200+ transferable college courses. His Working Scholars program has saved graduates $20 million in tuition and is particularly focused on first-generation college students and students of color. Ridner is a recipient of the ASU+GSV 2022 Innovator of Color Award and Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 Under 40.
Alan Zhang (Rongyu Zhang) is a San Francisco-based founder, aerospace engineer, and YouTube creator who built the first human-carrying eVTOL drone assembled by a high schooler — a 280kg-thrust electric aircraft completed in 327 days with 17 classmates in a Diamond Bar garage. Now at UC Berkeley's MET program (Management, Entrepreneurship & Technology), he is building Prototype 3 of his passenger drone and running a stealth startup, while his YouTube channel @alanzeekk documents his journey building interesting machines.
Anthony Vidergauz is the former CEO of California Closets who turned a struggling $2 million acquisition into a $300 million-per-year national brand. A South African immigrant and trained lawyer who arrived in the US in 1986 with $5,000, he joined California Closets in 1987 as legal counsel, then acquired the company from Williams-Sonoma in 1994. Over the next 13 years, he transformed it through lifestyle marketing - including a magazine sold at Barnes & Noble - and franchise relationship-building, growing to over 100 locations across North America and six countries. After selling in 2007, he now runs The Paradise Group, a boutique consulting firm advising franchise businesses on strategy, culture, and leadership.
Austin Russell founded Luminar Technologies at 16, built lidar hardware in his parents' garage, dropped out of Stanford after three months on a Thiel Fellowship, and briefly became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 25 when Luminar went public in December 2020. His company's 1550nm lidar sensors were integrated into production vehicles from Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, representing a rare case of autonomous vehicle hardware reaching mass-market cars. After a highly publicized attempt to acquire Forbes magazine fell through in 2023, Russell resigned as Luminar's CEO in May 2025 following a board ethics inquiry, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025.
Barry Friedman is the President and CEO of Friedman's Home Improvement, a third-generation family-owned hardware and home improvement retailer based in Petaluma, California. Named CEO in 2013 by his father Bill Friedman, Barry has led the company through digital transformation, e-commerce expansion, and a new 72,000-square-foot distribution center, all while steering the business toward its 80th anniversary in 2026. Under his leadership, Friedman's operates four locations across Sonoma County with approximately 600 employees, and remains deeply embedded in the North Bay community through philanthropy and civic engagement.
Bill McBride is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of Active Wellness, a San Francisco-based fitness center design and management company. With nearly four decades in the fitness industry - starting at age 18 selling health club memberships - he co-founded Active Wellness in 2013 after a decade-long run as President and COO of Club One. He also runs BMC3, his consulting and coaching firm, and has served as Chairman of the IHRSA Board of Directors. Named an ATN Power Player of 2024, McBride is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor shaping the future of fitness delivery through medical integration, digital hybridization, and community-centered wellness.
Dipti Agrawal is the Co-founder and CEO of Tudip Technologies, a Pune-headquartered global IT services company she built from a team of four in 2010 to a 600-person enterprise serving clients like Google, Adobe, and Databricks across 8+ countries. A Chemical Engineering graduate from NIT Durgapur with an MBA from IBS Hyderabad, she pivoted from Oracle ERP consulting at Infosys and Hitachi Consulting to co-found Tudip on April 5, 2010 with Tushar Apshankar. Under her leadership, Tudip has achieved CMMI Level 5 certification, earned Databricks Silver Partner status, and expanded into AI/ML, cloud transformation, cybersecurity, and digital innovation—while championing gender diversity with 15 women in top management.
Garrett Smallwood is the CEO and Board Chair of Wag! Group Co., the publicly traded pet-care marketplace best known for on-demand dog walking. A three-time founder whose previous startups were acquired by The Home Depot, Expedia, and Wag! itself, he took over Wag in November 2019 and rebuilt it from a single-service walking app into a multi-product pet-care platform spanning walks, sitting, boarding, training, wellness and insurance. He also serves on the board of the San Francisco SPCA and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at seed-stage venture firm NFX.
Marc Morgan is the CEO and co-founder of Braven, a San Francisco consumer venture he started after more than a decade in finance. He spent his first career reading markets, building deal structures, and forging partnerships; he is now applying that operator's playbook to building a category-defining brand from scratch.