The DISRUPTERS

No.1

ELON MUSK

Tesla Motors, SpaceX

AGE:43

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 5

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Musk's ability to combine staggering ambition with a do-gooder sense of purpose has made him revered among his peers. "Abu know, if I were to get hit by a bus today," Google C.E.O. Larry Page purportedly once said, "I should leave all of it to Elon Musk." The sentiment, which Page reiterated in an interview in March, encapsulates Musk's role as Silicon Valley's patron saint and perennial coolest kid in class. Tesla, his electric-car venture, makes the ultimate environmentalist status symbol and was also the best-performing stock of 2013. The company is now working on a mass-market car, the Model 3, that many think could turn Musk into the first great American auto baron in almost a century. SpaceX, his fast-growing rocket company, has successfully completed four commercial satellite launches and promises to one day take humans to Mars. If that weren't enough. Musk's green-energy side project, SolarCity, is expanding r apidly, with operations in 15 states and a stock price that has increased more than eightfold since its I.P.O., at the end of 2012. GRAND GESTURE: In June, Musk wowed observers by announcing that he would share all of Tesla's patents with any company that wants to develop electric cars, in an attempt to get more of them on the road and slow the pace of climate change. "I don't think people quite appreciate the gravity of what is going on," Musk said. "We really need to do something."

No.2

LARRY PAGE & SERGEY BRIN Google

AGES: 41, 41

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 2

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: With Brin's so-crazy-it-just-might-work innovation lab showing the way, Google, led by C.E.O. Page, has proved that it is much more than just a search engine. The company is experimenting with driverless cars, facemounted computers, new ways of bringing the Internet to the developing world, and many, many other things. And Google's Android operating system powers the phones of Samsung, Amazon, and nearly every significant competitor to Apple. Amazingly, all of this is still very much a sideshow to the company's robust Internet advertising business, which has sent revenues soaring and pushed Google's stock price to an all-time high earlier this year. LOOMING BATTLE: Over the so-called right to be forgotten, which was affirmed by a European court ruling that allows E.U. citizens to ask Google to block information about them from its search results.

No.3

TIM COOK & JONATHANIVE

Apple

AGES: 53, 47

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 3

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: After a brunpy 2013, Cook and Ive look like they're back on track. Apple's stock has rebounded, reaching its highest price ever at the end of the summer; and the company has cemented its place as the world's most valuable by market capitalization. (Its profit in the last fiscal year was triple the amount of Google's and almost $ 10 billion more than that of Samsung, its closest rival.) In May, Cook announced that he had acquired Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's Beats for $3 billion, paving the way for a possible iTrmes subscription streaming music service. Days later he won praise for introducing new software features that could eventually dent Google's dominance of the Web. But the main event will be Ive's big product unveiling. This fall, the company is expected to release a large-screen iPhone and its first new product since the iPad in 2010: a wearable gadget that may or may not be called the iWatch. RISING STARS: Head of software engineering Craig Federighi emerged as the company's new public face at its annual developers' conference in June. Meanwhile, Angela Ahrendts, whom Cook poached from Burberry, where she'd served as C.E.O., recently took over Apple's retail operation, a $20-billion-a-year business that generates more money per square foot than any other American retailer.

No.4

JEFF REZOS Amazon

AGE: 50

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 1

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Having achieved retail dominance, Bezos has spent the last few years invading other industries, often over the objections of investors who wish Amazon would be more profitable. His latest target: video gaming. In August, the company paid about $ 1 billion for Twitch, a sort of online TV network for gamers, after an overture from Google was reportedly rebuffed. «⅛ EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLY VINDICTIVE BEHAVIOR: Amazon found itself in a series of increasingly ugly pricing disputes with Time Warner, Disney, and Hachette this summer. The company allegedly canceled pre-orders of Tire Lego Movie and delayed shipments of books by J. K. Rowling and Stephen Colbert, who dubbed Bezos "Lord Bezomort." Amazon called the situation with Hachette "unfortunate," but held its ground.

No.5

MARK ZUCKERRERG

AGE: 30

Facebook

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 4

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Facebook has more than a billion users, its advertising income has skyrocketed, and the value of its stock is soaring. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is now wealthier than Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, is buying potential competitors in a bid to preserve Facebook's dominance—and maybe build an empire. Zuckerberg agreed to spend $ 19 billion on WhatsApp, the messaging service, and another $2 billion on Oculus VR, which makes a virtualreality headset. -Y THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Snapchat, the disappearing-messaging app, for which Zuckerberg reportedly offered $3 billion. Co-founder Evan Spiegel rebuffed him, and Facebook has since introduced a Snapchat knockoff. Slingshot, which has so far failed to break out.

