The Hurun Research Institute releases the

Hurun US Under30s 2025

(Boston, February 15, 2026) Hurun Research Institute, the world’s largest compiler of entrepreneurship rankings, released the Hurun US Under30s 2025. The list identifies 322 outstanding young entrepreneurs in the United States aged 30 and under. This is the second time Hurun Research has published this ranking.

Each entrepreneur who made the list has founded a company valued at a minimum of US$10mn, with an average valuation of US$ 200mn across all listed companies (based on a cutoff date of June 2025). They come from 60 cities, with a gender ratio of 80% male and 20% female. 79% of the companies operate in software or services, while 21% sell physical products; B2B enterprises account for 76%, and B2C for 24%. The average age of the entrepreneurs is 28, having founded their companies at an average age of 23, with businesses now operating for five years on average. Companies have an average of 55 employees. Of the 322 entrepreneurs, 320 have raised funding, including 22 from Hurun Unicorn, Gazelle, and Cheetah companies.

Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun, Rupert Hoogewerf, said:

“It is a great pleasure to officially release the Hurun US Under30s list today. As probably the most dynamic center for entrepreneurship and innovation globally, the United States brings together bold and visionary young talent from around the world. This list focuses on young leaders aged 30 and under. who are using creativity, technology, and execution power to break boundaries and create value. We hope that through this list, we can witness the rise of the next generation of business leaders and document how these young individuals shine on the global stage, leading future innovation and transformation.”

“The impact of these Under30 entrepreneurs is remarkable. Their companies have an average valuation of US$200mn, and 320 out of 322 have secured funding. If they can build such promising ventures before turning 30, just imagine what scale their companies could reach by the time they are the same age as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.”

“The geographic distribution of Under30 entrepreneurs reflects the maturity of local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Cities with higher concentrations of startups tend to foster high-growth-potential companies. This year’s list includes entrepreneurs from 60 cities, with New York, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Cambridge, and Los Angeles ranking top five in number of individuals who made the list.”

“New York and San Francisco lead significantly, with 78 and 75 individuals respectively who made the list. According to Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report, Silicon Valley and New York rank first and second globally in startup environment quality, both being hotspots densely concentrated with unicorn companies. The San Francisco Bay Area, centered on Silicon Valley, has formed a highly active entrepreneurial ecosystem, while New York stands as a major global innovation hub.”

“Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University have produced the most individuals who made the list, with Harvard and Stanford each contributing at least 30. According to Crunchbase financing data from May 2024 to May 2025, Stanford and Harvard maintain absolute leadership in producing funded founders: over the past year, 511 alumni founders from Stanford completed at least one round of fundraising, followed closely by Harvard with 482 alumni founders securing investment.”

“The United States continues to attract the world’s most ambitious young entrepreneurs, which remains a key reason why innovation will be a core driver of the U.S. economy over the coming decades. Among those who made the list, 284 graduated from U.S. universities, 11 from Canadian institutions, and one from Tsinghua University in China — Wang Guan, who founded and leads Sapient Intelligence, a startup focused on developing next-generation artificial intelligence infrastructure, particularly brain-inspired novel reasoning models.”

“Notably, there are 13 dropouts among the individuals who made the list, the most representative being Chris Zhu and Gavin Uberti, who left Harvard University to found Etched.ai, now a Hurun Gazelle company. Dropping out from Harvard to start up seems to have become routine — Avi Schiffmann and Steven Wang also both left Harvard to pursue entrepreneurship. These young founders may well become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.”

“In terms of sectors, software and services — such as AI large models and SaaS platforms — feature the highest number of individuals who made the list, with 172; healthcare, including drug development and medical devices, ranks second with 51; business and professional services, like HR and legal services, have 24. Together, the top three sectors account for three-quarters of the entire list.”

“AI is undoubtedly the hottest entrepreneurial sector right now. A total of 104 individuals who made the list come from AI-related companies, accounting for one-third of the total list. Many of those who made the list are from Hurun Unicorn, Gazelle, and Cheetah companies, most of which operate in AI.”

