Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

For 60 years, Moore's Law and Dennard scaling drove the exponential advancement of computers, making them faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient. But as Nick Harris explains, the era of transistor-based technology has reached its physical limits. The future of computing demands a new solution, and that solution is light. Nick founded Lightmatter in 2017 to fully transform AI data center infras...

What if building a website wasn’t just for developers, but something anyone could do easily? This was the simple idea that led Avishai Abrahami to create Wix in 2006. What began as a no-code tool to help businesses establish an online presence has grown into a global platform that serves hundreds of millions of users. Under Avishai’s leadership, the company has reached many milestones including th...

What if the media you consume isn’t just how you spend your time—but who you become? Chris Best began his career as a software engineer, driven by the idea that writing code could transform how millions of people work. But after nearly a decade of coding, he recognized an even greater potential with writing: the power to shape who millions of people become. In 2017, Chris launched Substack, a plat...

Following the clean-tech bust of the early 2010s, the path to renewable energy was anything but clear. Yet in 2013, Chris Hopper took a bold step forward to co-found Aurora Solar, on a mission to accelerate solar energy adoption. Aurora’s platform streamlines and improves the processes of sales, design, and installation—making solar more accessible and efficient for all. Operating in a tough fundi...

In 2011, as the rise of digital media cast doubt on the survival of print, Sarah Harrelson broke from convention and launched her own independent magazine: CULTURED. Sarah set out to spotlight artists, writers, curators, and designers overlooked by mainstream outlets and has since become one of the most trusted voices in the world of art and design. Beyond the magazine’s editorial prestige, CULTUR...

In 2013, when Ryan Petersen launched Flexport, he approached the problem from a customer’s perspective. Early in his career, he had worked at his brother’s import-export business, sourcing and selling ATVs, scooters, and dirt bikes from Asia to markets around the world. They built the entire technical platform to facilitate these transactions, and Ryan saw an opportunity to make the freight forwar...

When Eliot Horowitz, Founder and CEO of Viam, was locked down with his family during COVID, he did what any engineer might do—he built a robot to play chess. Once that project was complete, he turned his attention to his ever-problematic sprinkler system. After that? He added smart software to his HVAC system. Through this series of home improvements, he uncovered a problem he was eager to solve,...

In 2007, Emmett co-founded a live streaming service called Justin.tv along with his childhood friend and neighbor, Justin. That first entrepreneurial spark grew into Twitch, an interactive livestreaming service that spans gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more. Today, at any given moment, more than 2.5 million people globally are engaging with Twitch. While Twitch was acquired by Amazon in...

From the time she was a child in East London, Emma Grede knew she wanted to work in fashion. After a long career at the intersection of fashion and entertainment, Emma now sits at the helm of Good American, the fashion label she co-founded with Khloe Kardashian in 2016. The first fully inclusive fashion brand kicked off with the largest denim launch in history, bringing in $1M on day one, and has ...

Most startups set out to tackle massive problems, but working to develop a low-cost, long-duration energy storage solution that will enable the electric system to be 100% renewably powered? That's a big one by any standard. At Form Energy, Mateo Jaramillo and his co-founders are working to bring that very vision to life, leveraging the smartest minds in the energy storage space. Mateo shares why h...

After a career spent inside a hospital, Brian Whorley envisioned a future for American healthcare that, to him, seemed not just possible but inevitable. Witnessing firsthand the growing number of patients burdened by high deductibles, Brian understood that when people have better financial tools to afford care, they seek treatment sooner, leading to improved health outcomes. In 2018, Brian co-foun...

Growing up, Annie Lamont was an avid reader with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. This led her to attend Stanford—which coincided with Silicon Valley's tech boom and ignited her passion for entrepreneurship. Immediately, she found herself gravitating towards healthcare investing because of the incredible impact it can have on communities. Today, Annie is the cofounder of Oak HC/FT and is recogn...

