Founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs.
Ben Horowitz co-founded Loudcloud, turned it into Opsware and sold it to HP for $1.6 billion in 2007, then co-founded Andreessen Horowitz with Marc Andreessen.
Jack Conte, a YouTube musician with the duo Pomplamoose, co-founded Patreon to help creators earn directly from their fans and serves as its CEO.
Ryan Smith co-founded Qualtrics with his father and brother while at BYU, and in 2020 bought a majority stake in the Utah Jazz.
Kevin Rose co-founded Digg, which launched in December 2004, and other startups including Revision3, Pownce and Milk, and re-purchased Digg with Alexis Ohanian in 2025.
Dylan Field left Brown University on a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship to co-found Figma with Evan Wallace, releasing the web-based design tool in 2016.
Tommy Hilfiger co-founded a chain of jeans stores, launched his own preppy menswear line in the 1980s, took the company public in 1992 and sold it for $1.6 billion in 2006.
Calvin Klein grew up in the Bronx, apprenticed at a cloak-and-suit manufacturer in 1962 and launched the company that became Calvin Klein in 1968.
David Koch co-owned Koch Industries with his brother Charles, ran for vice president as a Libertarian in 1980, and was the fourth-richest person in America in 2012.
Lloyd Blankfein led Goldman Sachs as chairman and CEO from 2006 to 2018, guiding it through the 2008 financial crisis, and has been senior chairman since 2019.
Charlie Munger was Warren Buffett's closest partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway from 1978 until 2023, credited as the architect of its business philosophy.
Fred DeLuca borrowed $1,000 from family friend Peter Buck at 17 to start a sandwich shop and grew Subway into the largest franchise in the world.
Ted Leonsis, a former AOL executive, owns the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics through Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