No.6

REED HASTINGS & TED SARANDOS

Netf flix

AGES: 53, 50

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 12

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Netflix has some 50 million subscribers around the world, and fates in more subscription revenue than mighty HBO. Although it won't say how many people are watching original shows such as Orange Is the New Black, its series continue to generate buzz and 31 Emmy nominations (and 7 wins). In June, Sarandos added to his portfolio, announcing a deal with Chelsea Handler to develop a late-night talk show, Netflix's first foray into the genre.BIG IMPORTANT FRENEMIES: Corncast's Brian Roberts and Steve Burke. In February, Hastings agreed to pay Comcast to provide more reliable video streams to Netflix customers, but later said that the deal had essentially been forced on him. He then complained publicly about Comcast's plans to buy Time Warner Cable.

7

MARC ANDREESSEN & BEN HOROWITZ Andreessen H or owitz

AGES: 43, 48 LAST YEAR'S RANKING: YEAR AHEAD:

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The two men

behind Silicon Valley's hottest venture-capital turnhaving placed successful bets on Skype, Facebook, Airbnb, and Oculus VR, among others—have emerged as the Valley's unofficial spokesmen. Andreessen has been unleashing so-called tweetstonns—epic, multipart Twitter rants on topics such as Edward Snowden and San Francisco housing policy. Meanwhile, cofounder Horowitz's management memoir Tire Hard Tiring About Hard Things, has sold well and earned rave reviews. MOST PECULIAR INVESTMENT: Soylent, which sells a drinkable oatmeal-like concoction that purports to replace traditional food.

8

AGE: 49 LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New YEAR AHEAD:

JACK MA Alibaba

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Ma s Alibaba dominates the Chinese Internet—accounting for 80 percent of the nation's online retail purchases and 2 percent of the entire economy's gross domestic product. Now the fonner English teacher is poised to mal® a big move in the U.S., thanks to a plan to take his company public in what is likely to be the largest technology LEO. in history. -E LATEST SHOPPING SPREE: Big bets on Silicon Valley start-ups, including a $215 million investment in WhatsApp competitor Tango and a $120 million investment in Kabam, a Google-backed video-game company.

No.9

TRAVIS KALANICK Uber

AGE:38

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 43 YEAR AHEAD:

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Perpetually feisty and, now, flush, thanks to a $ 1.2 billion investment round at an eye-popping $18.2 billion valuation.

The, CABLETGUYS

Today the public doesn t much think about the distinction between "cable channel" and "broadcast network." But 20 years ago, when the New Establishment was inaugurated, cable was first flexing its muscles—and no one had heard of Netflix or Amazon

NBCUNIVERSAL CABLE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP di 1971 (USA). Ci Bonnie Hammer, chairman. Proarammina USA was the top-rated cable net, thanks in part to Murder, She Wrote reruns. Burn Notice (USA); Real Housewives (Bravo); Kardashian franchise (El).

Boardwalk! Empire KJ.

Launched: 1972. Current Leadership: Richard Plepler, C.E.O.; Michael Lombardo, president of programming. Proarammina Series such as Dream On existed, as one exec said, "so we don't play movies to death." Now Game of Thrones, Real Time with Bill Maher, Silicon Valley, Veep, Boardwalk Empire.

Masters of Sex

SHOWTIME

Launched: 1976. Current Leadership: Matt Blanc, chairman and C.E.O.; David Nevins, president of Showtime Networks Entertainment. Proarammina 1994: The Red Shoes Diaries, an appealing mix of soft-core porn and unintentional comedy. w: Homeland, Masters of Sex.

SportsCenter

ESPN

Launched: 1979. Current Leadership: John Skipper, president. Proarammina 1994: The N.F.L., but the network also had success with, believe it or not, the 1994 N.H.L. playoffs, low Monday Night Football, 2014 World Cup, SportsCenter.

Mad M

AMC NETWORKS

Launched: 1980. Current Leadership: Josh Sapan, president and C.E.O., AMC Networks; Charlie Collier, president, AMC. Proarammina 1994: Movie-related series such as The Movie That Changed My Life, spun off the networks' otherwise steady diet of Old Hollywood films, low: The Walking Dead, Mad Men (AMC); Portlandia (IFC).

Project

Runway

A & E NETWORKS di 1984. Current Le

Nancy Dubuc, president and C.E.O. Proarammina 19 Lurid, "femme-centric" made-for-cable movies such as Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, with Sela Ward. WiDuck Dynasty (A&E), Project Runway (Lifetime), Vikings (History).

