Founders
Career records, alphabetical. Every fact links to its source. 46 founders on record.
| Founder | Companies | Record |
|---|---|---|
 Adam NeumannCo-founder of WeWork and founder of Flow | Flow, Flowcarbon, WeWork, +2 | 2 active2 status unknown1 acquired |
| Arvid KahlCo-founder of FeedbackPanda and founder of Podscan, author of Zero to Sold | Podscan, The Bootstrapped Founder, FeedbackPanda | 2 acquired1 active |
| Ben TossellFounder of Makerpad and Ben's Bites, and early-stage investor | Ben's Bites, Makerpad | 1 active1 acquired |
 Bill GatesCo-founder of Microsoft and chair of the Gates Foundation | Breakthrough Energy, Gates Ventures, TerraPower, +3 | 4 active1 ipo1 shut down |
| Courtland AllenFounder of Indie Hackers, the founder community acquired by Stripe in 2017 and spun back out in 2023 | Indie Hackers, Taskforce, Syphir | 1 active1 status unknown1 shut down |
| Damon ChenFounder of Testimonial and owner of PDF.ai | PDF.ai, Testimonial, Backlogs, +3 | 2 active4 status unknown |
| Daniel VassalloFormer AWS engineer, founder of Small Bets (sold to Gumroad) and Userbase | FULL SEND, Small Bets, Gumroad, +2 | 3 active1 acquired1 ipo |
| Danny PostmaFounder of HeadshotPro; sold Headlime to Conversion.ai (now Jasper) | HeadshotPro, Deep Agency, ProfilePicture.AI, +2 | 3 active1 shut down1 acquired |
 Dario AmodeiCo-founder and CEO of Anthropic | Anthropic, OpenAI | 2 active |
 Elizabeth HolmesFounder and former CEO of Theranos | Theranos | 1 shut down |
 Elon MuskFounder and CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, and co-founder of PayPal and Zip2 | xAI, X Corp., The Boring Company, +8 | 4 acquired3 active3 ipo1 merged |
| Jack FriksFounder of Post Bridge and maker of the Curiosity Quench and lovelee apps | lovelee, Post Bridge, Curiosity Quench | 3 active |
 Jay-ZCo-founder of Roc Nation and Roc-A-Fella Records | TIDAL, Armand de Brignac, D'USSE, +3 | 4 acquired2 active |
 Jeff BezosFounder and executive chair of Amazon and founder of Blue Origin | Project Prometheus, Bezos Expeditions, The Washington Post, +2 | 3 active1 acquired1 ipo |
 Jensen HuangCo-founder, president and CEO of NVIDIA | NVIDIA | 1 ipo |
 Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast)Founder of Beast Industries | Lunchly, Feastables, MrBeast Burger, +1 | 4 active |
 Joe RoganFounder and host of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast; owner of the Comedy Mothership comedy club | Comedy Mothership, Onnit, The Joe Rogan Experience | 2 active1 acquired |
| Joel GascoigneFounder and CEO of Buffer | Buffer, OnePage | 1 active1 shut down |
| Jon YongfookSingapore-based founder of Bannerbear, a bootstrapped image and video generation API | Bannerbear, Talkshow, Tropic, +6 | 1 active5 shut down2 acquired1 status unknown |
| Josh PigfordFounder of Baremetrics and co-founder of Maybe; serial builder of about 94 projects | Knockoff, Maybe, Baremetrics, +3 | 2 active1 shut down3 acquired |
 Kim KardashianCo-founder and chief creative officer of SKIMS | SKKY Partners, SKIMS, SKKN BY KIM (formerly KKW Beauty) | 2 active1 shut down |
 Larry PageCo-founder of Google and former CEO of Alphabet | Alphabet, Google | 2 ipo |
| Marc LouSolo founder of ShipFast, CodeFast, DataFast and TrustMRR | TrustMRR, CodeFast, DataFast, +5 | 6 active1 acquired1 shut down |
| Marie MartensCo-founder of Tally | Tally, Hotspot | 1 active1 status unknown |
