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30 Under 30: The Coolest Young Entrepreneurs in America
Thursday, July 26, 2007
provided by inc.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/103284/30-Under-30
New technologies, a proliferation of resources, and a disenchantment
with the corporate world are making Generation Y the most
entrepreneurial in history. From magazine publishing to delivering
fresh-baked cookies, the rising business stars named to our annual 30
Under 30 list are transforming existing industries and blazing trails
with new ones:

#1: Ben Kaufman, MOPHIE


Ben Kaufman

Age: 20
Location: Burlington, Vt.
2006 Revenue: $1 million
Employees: 14
Year founded: 2005
What it does: Mophie makes cases, splitters, arms band, and clips for
the iPod. The iPod accessory market may be crowded these days, but
Kaufman's goal is to turn Mophie into a community-based product-
development company that will solicit ideas for all kinds of new
products -- not just iPod add-ons -- from a 50,000 member online user
base. He's got $2 million in venture capital and a former top exec
from Burton Snowboard on board to help him do it. Revenue is expected
to hit $5 million this year.




#2: Sean Belnick, BIZCHAIR.COM


Sean Belnick

Age: 20
Location: Kennesaw, Ga.
2006 Revenue: $24 million
Employees: 75
Year founded: 2001
What it does: At 14, Sean Belnick started a direct-shipping company
for office furniture from his bedroom -- with $500. The company now
stocks many of the products it sells in a new 327,000-square-foot
warehouse in Canton, Ga., and has branched out into home furniture,
medical equipment, and school furniture. Notable clients include the
Pentagon, Microsoft, and "American Idol."




#3: Bo Menkiti, THE MENKITI GROUP


Bo Menkiti

Age: 30
Location: Washington, D.C.
2006 Revenue: $640,000
Employees: 10
Year founded: 2004
What it does: A Harvard MBA, Bo Menkiti sold his own home in the
capital's Columbia Heights neighborhood to launch an urban real estate
development, brokerage, and sales firm aimed at first-time buyers in
the underserved middle market. In less than three years, his team has
developed 33,000 square feet of residential and commercial property
and brokered more than $60 million worth of real estate in the region.
What's next for Menkiti? Developing a new 30-unit affordable housing
building from the ground up.


More from Inc.com:

· The Entrepreneurial Agenda

· The Next Big Ideas

· Start-Up Secrets

#4: Sam Altman, LOOPT
Age: 22
Location: Mountain View, Calif.
2006 Revenue: undisclosed
Employees: 30
Year founded: 2005
What it does: Loopt software provides location-based functions for
cell phones, allowing users to see where their friends are on a map.
The software also sends text alerts when friends come in close
proximity to one another, and can search for nearby restaurants. It'll
even tell you what spots your friends have tagged as favorites.
Loopt's service is currently available on Boost Mobile, and is
expected to launch on Sprint and other carriers within months. Altman
says he wants to bring the Internet out of the home and into the wild.
"The company's mission is to enhance, improve, and make more of real-
world interaction," he says.




#5: Katie Kerrigan, KATHRYN KERRIGAN
Age: 27
Location: Libertyville, Ill.
2006 Revenue: $57,000
Employees: 1 full-time, 2 part-time
Year founded: 2005
What it does: When Kerrigan, a former college athlete, entered the
professional world, she was discouraged by the lack of stylish shoes
for tall women. At six-feet tall with a size 11 shoe, she began
looking for solutions. While getting her MBA, she drafted a business
plan for a company that sold dress shoes to women with larger feet --
sizes 10 and above. In 2005, Kerrigan launched her website,
KathrynKerrigan.com, where other women like herself can find
everything from stylish high heels to trendy flats. Kerrigan works
with a craftsman in Italy to create her original designs. Her shoes
can be found in boutiques nationwide and in her new flagship store,
which opened this year in Libertyville, Ill. Sales are expected to
quadruple this year.




#6 - #8: Byron Myers, Ali Perry, and Brenton Taylor, INOGEN
Ages: 27 (Myers), 25 (Perry), and 26 (Taylor)
Location: Goleta, Calif.
2006 Revenue: $15 million
Employees: 100
Year founded: 2001
What it does: Winning a business plan competition at the University of
California Santa Barbara prompted these friends to take their idea for
an oxygen concentrator and actually form a company. Perry's
grandmother complained about the bulkiness and inconvenience of her
old oxygen machine, so the trio designed their compact device to
filter out the nitrogen from room air, eliminating the hassle of
having oxygen tanks delivered. Inogen's machine can also be plugged in
anywhere or used on the go with a rechargeable lithium ion battery.
The company has sold more than 10,000 devices.




#9: Raj Lahoti, ONLINE GURU
Age: 25
Location: San Diego
2006 Revenue: $11.5 million
Employees: 15
Year founded: 2003
What it does: After a few years dabbling in Internet domain
acquisition and traffic brokering, Raj Lahoti set out to build up one
of his brother's domains in order to provide meaningful content in an
area that, well, generally lacks it. DMV.ORG, the "Online Unofficial
Guide to the DMV," aggregates information from the (often dreaded)
Department of Motor Vehicles in each state -- all in one place. Users
can access information on everything from applying for a license to
ordering a driving record, without the aggravation of standing in the
DMV's endless lines.




#10 - #12: Geoff Cook, Dave Cook, Catherine Cook, MYYEARBOOK.COM
Ages: 29 (Geoff), 19 (Dave), and 17 (Catherine)
Location: New Hope, Pa.
2006 Revenue: undisclosed
Employees: 25
Year founded: 2005
What it does: A social networking site for teens, myYearbook.com was
hatched around the family dinner table by siblings Catherine and Dave
two years ago. With older brother Geoff now on board, the site has
since grown from a single high school to more than 3 million members
and more than 4.5 million visitors a month, ranking it third among all
social networking sites in the United States, behind MySpace and
Facebook.




Read more about the "Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30" at Inc.com

#13: Brian Taylor, Kernel Season's
#14: Miles Munz, Interviewstream
#15: Randy Bitting, Interviewstream
#16: David Levich, Icedoutgear.com
#17: Dan Gershon, Icedoutgear.com
#18: Eric Liberman, Icedoutgear.com
#19: Ben Goldhirsh, Good
#20: Seth Berkowitz, Insomnia Cookies
#21: Alison Barnard, In-Jean-Ius
#22: Will Pearson, Mental Floss
#23: Mangesh Hattikudur, Mental Floss
#24: Nick Kenner, Just Salad
#25: Rob Crespi, Just Salad
#26: Hayden Hamilton, Greenprint
#27: Benjamin Sann, Bestparking.com
#28: Jason Wright, Feed Granola Co.
#29: Jason Osborn, Feed Granola Co.
#30: Alexis Demko, Lil Bogies

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