In an age during which technology is rapidly improving, it’s only natural that we see revolutionary changes in almost every sector of the world. And so it has been.
With technology more accessible to the masses, a growing number of innovative minds have sought to change the worldand the way we think about everything in it; the way we think about our music, businesses, social lives, education, sports, etc.
The stars of this social movement of innovation are well known. They are your Nick Woodmans and your Jon Oringers. They are unique designers, like Snapchat, which has conquered the mobile space with its immensely popular phantom photos and they are Motorola, whose new Moto X presents a phone that has endless customization.
And just like the Moto X, the most impressive of these stars are also the newest to the block, the youthful prodigies making waves in their respective industries in ways that others may not have thought were possible.
Entrepreneurs like to blaze their own path based on their preferences and the way they like to go about things. Moto Maker, like these entrepreneurs, allows people to individualize their experiences, by offering a service that allows you to customize your phone according to your preferences.
On this list, you’ll find some of those people and you might also find the inspiration to emulate their success. So, here they are, 10 of the most creative millennials in the world:
1. Zach Sims – Code Academy
As more companies are being launched out of the basements and garages of tech savvy millennials who have nothing more to their name than a knack for programming, the ability to code is becoming more of a commodity to Generation-Y than any other skill. And Sims is doing his best to make sure people are ready to take advantage of it.
The 22-year-old is the founder of Code Academy, a site that proclaims itself as the easiest place on the web to learn how to code. The best part about it? It’s all free for users to learn the skill, perfect and, hopefully, monetize.
2. Mahbod Moghadam, Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory – Rap Genius
Rap Genius is a popular site that adds annotations to music lyrics. With a swagger, cadence and style that falls nowhere short of unique, the three Yale graduates behind the site have certainly made a name for themselves and not just as creative minds, but as innovate designers as well.
Moghadam, Lehman and Zechory have built a site that allows fans to connect to their favorite artists in a deeper way, with explanations of some of the more ambiguous lines in everyone’s favorite songs.
It’s also one that makes us wonder whether the rest of the Internet should be like it.
“I often wonder how the Internet would have turned out differently if users had been able to annotate everything – to add new layers of knowledge to all knowledge, on and on, ad infinitum,” famed investor Mark Andreesen said in a personal blog on Rap Genius, which he’s invested in. “
And so, 20 years later, Rap Genius finally gives us the opportunity to find out. It’s an ambitious mission, and one we are proud to get behind.”
3. David Karp – Tumblr
After his 27th birthday on July 6, Karp, the founder and CEO of Tumblr, was able to celebrate off the back of one of the biggest deals of the summer, which saw his site sell to Yahoo! for the hefty price of $1 billion.
The deal was a crowning moment for Karp who, despite never going to college (actually, he didn’t even finish high school), proved his genius in designing the ever-popular site that hosts nearly 140 million blogs. But Karp hasn’t earned his place on the list simply by virtue of a hefty price tag.
Karp, along with his right hand man Marco Arment, only started Tumblr once he saw that no other site was creating anything like it, and so he took it upon himself to build an online platform that many have come to love today, truly embracing the “design your own” spirit.
4. Palmer Luckey – Oculus VR
While CEO Brendan Iribe has gotten a lot of praise as he travels the globe, spreading the gospel about the coming of what may turn out to be video-gaming’s lord and savior, Oculus VR, he cannot do so without redirecting that praise where he says it is most due.
“It really wasn’t me who came up with the idea,” Iribe told Elite Daily. “It was Palmer Luckey, and I got to see it after it was already working. I saw the demo and the first demo I saw just right away I knew this was going to change the world and decided to go for it with Palmer.”
Luckey is the founder of Oculus, the tech company that looks to revolutionize the gaming industry with its virtual reality “Rift” headsets.
He is one of the many young minds that are at the head of companies aiming to change the world. Few, however, are as well poised as the 21-year-old to make an impact in the very near future.
5. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – A.k.a. Lady Gaga
Trying to list all the reasons that Lady Gaga doesn’t deserve to be on this list might be easier than actually discussing the millions of reasons she does.
The pop star was heralded by Forbes as the highest earner amongst all music artists for the year spanning from June 2012 to June 2013, with a total of $80 million raked in. And here’s the kicker: she wasn’t even active for the entire twelve months.
The musical icon, who was sidelined by a hip injury, has built her success off a career that has been all about being unique. Dropping out of NYU, after being granted early admission at the age of 17, might have been a mark of shame for many, but for Gaga, it was the start of life that was totally devoted to making hit records.
Gems like “Born This Way,” “Poker Face” and “Edge Of Glory” are such distinct tracks that one could only imagine Gaga herself performing them, it’s fair to say that she’s been a success.
6. Alex Kline – Rivals.com
For young hoops fans, being a sophomore at Syracuse University (one of the Meccas of college basketball) and having the opportunity to write for the scouting experts at Rivals.com would be a dream. And though Kline has managed to do just that, there is much more to his story.
The 19-year-old writes under Rivals TheRecruitScoop.com, a site which he created at the age of 15. The extremely popular site has made Kline not only a respected figure amongst the fans who are hungry to learn about America’s best high school ballers, but also amongst recruits and established journalists.
The Recruit Scoop, to date, boasts over 32,000 followers on Twitter and earned Kline a seat on Sports Illustrated’s 25 under 25 list, alongside other top sports figures such as James Harden and Yasiel Puig.
7. Kevin Systrom – Instagram
When Facebook purchased photo-capturing sensation Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012, it represented a rapid rise for Systrom and his company.
After all, the 29-year-old co-founder, alongside Mike Krieger, had just launched the popular app a mere 16 months earlier. That means it took the pair less than two years to reach a 10-figure valuation and Instagram hasn’t disappointed.
The app now boasts a fan base that is 150 million users strong, a vast improvement upon the approximate 30 million that Instragram had around the time it sold to Facebook.
8. Jennifer Fan - Arbalet Capital LLC
Having acquired degrees in finance, statistics and operational research from NYU’s Stern school of business at the age of 19, Jennifer Fan is your typical entrepreneurial prodigy — except for the fact that there are few others like her.
Ten years after leaving the collegiate space, Fan founded Arbalet capital, an energy and agriculture hedge fund that had a whopping $650 million of investment at the time of its launch in January 2012. Despite Arbalet undergoing a fatal shutdown, Fan’s accomplishments are of the sort that few other can boast, and enough to land the Asian-American a spot on this list.
9. Oliver Bogner – Relativity Media
20-year-old Oliver Bogner is truly one-of-a-kind. After successfully pitching a reality show to E! centered around his high school days as a hit DJ in Beverly Hills, Bogner instantly knew what the next venture of his young entrepreneurial career would be.
“I was awe-inspired,” he told Forbes. “I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
Five years later, Chapman University junior is the owner of Bogner Entertainment, a television production company, and also works as an executive producer under relativity media.
He is currently credited as the executive producer of three shows “Flipping Divas” on HGTV, “Biker Gang Project” on theNational Geographic channel and “Addicts & Animals” on Animal planet.
The Hollywood prodigy says he wants to go a step further in the next year too, as he plans to match his industry idols, like Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett, by producing 10 different shows on 1o different networks.
At the rate he’s going, it would not be wise to bet against him.
10. Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook
Of course, no list about creative genius would be complete without mentioning Gen-Y’s man of the decade, Mark Zuckerberg.
By now, the 29-year-old’s story is common knowledge, not least because of the “Social Network,” the popular movie that was produced to narrate his success.
Zuckerberg started the site that would eventually become Facebook in his Harvard dorm, linked up with Napster founderSean Parker, headed out west to Palo Alto, dropped out of school, made Facebook popular around college campuses, screwed some friends along the way and the rest, as they say, is history.
A decade later, Zuckerberg is sitting on not just one but two social media jewels with both Facebook and Instagram under his wings.
Top Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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