10 Most Innovative People Under 30

Eesha Khare

Role: Cell phone gadget inventor
Age: 18-19

Here is another teenage tired of her phone cell dying. However, she decided to solve that annoying problem for herself by inventing a super-capacitor that can potentially charge a phone for 20 seconds. The 18 year old Indian-American girl is from Saratoga, California and has been awarded the Intel Foundation Young Scientists Award of $50,000 for developing the tiny device.
That energy-storage device is a breakthrough with this technology as it can charge quickly and last for 10,000 cycles compared to batteries which only last 1,000 cycles. Her invention was tested to light an LED device but could also be applied inside cell-phone batteries, laptops and electric vehicles.

Easton LaChappelle

Role: Self-taught prosthetician
Age: 17

This young inventor is only 17 but he does not waste time changing the world. He is using free resources and 3 D printers to develop a home-made functional prosthetic arm. When he was 14, he decided to build a robotic hand using Lego with no knowledge about electronics. He discovered that manufacturing the old-fashioned way would be expensive which is why he started using 3D printer. The total cost of the arm was aimed to be under $500 which was the whole idea behind the project of the teen. With this cost-effective project he got invitation to the third annual White House Science Fair where presented the arm to the president Barack Obama. Currently the youngster is working at NASA`s Johnson Space Centre where he continues his mission to improve the affordable prosthetic.

Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna

Role: Co-CEOs and co-founders of Birchbox

Age: Both 30

Katia and Hayley are the ladies behind a very innovative e-commerce company called Birchbox – for those who cannot decide easy what beauty products to buy. Subscribers are given the opportunity to choose a sample of high-end beauty products to test before they buy. The subscription costs $10 a months and together with the product sales will earn the company $7million in revenue this year.

Kevin Systrom

Role: Founder of Instagram

Age: 30

After midnight on October 6, 2010, Kevin Systrom, with just a click through the Apple Store control panel, published his Beta version on the app Instagram and that is how the story of how its humble beginning started. The photo-sharing app he created with Mike Krieger, crossed 10,000 users within hours of publishing. Only 3 years later, the successful company now, Instagram has grown to a dozen employees and more than 27 million users. Today Instagram is acquired by Facebook for the dazzling sum of $1 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg

Role: CEO of Facebook

Age: 30

Started as a sample to generate revenue, the success of Mark Zuckerberg`s social network Facebook is an emblematic milestone of the 21st century that has inspired the whole generation to new discoveries. The youngest billionaire on the planet today, Mark Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York in the family of a dentist and a psychiatrist. His passion for programming since 10 years of age had gained him the reputation of a software developer in Harvard University where he dropped out later on. Devoting his time to his student dorm project, initially called The Facebook, has generated him the $19 Billion fortune Mark has today and 1 billion active Facebook users daily.

Danielle Fong

Role: Co-founder and Chief Science Officer of LightSail Energy

Age: 27

LightSail Energy Inc. is a company developing a form of efficient, inexpensive energy storage, using a revolutionary new concept in compressed air. As a chief scientist, Danielle Fong discovered ways to preserve and store renewable power, helping to unlock the potential of sun and wind energy.
After starting her Princeton plasma physics Ph.D program at the age of 17, she ditched her education later on to pursue a solution to the energy storage problems and founded the start-up with this mission in sight. In 2012, she managed to raise $37.3 million in funding with investors like Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla and Bill Gates on board. With a personal goal by the time she turns 40 to save the planet, she might as well have a shot at changing the trajectory toward climatic disruption. She was interviewed by Forbes (2011) in a video titled “ Danielle Fong May Save the World” and reviewed as one the top 35 innovators under 35.

Daniela Witten

Role: Assistant Professor at the University of Washington

Age: 27

One of the reasons why we could enjoy customized cure for cancer in the near future, Daniela Witten is an exceptional scientist in her own field- the application of statistics to medicine. Specifically speaking, Witten uses artificial intelligence programs to analyze the enormous amounts of data coming from DNA sequencing and gene expression. The ultimate goal is to make sense of the people`s genetic code and use this to develop personalized treatments for diseases. Some of her recognitions are an Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health and one of “The 30 Under 30” scientists according to Forbes Magazine.

Jeff Hammerbacher

Role: Co-founder and chief scientist Cloudera

Age: 30

A former employee at Facebook and Harvard University Bachelor graduate in Mathematics, Jeff Hammerbacher developed a technique for handling and mining unprecedented amount of data. At Facebook, he led the data team that was responsible for creating an entirely new technology that would deal with the problem the company had at the time with handling increasing amounts of data. His suite of analytics underpins the Facebook`s targeted advertising system which is also the key to its profitability. In 2008, Hammerbacher left Facebook to start a company called Cloudera devoted to developing open-source technologies. As many industries such as oil, gas and life sciences face increasing data issues, such technology offers valuable solution.

David Karp

Role: SEO of Tumblr

Age: 28

David Karp is an American web developer and entrepreneur, founder of popular micro-blogging platform Tumblr. The idea for Tumblr that has been valued at $800 million, came when David saw a problem with blogging tools of those days that do not help people get their thoughts and images quickly without sitting down for an hour and writing a post. Tumblr makes it easy to post something and reblog what your friends are posting. Unlike Twitter and Facebook who push the barriers of publishing even more, it is also a tool for creative expression so you can customize it to reflect your personality. If the standard forms of blogging such as WordPress, Blogger and TypePad seem too complicated for you, Tumblr is something more form-free and allows you to actually produce blog posts filled with images, links and videos which shows to work great for many people.

Pete Cashmore

Role: SEO of Mashable

Age:29

An internet wunderkit, Pete Cashmore is the founder of the multimillion-dollar blog empire Mashable. Growing up in Scotland, he opted out of college and launched Mashable at the age of 19 and seven years later, he achieved the entrepreneurial dream of becoming a millionaire. Even though most British people would struggle to recognize Pete, the fanbase of Mashable Twitter account has swirled around his face as he is been the public figure behind it since its early days. Cashmore was also named No 3 in Forbes magazine`s Web Celeb 25 in 2010 and dubbed by many the “sexiest geek” and “The Internet playboy”.