“Sualeh Asif, only 25 years old, has already successfully founded the unicorn Anysphere. Anysphere focuses on future-oriented programming applications research, aiming to redefine programming paradigms through human-AI integrated coding technologies and significantly enhance developer productivity worldwide.”

“Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, they all only 22 years old, co-founded Mercor, which made it onto the latest Hurun Unicorn list. Mercor is an AI-driven global premium talent-matching and expert network platform that efficiently connects top-tier talent, AI labs, and tech firms through an intelligent marketplace model, reshaping talent allocation and collaboration frameworks.”

“Martin Camacho founded Suno, a generative AI platform dedicated to music creation that can generate full songs complete with vocals and instrumental accompaniment based solely on text prompts. The company was listed as a Hurun Gazelle last year and is expected to upgrade to a Hurun Unicorn this year.”

“Beyond these unicorn representatives, other entrepreneurs clearly reflect the AI startup boom. For example, Chris Zhu and Gavin Uberti founded Etched.ai, building new rack-level AI systems optimized for inference in production environments, achieving order-of-magnitude improvements in generation efficiency per unit cost; Maxim Serebryakov and Shawn Zhang founded Sanas, the world's leading full-featured real-time voice AI platform integrating accent translation, noise reduction, and next-gen language translation mobile apps; Jeremy Cai founded Fountain, a globally leading AI-native workforce lifecycle management platform provider whose Agentic AI-powered Fountain Frontline OS is the industry’s first AI-driven solution addressing core challenges such as hiring, scheduling, compliance, and retention in labor-intensive industries including retail, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, and food service.”

“U30 entrepreneurs founded their companies at an average age of 23, with operations averaging five years so far. The youngest individual who made the list is Chungin (Roy) Lee, aged 21, who co-founded Cluely in April 2025. Its core product is an AI tool designed specifically for meetings, making it the youngest company to make the list.”

“Notably, the average U.S. Under30 company employs only 55 people. Combined with an average valuation of US$ 200mn, this means each employee generates over US$ 3.6mn in value.”

“A successful entrepreneurial ecosystem requires role models — not only super wealth creators featured on the Hurun Global Rich List but also benchmark enterprises from the Hurun Global 1000. If a city or country can attract the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and companies, powerful ripple effects follow. Entrepreneurship is contagious. Cities rich with role models are more likely to attract the best and most promising young founders.”

“Behind every successful startup you see, there are thousands of attempts and iterations, nurturing the next generation of future unicorns. We hope this list, which gathers America’s most accomplished young entrepreneurs, can provide inspiration and strength to the next wave of aspiring founders.”

“Hurun Report is committed to encouraging entrepreneurship and value creation through high-quality lists and research. Our ‘U-Series’ entrepreneurship rankings are divided into two main categories: one focusing on companies and the other on individuals, making us the world’s largest compiler of entrepreneurial rankings. At the company level, we begin with the Hurun Cheetahs — startups most likely to become unicorns within five years; then the Hurun Gazelles — those most likely to become unicorns within three years; and finally the Hurun Unicorns — startups valued at or above US1bn. Hurun Research has identified over 3,000 unicorns, gazelles and cheetahs globally. At the individual level, we have the U40, U35, U30 and U25 Entrepreneur Pioneers lists, representing founders of companies valued at US$ 100mn, US$ 50mn, US$ 10mn, and US$1mn respectively.”

Featured Individuals

Sualeh Asif
Co-Founder, Anysphere
Sualeh Asif graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before large language models became mainstream, he contributed to the early development of Metaphor, an end-to-end search engine powered by large language models. From 2016 to 2018, he represented Pakistan in the International Mathematical Olympiad and taught competition mathematics at the Pakistan Math Camp. Currently, Sualeh Asif serves as Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Anysphere, an applied research lab focused on the future of programming. Its core mission is to build engineering-grade innovation capability, aiming to redefine programming methods and boost global developer efficiency through human-AI integrated coding technology. The company is included in the latest Hurun Unicorn List.

