Why He's One to Watch: Patzer, 27, has raised $17 million and gives one of the best elevator pitches around. "After 10 minutes, I said, 'I got it. I'm in,' " says Ram Shriram, a Mint.com investor who also backed Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Patzer once demonstrated an early version of the site for venture capitalist Josh Kopelman using a battery-powered server that Patzer kept in the trunk of his car.
Employees: 25
Aaron Hall
Current Venture: Borrego Solar Systems, based in San Diego, designs and builds solar panels. CEO Hall was a baby in 1980 when the company was founded; in 2001, he wrote a turnaround plan for Borrego for a class at Northwestern. Borrego's owner (a family friend) then let Hall put it into effect.
Why He's One to Watch: In 2006, California pledged $3.3 billion to encourage residents to install solar panels on their roofs. Hall has six offices in the state and accepts energy tax rebates as partial payment. Revenue is set to hit $60 million.
Employees: 160
The Backstory: Hall, 29, learned strategy at the blackjack table. When he was in college, a friend of his father's paid Hall $10 an hour, plus 10 percent of the profits, to gamble with the friend's money.
Matt Brezina
Current Venture: Co-founded Xobni with Adam Smith (see previous page)
Employees: 16
The Backstory: The partners met in 2005, when Brezina, a grad student at the University of Maryland, posted a roommate ad on Craigslist, and Smith answered it. The two became friends, and Smith persuaded Brezina to help him launch Xobni. "I thought, I'm not liking grad school too much, and this girl just broke my heart, so I decided to change my life," says Brezina, 28.
On Being a Young CEO "Raising money is hard when you're in your 20s and you're asking for $3 million to $5 million when you've never managed more than $10,000 at a time."
Bobby Kim
Current Venture: Co-founded with Ben Shenassafar (right) The Hundreds, a company in Los Angeles with a clothing line, three retail stores, and an online magazine. Sales are on track to hit $4 million this year.
Why He's One to Watch: The Hundreds enjoys a rabid following. When the company opened its first store in San Francisco this year, it was mobbed.
What's Next: A deal with Disney. After The Hundreds paid homage to the Lost Boys characters from Peter Pan in a few designs, Disney approached Kim, 28, to talk about a line of Lost Boys streetwear. The Hundreds is pursuing the project eagerly and without irony. "Disney is a huge part of American culture," says Kim, "so being involved is a great opportunity."
Dalton Caldwell
Current Venture: Imeem, a social networking site in San Francisco that lets users listen to music and watch videos for free. More than 27 million people visit the site each month.
Why He's One to Watch: Caldwell, 28, beat out MySpace and Facebook to sign deals to share online ad revenue with all the big music labels, a coup that landed major advertisers such as Apple and Toyota. Ted Cohen, a board member and former EMI exec, says Caldwell succeeded where others failed because "he has no ego, and he gave the labels confidence that this was a true partnership with long-term revenue expectations."
Employees: 90
On Being a Young CEO "I've been doing this nonstop for four and a half years. I actually feel kind of old."
Ben Shenassafar
Current Venture: Co-founded The Hundreds with Bobby Kim (left)
Employees: 30
The Backstory: Shenassafar, 28, met Kim at Loyola Law School, and together they came up with the idea for The Hundreds. "I was 100 percent sure I was not going to practice law," says Shenassafar, who put off studying for the California bar exam to pack boxes in the company's warehouse.
What's Next: The Hundreds plans to open two or three more retail stores in 2009.
Sanjit Biswas
Current Venture: Meraki sells low-cost wireless routers that allow telecom companies in developing countries to charge $10 a month or less for Internet access.
Why He's One to Watch: Biswas, 26, has raised $25 million from Google and Sequoia Capital; has won an award at Davos; and has elicited praise from Nicholas Negroponte, the head of the One Laptop per Child program. "Meraki allows communities to grow their local infrastructure at costs that are orders of magnitude smaller than what is normally expected," Negroponte says.
The Backstory: Meraki began as a project to provide free Wi-Fi to MIT grad students.
Employees: 40
Smart Move: Without aid or approval, Meraki put up a test network in San Francisco that now has 100,000 users and serves as a huge ad for the company. "It really helped people connect the dots," Biswas says.
Sumi Krishnan
Current Venture: K4 Solutions, a federal contractor specializing in IT work, based in Falls Church, Virginia
Why She's One to Watch: Krishnan landed her first government gig -- a contract to create a database of images for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms -- seven years ago, when she was a senior at Virginia Tech. After graduation, she took a job at the Patent Office but eventually quit. "You can't do it part time and expect your company to grow," she says.
Employees: 80
What's Next: Krishnan's status as an 8(a) certified business should last for another six years, but she is already planning for the day when her company outgrows it. She has gone through the intensive process of getting cleared to go after defense contracts, including classified work.
On Being a Young CEO "My father always says, 'If you don't accomplish something great by the time you're 30, you're never going to accomplish something that great.' That kind of always inspired me."