Louie

FX NETWORKS

Launched: 1994. Current Leadership: John Landgraf, C.E.O. koarammina 1994: fX, as it was initially styled, launched in 1994 with a mix of vintage reruns and shows devoted to subjects such as pets and collectibles, low: Louie, The Americans, American Horror Story. BRUCE HANDY

Kalanick has crossed into the-next-big-thing status. He recently boasted that his company's mission is to "mate car ownership a thing of the past." Uber faces strenuous opposition from taxi companies, but Kalanick has proved adept at beating back legal challenges and, when necessary, campaigning to change laws. In August, he hired President Obama's fonner campaign manager David Plouffe. LOOMING THREAT: Competing rides-on-demand app Lyft, which distinguishes itself by the giant pink mustaches its drivers attach to the grilles of their cars, and which recently raised $250 million in investment money from Andreessen Horowitz, among others.

No.10

BEN SILBERMANN Pinterest

AGE:32

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 13

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Silbennann's scrapbooking site has never been hotter, and big brands are vying to reach the tens of millions of mainly young, affluent women who use it. Now Silbennann is asking those companies to pay for the privilege. Earlier this year, Pinterest launched its first advertising platform—a system of "Promoted Pins"— reportedly charging rates that dwarf those commanded by Facebook and attracting Target, Gap, and Nestle, among others. BIG MOGULISH MOVE: Last October, Silbennann closed a venturecapital round that pegged Pinterest's worth at $3.8 billion, prompting whispers that the money-losing company might be overvalued. He silenced the doubters just six months later, announcing that he'd pulled in $200 million in investment money at an even higher valuation, $5 billion.

11

SATYA NADELLA Microsoft

AGE: 47

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Nadella, a 22year company veteran and native of India who replaced bombastic C.E.O. Steve Ballmer in February, has become known as the "anti-Ballmer" for his softedged personality and for quickly shaking up the lumbering software giant. Nadella has relaxed Ballmer's long-running war on Apple, finally releasing Microsoft's Office suite for the iPad, while moving aggressively to improve its offerings for phones and tablets. In July, he announced that he was laying off 18,000 employees, the largest workforce cut in Microsoft history. So far Wall Street has been pleased with Nadella's turnaround effort, sending the company's stock price up about 20 percent. WILL HAVE TO CONTEND WITH: The return of Bill Gates as technology adviser. In May, Nadella emphatically declared, "I run the place. Bill is helping."

No.12

SHERYL SANDBERG Facebook

AGE:45

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 14

YEAR AHEAD: if

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: At this point Sandberg is probably best known as the woman behind Lean In—the book, the nonprofit, the wildly influential movement—but she still has a day job running operations at the world's biggest social network, and that's going very well. Facebook will generate more than $ 11 billion in ad revenue this year, with a majority coming from mobile phones, a weak spot just a couple of years ago. -E NEXTACT WATCH: Sandberg was recently rumored to be in contention to succeed Bob Iger at Disney, where she currently sits on the board.

13

AGE: 41

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

KEVIN FEIGE Marvel Studios

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Led by Feige, who has a knack for simultaneously appeasing fanboys and delighting the masses. Marvel has transformed onetime second-tier comic-book heroes like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America into blockbuster franchises. Most recently. Guardians of the Galaxy, which took in $94 million in its opening weekend, set a record for the month of August. -Y BIG MOVE: With movies mapped out through 2028, Feige is bringing in new faces such as Elizabeth Olsen, who will play the Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, slated to hit theaters in May 2015.

No.14

JACK DORSEY Square, Twitter

AGE:37

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 8

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Dorsey has spent much of the past year helping his companies through growing pains. At Twitter, this has meant shepherding the site to 271 million users while contending with a tell-all book released late last year that portrayed him in a less than flattering light. Square, Dorsey's next big thing, has been growing fast—processing tens of billions of dollars' worth of credit-card payments per year—but perhaps not fast enough. In August, Amazon began offering a competing credit-card reader with much lower rates. LATEST BIG MOVE: Buying Caviar, a food-delivery start-up, reportedly for $90 million—part of Dorsey's diversification strategy, alongside Square Cash, a money-transfer app The New York Times called "so easy that it feels somehow illicit."

m

MARISSA MAYER Yahoo

AGE: 39 LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 15 YEAR AHEAD:

«* STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Since Mayer's arrival in the summer of 2012, Yahoo's stock price has more than doubled. That run-up likely has less to do with moves she's made—most notably, a bevy of acquisitions of smaller companies, including Tumblr—and more to do with Yahoo's stake in Alibaba, which is set to go public this fall at a record-breaking valuation. WINDFALL WATCH: When Alibaba does its I.P.O., Yahoo could end up with billions in extra cash. At least half of that will go back to shareholders, but Silicon Valley investment bankers salivate at the notion of a shopping spree. Possible candidates: Pinterest, Snapchat, and AOL.

