War. Inflation. Market crashes. Layoffs. In a terrible, topsy-turvy year, one thing remains constant: Tomorrow’s brightest young leaders are turning to entrepreneurship to solve the world’s biggest problems—on their own terms. The 600 bold founders, leaders and entrepreneurs on the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list have launched creative companies to put a dent in issues like global warming, reproductive health, student debt and financial freedom.
To compile our 12th annual list, Forbes writers and editors—with the help of expert independent judges like Joe Jonas, Aimee Song, Bobbi Brown and Sid Sijbrandij—evaluated more than 12,000 candidates on factors including funding, revenue, social impact, inventiveness and potential. The 600 who made the cut are both an inspiration and a challenge to the conventional wisdom. Either way, they provide plenty of reason to believe that tomorrow will be brighter than today.
While studying for a nursing exam during peak pandemic days, Californian Stephanee Beggs posted a teaching video that went viral on social media–inspiring her to create an educational content platform called RNExplained. Beggs has generated more than $2 million in revenue selling study materials and merchandise and attracting more than 600,000 TikTok followers.