Brendan Foody
Co-Founder, Mercor
Brendan Foody is an AI-enthusiast serial entrepreneur dedicated to solving labor misallocation issues. As CEO of San Francisco-based startup Mercor, he is revolutionizing recruitment processes through artificial intelligence. Mercor has rapidly grown to serve hundreds of thousands of users with seven-figure annual revenue. It is an AI-driven talent-matching and expert network service platform, functioning as an intelligent marketplace connecting global high-end talent with leading AI labs and technology companies. The company is listed on the latest Hurun Unicorn List.

Chris Zhu
Co-Founder, Etched
Chris Zhu is Co-Founder of Etched, focusing on developing next-generation large language model accelerators and playing a key role in the company’s AI hardware innovation. His technical leadership has driven Etched’s frontier exploration and breakthroughs in specialized AI chips. Chris graduated from Harvard University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, served as a teaching assistant at Harvard, and interned at Amazon and AvantStay. His expertise spans theoretical computer science, combinatorial mathematics, and AI-oriented hardware acceleration technologies. Etched builds new rack-level AI systems for inference in production environments, enabling order-of-magnitude gains in generation efficiency per unit cost. The company is listed on the latest Hurun Gazelle List.

Jeremy Cai
Founder, Fountain
Jeremy Cai is a U.S. tech entrepreneur and founder of Fountain, a recruitment and workforce automation platform. He founded Fountain in 2015 with the goal of helping businesses streamline hiring, on boarding, and workforce management through software and automated workflows, especially targeting high-turnover roles and large-scale recruitment scenarios. Under his leadership, Fountain has evolved into a recruitment technology platform adopted by numerous large enterprises, establishing a clear product positioning in HR tech. The company is listed on the latest Hurun Gazelle List.

Martin Camacho
Co-Founder, Suno AI
Martin Camacho is a Co-Founder of AI music generation platform Suno AI. He graduated from Harvard University at the age of 18, majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. His technical expertise covers theoretical computer science, combinatorial mathematics, and AI system and hardware acceleration. Martin was the first engineer at healthcare tech company Firefly Health and previously served as Chief Architect at Kensho. At Suno, he oversees overall operations and organizational scaling, driving product deployment. He is currently working with his team to advance core products and next-generation creative tools, exploring new forms of AI-powered music production. The company was listed as a Hurun Gazelle last year and is expected to formally upgrade to a Hurun Unicorn this year.

Jordan DeCicco
Founder, Super Coffee
Jordan DeCicco is Founder and CEO of U.S. health beverage brand Super Coffee. While a student athlete in college, dissatisfied with sugary, high-calorie bottled coffees and energy drinks available on the market, he began blending healthy coffee drinks in a blender in his dorm room in 2015 — the prototype of Super Coffee. He later dropped out to focus full-time on entrepreneurship, building the brand with his brother into one of the top-selling “healthier ready-to-drink coffee” brands in the U.S. Known for its low sugar content and added protein and healthy fats, Super Coffee is now available in tens of thousands of retail outlets nationwide and has attracted multiple rounds of investment and widespread attention. The company is listed on the latest Hurun Gazelle List.

Shawn Zhang
Co-Founder, Sanas
Shawn Zhang is a technology leader in startups and currently serves as Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Sanas, dedicated to developing next-generation voice software. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and has ten years of cross-domain experience spanning early-stage startups and enterprise-level engineering practices. Previously, he conducted climate change AI research at Stanford’s SAIL Lab and delivered a presentation at the NeurIPS international conference in 2020, demonstrating strong ability to translate research into high-quality demos. Early in his career, he worked at Cisco on the “deep edge” project, deploying deep learning technologies onto edge devices. Now based in the U.S., he combines practical machine learning development with strategic product leadership, actively exploring collaborative opportunities in cutting-edge AI and voice technology fields. The company is listed on the Hurun Gazelle List.