No.16

DICK COSTOLO Twitter

AGE: 51

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 11

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Costolo's pursuit of broadcast tie-ins was vindicated in spectacular fashion in March, with Ellen DeGeneres's starstudded Oscar selfie, which was re-tweeted more than three million times—the most ever. In July, the company reported healthy user and revenue growth, though Twitter's stock price remains well below highs it reached in December. •» BIG BOLD REORGANIZATION: In June, Costolo parted ways with C.O.O. Ali Rowghani after Twitter badly missed its targets. The shake-up continues with the appointment of fonner Goldman Sachs banker Anthony Noto, who handled Twitter's public offering, as C.F.O.

No.17

DREW HOUSTON Dropbox

AGE: 31

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 31

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The good news: investors are convinced that Houston's start-up, which helps more than 300 million users save photos and files on Internet servers and was valued at $10 billion in January, is onto something. The bad news: Google and Apple seem to think Houston is onto something, too, and have started a renewed push to market their own storage systems, using their limitless funds to undercut Dropbox's pricing. So far Houston has held firm, saying, "We're not cutting prices."

BELTWAY BONA FIDES: Earlier this year, Houston named former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Dropbox's board of directors, generating blowback from techies upset about N.S.A. snooping that began when Rice worked at the White House.

No.18

DANIEL EK Spotif y

AGE: 31

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 41

.YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Ek's company has added four million subscribers in the past year, and gladdened investors, who in November reportedly invested another $250 million in a round that valued Spotify at $4 billion. An I.EO. may be in the works, though the company has yet to him a profit. *⅜ SCARY NEW RIVAL: Apple, which ignored subscription music for years but now looks very serious about getting into the market after grabbing the Beats Music team.

No.19

SUSAN WOJCICKI YouTube

AGE:46

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 36

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: One of Google's earliest executives, Wojcicki has a new mission: bringing more ad revenue to YouTube. In February, she replaced YouTube chief Salar Kamangar, who had invested heavily in developing original content, with mixed results. Wojcicki's strategy is to promote existing YouTube stars—many of whom have alr eady built huge audiences, BIG MOVE: Music videos already account for a huge chunk of YouTube's traffic, and Wojcicki has cut deals with record labels for a new subscription music service, which she is expected to unveil later this year.

No.20

EVAN SPIEGEL Snapchat

AGE:24

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 47

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Since cofounding the disappearing-message company in 2011, the former Stanford frat boy—who rejected Facebook's $3 billion takeover offer—continues to move closer into Mark Zuckerberg's domain, even as Zuckerberg adds Snapchat-like services to Facebook. Snapchat claims users send more than 700 million photos and videos a day on the service, double the figure from a year ago. In August, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers agreed to invest up to $20 million in Snapchat, valuing the company at about $10 billion. -»• GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS: In May, the company settled a privacyrelated charge with the Federal Trade Commission.

21

AGE: 33

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 44

YEAR AHEAD:

BRIAN CHESKY Airbnb

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Fast year, more than six million travelers relied on Airbnb rentals, staying in private homes and apartments in 34,000 cities as Chesky's company collected fees of around $250 million. That performance has made Airbnb something of a lightning rod in many of its key cities, but investors haven't seemed especially worried. Fast April, Chesky raised a new round of financing that valued Airbnb at a cool $10 billion, making it worth more than Hyatt. Next up: plans to expand the company's business model by encouraging hosts to offer home-cooked meals. •»THORN IN HIS SIDE: New York attorney general Eric Schneidennan, who issued subpoenas last year for the names of Airbnb hosts, citing a law that prohibits renting apartments for less than a month. Airbnb struck an agreement with Schneidennan that allowed the company to turn over some data without customers' names.

No.22

SHANE SMITH Vice

AGE: 44

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 49

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Vice's most valuable asset probably isn't its youth-oriented journalism, its network of Web sites, its record label or its TV-and-film studio—rather, it's Smith himself. The C.E.O.-cum-chief correspondent's mix of bravado and irreverence attracts millennial audiences, as well as media moguls who have invested tens of millions of dollars in the fast-growing enterprise. Vice's latest suitor: Time Warner, which this summer was reportedly in talks to buy a stake in the company at a $2 billion valuation. Smith believes that Vice could be worth much more than that and has said he plans to take the company public eventually. •»LATEST COUP: HBO's Richard Plepler ordered two additional seasons of Vice, Smith's newsmagazine show, which posted much-improved ratings in its most recent season.