 Mark CubanCo-founder of Broadcast.com and Cost Plus Drugs, and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks | Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, HDNet (now AXS TV), Dallas Mavericks, +2 | 2 active3 acquired |
 Mark ZuckerbergFounder, chairman and CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook) | Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Meta | 1 active1 ipo |
 Martha StewartFounder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and co-founder of Hint | Hint, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia | 1 active1 acquired |
| Nathan BarryFounder and CEO of Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Kit (formerly ConvertKit), OneVoice | 1 active1 status unknown |
 Oprah WinfreyFounder of Harpo Productions and chairman and CEO of OWN | OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Oxygen Media, Harpo Productions | 2 acquired1 active |
 Palmer LuckeyFounder of Oculus VR and co-founder of Anduril Industries | Anduril Industries, Oculus VR | 1 active1 acquired |
| Pat WallsFounder of Starter Story, the entrepreneur case-study publication acquired by HubSpot Media in 2026 | Starter Story, Delite | 1 acquired1 shut down |
 Peter ThielCo-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies and partner at Founders Fund | Mithril Capital Management, Founders Fund, Meta, +4 | 2 active3 ipo1 status unknown1 merged |
| Pieter LevelsFounder of Nomads.com (formerly Nomad List), Remote OK, Photo AI and Interior AI | fly.pieter.com, Photo AI, Avatar AI (AvatarAI.me), +5 | 6 active1 merged1 shut down |
 Reid HoffmanCo-founder of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock | Manas AI, Inflection AI, Microsoft, +5 | 3 active2 ipo1 acquired1 merged1 status unknown |
 RihannaFounder of Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty | Fenty (LVMH fashion house), Savage X Fenty, Fenty Beauty | 1 shut down2 active |
| Rob WallingCo-founder of Drip, MicroConf and TinySeed | TinySeed, Drip, HitTail, +1 | 2 active2 acquired |
 Ryan ReynoldsCo-founder of Maximum Effort and co-owner of Wrexham AFC | MNTN, Club Necaxa, Wrexham AFC, +3 | 1 ipo3 active2 acquired |
 Sam AltmanCo-founder and CEO of OpenAI; co-founder of Loopt and Tools for Humanity | Merge Labs, Tools for Humanity, OpenAI, +5 | 6 active1 ipo1 acquired |
 Sam Bankman-FriedCo-founder and former CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research | FTX, Alameda Research | 2 bankrupt |
| Sam ParrFounder of The Hustle and co-founder of Hampton | Hampton, The Hustle, Bunk, +1 | 1 active2 acquired1 status unknown |
 Sergey BrinCo-founder of Google and former President of Alphabet | Alphabet, Google | 2 ipo |
| Simon HøibergFounder of FeedHive, LinkDrip, Aidbase and SignupGate | SignupGate, Aidbase, TinyKiwi, +2 | 4 active1 acquired |
 Steve JobsCo-founder of Apple, founder of NeXT and chairman and CEO of Pixar; died in 2011 | Apple, Pixar Animation Studios, NeXT | 1 ipo2 acquired |
| Tibo Louis-LucasCo-founder of Tweet Hunter and Taplio (sold to lempire); builder of Revid and Outrank | Outrank, Revid, Tweet Hunter, +3 | 2 active3 acquired1 bankrupt |
| Tony DinhVietnamese indie software maker; founder of TypingMind and DevUtils, sold Black Magic and Xnapper | TypingMind, Image.Social, Xnapper, +3 | 3 active2 acquired1 shut down |
 Travis KalanickCo-founder and former CEO of Uber; CEO of Atoms, which includes CloudKitchens | CloudKitchens, Uber, Red Swoosh, +1 | 1 active1 ipo1 acquired1 bankrupt |