Rory Beyer
Co-Founder, Avive
Rory Beyer is Co-Founder of Avive, currently serving as President and Chief Operating Officer. Rory majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, with additional studies in Mechanical Engineering. During university, he led multiple research projects ranging from power electronics subsystems for aluminum-fueled vehicles to bio-inspired “gecko” gloves — gloves mimicking the microscopic structure of gecko feet to achieve surface adhesion. Avive is a healthtech company focused on emergency solutions for sudden cardiac arrest, building an integrated “connected hardware + intelligent software + community services” response system, serving as a full-chain solution provider in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies. The company is listed on the Hurun Cheetah List.

Jared Quincy Davis
Founder, Foundry
While pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford University, Jared Quincy Davis faced GPU shortages and had to use Google Sheets to schedule hardware access times. As a former researcher with Google DeepMind’s deep learning team, Davis founded Foundry in 2022 to provide cloud GPU resources for AI developers, perfectly timed amid industry-wide computing resource bottlenecks. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M12 Ventures, NEA, and Redpoint, Foundry has raised a total of US$80mn in venture capital. Davis also serves as Chair of the Foundry Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bridging computational resource gaps in academia. The company is listed on the Hurun Cheetah List.

Janet Ho
Co-Founder, Hume AI
Janet Ho graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s degree in Government and a minor in Computer Science. She co-founded Hume AI in 2021 and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing operational management, product strategy formulation, and partner integration during the company’s scale-up phase, driving the expansion of its empathetic voice AI platform. Hume’s Empathic Voice Interface is the world’s first emotionally intelligent voice AI and the only API capable of measuring subtle vocal modulations and responding via empathetic large language models, guiding language and speech generation. The company is listed on the Hurun Cheetah List.

Methodology

I. Core Selection Scope
The Hurun US Under30s focuses on outstanding young entrepreneurs in the United States aged 30 and under. Candidates must be founders/co-founders or core team members of their companies and have played a key role in the company’s development. If more than two eligible individuals come from the same company, any excess candidates will be considered for listing the following year.

II. Enterprise Valuation Criteria

Valuation Threshold: The enterprise value of the company founded by the candidate must be at least US$10mn;

Valuation Date: All company valuations are based on data as of June 30, 2025;

Valuation Basis: Company valuations are primarily based on the latest funding round valuations, public market transaction prices, industry benchmarking, and professional institution assessments, with preference given to fair valuations confirmed by investment institutions.

III. Information Verification Principles

1. Company valuation data are cross-verified through at least two channels, including official corporate disclosures, investor backing, and third-party database validation;

2. Candidate identity information (age, founder status) is confirmed through official reports, public interviews, and core team listings;

3. For companies without disclosed valuations, comprehensive estimates are made based on revenue size, market share, and industry growth rates to ensure fair and reasonable valuation outcomes.

《Hurun US Under30s 2025》

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai

Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research and media group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2024, mainly in China and India, and recently expanding to the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Best-known for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series focus on young businesses and entrepreneurs, through the Hurun Unicorns Index, two Hurun Future Unicorns indices, the Hurun U^th series and the Hurun Pioneers series.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest list compiler for start-ups, ranking over 3000 start-ups across the world through its annual Hurun Global Unicorns Index (startups with a valuation of US$1bn+), and two Hurun Future Unicorn Indexes: Gazelles, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years.

The Hurun Pioneering Young Startups and Entrepreneurs series focuses on startups set up within the last ten years and founders aged 45 or under.

The Hurun U^th series includes the Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of each generation of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth US$1m, US$10m, US$50m and US$100m respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun 500 series, ranking the most valuable companies in the world, China and India, the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists and the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions and regional governments.

Hurun hosts high-profile events across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

For further information, see www.hurun.net.

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Email: porsha.pan@hurun.net