No.23

PREET BHARARA Federal prosecutor

AGE: 46

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 17

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Bharara's domain is Manhattan, but the brash U.S. attorney is making himself known in Silicon Valley, after bringing cases that have put hot-technology-of-the-moment Bitcoin under scmtiny, and increasingly in Hollywood. His takedown of an Anonymous-affiliated hacker group was the purported inspiration for a subplot in the latest season of House of Cards. And although Bharara's insider-trading winning streak was finally broken with the acquittal of Rengan Rajaratnam in July, it is still the stuff of legend. New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin is developing a new Showtime series. Billions, featuring a Bharara-like U.S. attorney. LATEST ADVERSARY: New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Earlier this year Bharara criticized Cuomo's decision to close an ethics commission and took over the investigation himself.

No.24

KEVIN HART Comedian

AGE: 35

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: After a decade on the stand-up circuit, the diminutive comedian is having a breakout year. He has carried three movies in 2014. Ride Along and Think Like a Man Too both won their opening weekends, and About Last Night took in nearly $50 million, despite a modest $12 million budget. In February, Hart won the N.A.A.C.E Entertainer of the Year award, beating out nominees Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, and Pharrell Williams. -WORLD-DOMINATION WATCH: Hart reportedly reaped $20 million in profits from his previous two stand-up concert movies, and has used some of that cash to expand his budding production company, HartBeat, which now includes the BET reality spoof Real Husbands of Hollywood and a booming YiuTube channel.

No.25

YURI MILNER Investor

AGE: 52

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 21

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Milner, who is best known for bold pre-I.RO. investments in Facebook and Twitter, is poised to make a huge profit on a $ 1.6 billion bet on Alibaba he made with the private-equity firm Silver Lake. At the time, the company was valued at $32 billion; its value should be at least five times that when it goes public. Milner has become close with Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who became the latest tech titan to sponsor Milner's $3 million Breakthrough prizes to top researchers in medicine and biology. NEAR MISS: Milner had reportedly clinched a deal to invest in Nest Labs before Google stole away Tony Fadell's hot start-up.

NICK WOODMAN GoPro

AGE:

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

No.26

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Woodman's wearable action cameras are used by extreme athletes (and extreme-athlete poseurs), journalists, and movie directors. Sales were nearly $1 billion last year, and since going public, in June, GoPro's value has soared past $5 billion. -⅜ VISIONARY MOVE: GoPro cameras are a fixture of ESPN and Discovery programming, but Woodman's compary also produces its own popular content: YouTube shorts featuring surfing, snowboarding, and, in a clip that has received more than 23 million views, a firefighter resaiing a kitten.

27

AGE: 51

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

RAND PAUL Politician

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The junior senator from Kentucky has become the Republican to watch for 2016. Paul's strength comes from his unusual coalition of supporters—including a reinvigorated Tea Party, and Silicon Valley, where concerns over government eavesdropping have made Paul's laissez-faire message resonate, TECH BONA FIDES: At this year's Allen & Co. conference, in Sun Valley, Paul reportedly had private meetings with a number of tech luminaries, including Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg.

No.28

MASAYOSHI SON SoftBank

AGE: 57

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: After acquiring control of Sprint last year for $21.6 billion. Son, who has a Steve Jobs-like reputation in his native Japan, attempted to merge the struggling company with newly resurgent T-Mobile, but in August he was forced to abandon the deal in the face of opposition from anti-trust regulators. Son hired a new C.E.O., whom he described as "a street fighter" and vowed to agressively ait prices to compete with AT&T and Verizon. DUBIOUS CLAIM TO FAME: Largest financial loss in history. Some $85 billion disappeared from his net worth in the wake of the dot-com crash. He's since earned a good bit of that back, thanks largely to Alibaba. SoftBank's $20 million investment in the Chinese Internet giant is now worth an estimated $58 billion.

29

AGE:30

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 26

YEAR AHEAD:

KEVIN SYSTROM Instagram

-

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Two years after Facebook spent $1 billion on Systrom's Instagram, conventional wisdom is that Mark Zuckerberg got a great deal. The mobile photo-sharing service continues to spread quickly and, with more than 200 million users, looks likely to eclipse Twitter this year. •>» NIPPLE-RELATED CONTROVERSY: In April, Rihanna had her account suspended after posting a partially nude photo. A similar incident prompted Scout Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, to post topless photos of herself as part of a socialmedia campaign, #FreeTheNipple, against Instagram's no-nipple policy.