What if businesses were empowered to consistently attract and hire the best-possible candidates—every single time? In 2012, Daniel Chait set out on a mission to help every company become great at hiring. He launched Greenhouse and scaled the business into the leader in hiring software. Almost a decade later, private equity leader TPG acquired a majority stake in the company in a $500M deal. Daniel...

When serial entrepreneur Bill Smith relocated his family across the country to build his third startup, the seedling of an idea for his next startup was born. In 2019, Bill founded Landing, the first membership-based leasing model for flexible living. He has since scaled the business to cities around the country with a network of thousands of apartments. Along the way, he’s amassed $255M in fundin...

In 2009, Ethan Brown, Founder & CEO of Beyond Meat, faced a dilemma at a rest stop on I-95. Struggling to find a healthy meal for his young children, he realized he had to make a change. That same year, he launched Beyond Meat, the world’s first plant-based meat company, with a mission to drive a global shift from animal-based to plant-based products. Its flagship product, the Beyond Burger, was c...

Edward Norton is widely known as one of the most celebrated actors of our generation. He has starred in over 50 films, has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won the Golden Globe, an Emmy, and an Obie, to name a few. What many people don’t know is he has built a parallel career as a serial entrepreneur. Today, Edward Norton is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at his fourth st...

What does it take to become one of the few self-made billionaires in the US? According to the visionary business leader Jenny Just, it starts with a comfortability with taking risks. After just giving birth to her first child, Jenny took a risk and founded her first business, Peak6, in 1997. Peak6 began as a proprietary options trading firm and has since grown into a multibillion-dollar financial...

How does an entrepreneur without a college degree manage to build a rocket company exploring life beyond earth? Just ask Peter Beck, the Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer of Rocket Lab, a Nasdaq-listed leading launch and space systems company. At an early age, Peter’s parents taught him that no ambition was too big. So he began building rockets, steadily increasing in their size and complexity. In 2...

As a freshman at MIT, Alexandr was struck by his classmates' interest in AI. But he realized that despite all that AI technology could solve, there was no solution for managing AI-related data. So, at 19, he dropped out of college and started Scale AI. Scale now helps customers like Pinterest and Toyota accelerate the progress of AI and has grown to a valuation of $3.5B. Alexandr shares how AI is...

As a D1 athlete, Will Ahmed became obsessed with the idea of recovery. How do you unlock human performance, and what data would you need to do so? This interest led to the creation of WHOOP, the next gen wearable technology. Will started WHOOP in 2012, immediately after graduating from Harvard College. Since then, he's raised over $100M in funding, saw 7x member growth in the last year alone, and...

Ara Katz’s respect for the power of science began in high school when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. After founding her first business, Spring—the mobile commerce startup that helped launch Apple Pay on the iPhone—she set out on a new challenge: creating a consumer health company deeply rooted in science-backed research. Its mission? To lead the field of translating breakthrough science into i...

What if restaurants were empowered to deliver a personalized experience each time a guest walks through the door? That’s the idea that underpins Olo, a leading open SaaS platform powering over 700 restaurant brands. Noah Glass founded Olo in 2005, drawing on his experience working from the ground up as a restaurant server, cashier, and delivery driver. Today, Olo is a publicly listed company empow...

Growing up, Lindsey Vonn’s parents instilled two important lessons: her mom taught her the importance of finding positivity in every situation, and her dad taught her that any ambition is achievable with a clear plan and dedication. So, at the age of 9, she confidently stated her goal to become the greatest ski racer of all time. Her dad helped her write a 10-year plan to make it to the 2002 Olymp...

Andrew Lacy first encountered whole-body imaging as a patient. In just one hour, he learned more about his health than the American healthcare system had taught him in his entire life. He wondered to himself: why isn’t this technology accessible for everyone everywhere? So he started Prenuvo, the company pioneering proactive whole-body imaging for the early detection of cancer and other diseases—w...

Growing up, David's grandmother instilled an important lesson: that the only thing someone can't take away from you is your education. So when a mentor of David's offered to back him as an entrepreneur, he decided to bring the joy back to education and build a school that everyone would want to attend. In 2015, he launched MasterClass, which now provides classes from 100+ of the world’s best pract...