No.30

PIERRE OMIDYAR First Look Media

AGE: 47

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: When the Graham family approached Pierre Omidyar about buying The Washington Post last year, the billionaire eBay founder decided to create a news organization from scratch instead. He hired Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, who at the time were in the midst of reporting on N.S.A. documents leaked to Greenwald by Edward Snowden, as well as Jeremy Scahill and Matt Taibbi. The result, still in its nascent stages, is First Look, which promises to be, according to Omidyar, "a marriage between a technology company and a new kind of newsroom." Omidyar has committed to invest an initial $50 million in the company and has said he'll devote as much as Jeff Bezos paid for the Post, $250 million, -f EVIDENCE OF EXTREME PREPAREDNESS: According to The Independent, Omidyar, concerned about a natural disaster, has his own stockpile of emergency food stored in his home in Honolulu.

31

J0RGEN VIG KNUDSTORP Lego

AGE:45

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

**E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: When the fonner McKinsey consultant took over as C.E.O. a decade ago, the Danish toy-maker was on the brink of collapse. Today, as Tire Lego Movie theme song says, "Everything Is Awesome," with revenues soaring and gross-profit margins at 70 percent—which is better than those of Apple. The remarkable turnaround came thanks to some dramatic cost-cutting and the savvy use of tie-ins with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Tire Lord of the Rings, ailminating earlier this year with the release of Tire Lego Movie, which grossed $69 million in its opening weekend and spent three weeks at No. 1 in U.S. box-office sales. A sequel is already in the works, as is a ninja-themed spin-off. •* SILICON VALLEY BONA FIDES: Google co-formder Larry Page is said to have built a laser printer out of the plastic bricks when he was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. In January, Google released a Lego-themed game.

32

AGE: 40

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 46

YEAR AHEAD:

JONAH PERETTI BuzzFeed

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The BuzzFeed C.E.O. reportedly walked away from a $1 billion offer from Disney earlier this year, betting that his digital news-and-entertainment site could make it on its own thanks to a strange-but-somehow-alluring mix of cat videos, quizzes, silty listicles, and serious journalism. In August, Andreessen Horowitz lent credence to that belief, investing $50 million at a valuation of $850 million, allowing for a major multi-platform expansion. -E GEEK BONA FIDES: Peretti's obsession is vitality, or the question of how ideas are spread.

No.33

THE YOUTURE STAR

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

«*E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: For teens and tweens, YouTube is at once the new radio and the new MTV. The video platform now includes homegrown personalities with tens of millions of Ians. PewDiePie— ne Felix Kjellberg, a 24-year-old Swede who produces obscenity-laden commentaries while he plays video games—is, improbably, the most popular of the bunch. He has 30 million subscribers, reportedly giving him $4 million in annual ad sales. BRAND EXTENSIONS: Our 2nd Life, a troop of young YouTube diarists, headlined a tour this summer that drew thousands of people to each show.

34

AGE:36

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 22

YEAR AHEAD:

JEREMY

STOPPELMAN

Yelp

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Google's and Facebook's efforts to woo the roughly 80,000 small businesses that use Stoppehnan's reviews site and app haven't seemed to slow Yelp, which increased its user base by 30 percent last year. "Google has tried just about everything in the book, and none of it has stuck," says Stoppehnan. -⅜ BIG MOVE: Four years ago, Stoppehnan cut a deal with OpenTable, the restaurant-reservation service. The partnership has been a success, but it may not last much longer, following the acquisition of OpenTable by Priceline in a $2.6 billion deal in June. Earlier this year, Stoppehnan unveiled a competing reservation system. Seat Me.

35

ROELOF BOTHA & JIM GOETZ

Sequoia Capital

AGES: 40, 48

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD: X

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Although the firm initially missed out on Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, Botha's investment in Instagram and Goetz's in WhatsApp—both of which were sold to Facebook at huge markups—finally give Sequoia a substantial piece of the company. INVESTMENT BONA FIDES: The companies in Botha's portfolio of investments that have yet to be sold or go public—including Square, Jawbone, Eventbrite, and hot-start-up-ofthe-minute Whisper—are reportedly worth more than $ 12 billion. Goetz's return on investment in WhatsApp was reported to be roughly 5,000 percent.

36

JOHN GREEN

Author

AGE: 37

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: It is perhaps a sign of the times that, before his book Tire Fault in Our Stars became a runaway best-seller and before

its screen adaptation became one of the most profitable movies of 2014, John Green was best known for making folksy online videos with his younger brother. Hank. Their YouTube channel, Vlogblothers, now has more than two million subscribers, and the two men organize a sort of Coachella for the YouTube set, VidCon, which drew 18,000 participants last year. •»NEXT UP: An online series on the history of the universe, funded by Bill Gates, and a new book. "I'm a slow writer, but I hope to be finished by the end of next year," he says.

37

DIETRICH

MATESCHITZ

Red Bull

AGE: 70

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

-E STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The Austrian billionaire, who worked as a ski instructor and later as a marketer for the German toothpaste Blendax before launching his energy drink, has sold more than 40 billion cans of the stuff. He's promoted the brand cannily through his close ties to the extremesports community—including snowboarder Shaun White and Felix Baumgartner, the daredevil who survived a 24-mile free fall from the edge of space— and has parlayed it into a proliferating media empire that includes magazines, TV programs, YouTube videos, and documentary films. •*> MOGUL BONA FIDES: Mateschitz owns professional soccer teams in New York, Salzburg, Sao Paulo, and Leipzig; Formula One teams in the U.K. and Italy; and a fleet of helicopters and vintage airplanes that he stores in a private hangar outside Salzburg.

38

MEGAN & DAVID

ELLISON

Film producers

AGES: 28, 31

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 28

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The siblings Ellison have continued their respective winning streaks, with Megan scoring best-picture nominations for American Hustle and Her, and big brother David's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit raking in $ 135 million worldwide. Megan's Annapurna Pictures is funding Page 1, a development-and-production outfit built around nonfiction film ideas led by Zero Dark Thirty' writer Mark Boal. Meanwhile, David's Skydance Productions is testing out television, developing a new sitcom, Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. -»• EVIDENCE OF A POSSIBLE SIBLING RIVALRY: After announcing that they would be teaming up to produce the highly anticipated Terminator reboot—which is slated for release next year—Megan pulled her production company out of the deal in January, citing a desire to focus on independent films. She'll still serve as an executive producer though.

No.39

DANA BRUNETTI

Producer

AGE:41

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The fonner Coast Guard enlisted man is now the producer with the hot hand, having earned Oscar nominations for The Social Network and Captain Phillips, and back-toback Emmy nominations for House of Cards. Next up. Fifty! Shades of Grey!, a project that has caused him to rethink an earlier pledge to mal® movies "a guy would like to see." BIG COOL FRIEND: Kevin Spacey, who hired Brunetti to be his personal assistant in 1998. Brunetti stuck around, eventually taking over the management of Spacey's Trigger Street Productions.

40

WALT

MOSSBERG & KARA SWISHER Re/code

AGES: 67, 51

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 33

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The two influential journalists left parent company News Corp. last year to launch Re/code, a tech news site and conference business. So far, so good: the company's first conference, held in May with speakers such as Reed Hastings, Sergey Brin, and Ryan Seacrest, sold out in just three hours. UNLIKELY ALLY: Fonner Yahoo C.E.O. Terry Semel, who agreed to invest in Re/code (alongside NBCUniversal) despite the fact that Swisher (a V.F. contributor) and Mossberg published numerous scoops about his old company while at News Corp.

No.41

TONY FADELL

Nest Labs

AGE:45

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 40

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Although Nest's latest product creation—an Internet-connected smoke detector—was briefly pulled off the shelves to correct a design flaw, 2014 has been a banner year for Fadell. In February, Google acquired the homeelectronics company for a staggering $3.2 billion. FRENEMIES: His fonner colleagues at Apple, where Fadell helped design the original iPod and iPhone. In June, Apple's Craig Federighi announced a plan to allow customers to control their light switches and other gadgets with their phones and tablets—using Nest-like devices made by other manufacturers.

No.42

EDWARD

SNOWDEN

Activist

AGE: 31

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: From an undisclosed location in Russia—where he recently acquired an extension to his residency permit—the N.S.A. contractor turned leaker of classified documents has emerged as the perpetual bête noire of Western intelligence agencies and also of Silicon Valley giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Yahoo, which he outed as cooperating with the U.S. government in its efforts to monitor every keystroke on social media. LATEST COUP: In May, the House of Representatives passed the U.S.A. Freedom Act—a response to Snowden's revelations—which attempts to limit some of the power of the N.S.A.

43

BRIAN ACTON & JAN KOUM

WhatsApp

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

AGES: 42, 38

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: The $19 billion that Mark Zuckerberg paid for WhatsApp in February was the largest sum ever for a venturecapital-backed company. The app, which allows users to send texts and photos to one another for just $ 1 a year, is huge. With 600 million active users, it poses an immediate threat to Twitter and Snapchat and a longer-term threat to large telecom operators. HUMBLE ROOTS: Koum grew up in a Ukrainian village in a house without hot water. He's now reportedly worth $6.8 billion.

44

BILL MARIS Google Ventures

AGE:39

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Since Larry Page and Sergey Brin started letting Maris invest Google's spare cash—$1.6 billion since 2009—the fonner dot-com entrepreneur has bet on more than 250 companies, including 23andMe, Flatiron Health, and Nest, which sold itself to the mother ship for $3.2 billion. BOLD BET: Uber. Last year, Maris led a $258 million round in the car-ondemand service at an eye-popping $3.5 billion valuation. It looked risky—until this June, when Uber closed a new round that valued the company at five times that figure.

45

HOSAIN RAHMAN & YVES BEHAR

Jawbone

AGES: 38, 47

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 45

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Rahman and Behar have become the go-to guys for high-design electronics. Jawbone, where Rahman serves as C.E.O., gained prominence with its Bluetooth headsets, then its speakers, and, most recently, its wristbands, which track the wearer's activities. Behar serves as the company's chief creative officer and, through his design firm, Fuseproject, also creates products for a number of other tech start-ups. LOOMING THREAT: Apple's rumored iWatch, which would likely lure users away from the Up wristband.

No.46

JOHN LEGERE

T-Mobile

AGE:56

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Telecom's firebrand has revived his fourth-place carrier thanks to consumer-friendly pricing schemes and an almost gleeful willingness to tweak his competitors. T-Mobile added more than four million customers last year and reported a healthy profit in its most recent quarter. The aborted merger with Sprint is a setback, but it could open the door for a merger with France's Iliad. SIGNATURE MOVE: Using intemperate language to describe competitors. At an event in June, Legere suggested that AT&T and Verizon were "high-and-mighty duopolists that are raping you for every penny you have."

No.47

YANCEY

STRICKLER

Kickstarter

AGE: 36

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: 38

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Strickler, the public face of the company since its 2009 launch, was named C.E.O. in October, just in time to see Kickstarter pass $ 1 billion in total contributions for movies, music, technology products—and any other creative idea looking for funding. EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE OVER-EXPANSION: Strickler's decision to end Kickstarter's vetting process this summer coincided with a satirical campaign for potato salad that raised more than $55,000—but also has caused some to worry that it could make Kickstarter a vehicle for fraud.

48

SOPHIA

AMORUSO

Nasty Gal

AGE: 30

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:X

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Amoruso is the creative force behind Silicon Valley's current retail obsession; last year. Nasty Gal reportedly sold more than $ 100 million worth of sexy, on-trend dresses and separates. A Dumpster-diving community-college dropout, Amoruso has transformed herself into a leadership guru for young women, complete with a new best-selling book, #Girlboss, and a muchbuzzed-about South by Southwest talk. RETAIL AMBITIONS: Nasty Gal is set to open its first brickand-mortar store, in Los Angeles, this year.

49

SEAN RAD

Tinder

AGE:28

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Rad's free matchmaking app, which he created two years ago with co-founders Jonathan Badeen and Justin Mateen, is a genuine hit among millennials. Rad has seemed uncomfortable acknowledging the control of majority shareholder IAC, and some industry observers think it wouldn't be surprising if that relationship frays. PERSONAL RELATIONS: In June, Tinder suspended Mateen after fonner marketing executive Whitney Wolfe, who had dated Mateen when she worked at the company, sued the start-up for sexual harassment and sexual discrimination.

50

DAVID

ROSENRLATT

1 stdibs

AGE: 46

LAST YEAR'S RANKING: New

YEAR AHEAD:

STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Thanks in part to an investment earlier this year from Jack Ma's Alibaba, 1 stdibs, an online marketplace for high-end vintage furniture, is growing fast, with listings that generate roughly $1 billion per year in private sales. Rosenblatt, who became C.E.O. in 2011 when he succeeded founder Michael Bruno, has focused on diversifying—adding vintage fashion, fine art, and jewelry sales—and says the plan is "to disrupt the high-end design business on a global scale." GEEK BONA FIDES: Rosenblatt previously served as C.E.O. of Doubleclick, the advertising-technology company that he sold to Google for $3.1 billion.