In 2013, Brian Rudolph launched pasta company Banza out of his tiny apartment in Detroit--with his brother Scott as co-founder. Their product is made primarily of chickpeas, instead of wheat. It's a healthy twist on one of America's most beloved dishes: Gluten-free, low-carb, twice the amount of protein, and four times the amount of fiber compared to regular pasta. Rudolph didn't set out to change the food industry with highly processed foods and unheard-of ingredients. He wanted to make what we eat healthy, affordable, and simple. For those who've yet to taste it, the astonishing rate of the company's growth speaks for itself. After a year of commercial operation, Banza has expanded across the U.S. to 2,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Shoprite, and Fairway (where it was crowned the top-selling brand of pasta). Although Rudolph declined to reveal 2015 revenue, he says the company has grown by more than 1,500 percent since the year before.
Note: All data as of 1/31/15

Bark & Co.'s first product, BarkBox, provides a monthly delivery of innovative treats and toys that pups can wolf down and tear apart to their hearts' content. The growing number of consumers eager to pamper their pooches has fueled some impressive growth: The five-year-old company has shipped more than 20 million products, and just raised a $60 million Series C round of capital. While BarkBox accounts for approximately 75 percent of revenue, the company has branched out into several other business models. BarkPost is filled with dog news and videos; BarkShop is an e-commerce site where customers can buy all manner of dog paraphernalia without committing to a subscription; and BarkLive sponsors dog-centric live events such as Open Bark Night, where waggish stand-up comedians share drinks and dog stories.
Note: All data as of 1/31/16

BioBots manufactures 3-D printers that create living tissue for research purposes. Co-founders Danny Cabrera and Ricky Solorzano met in college and applied their combined biology knowledge to invent microwave-size bioprinters. The printers start with cells of the desired tissue and combine them with a powdery "ink," which is molded into the required shape. So far, scientists have used the printers to produce heart and lung tissue as well as cartilage and bone. Bioprinting isn't a new field, but BioBots' price point is. The printers cost a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of dollars usually required for a 3-D bioprinter. Cabrera sees 3-D printing tissue as a means to an end. "The idea of being able to use biology to design and engineer living things that can do things like cure disease or eliminate organ waiting lists, or even revert climate change, or help us live on other planets--that's more what was exciting about it," he says. "3-D printing, bioprinting in general, was really just a starting point."
Note: All data as of 1/31/16

Why It's Disruptive

In the movie Her, humans interact with their computers, not using their hands and fingers but rather their voices and their ears to listen to their operating systems talk back. This is Doppler Labs' vision of the world, and that is why the San Francisco startup has developed the Here One wireless smart earbuds.

The Here One went on sale in February at a steep price of $299.99. The company justifies the price tag by pitching the device as something far more advanced than your standard earbuds. Equipped with numerous microphones and the processing power of a computer, Here One is capable of smart listening, allowing users to, say, tune out ambient noises and emphasize the voices they want to hear. The company is working on a feature it hopes will enable Here One to translate foreign languages in real time. Doppler Labs is betting that in the future, you will speak commands to your devices, and its earbuds will be the ones listening. 

Biggest Challenges

Taking on the crowded Bluetooth headphone space is no small task. For Doppler Labs to succeed, its Here One earbuds will have to go toe-to-toe with Apple, which began to ship its AirPod wireless earbuds late last year, to much acclaim. --Salvador Rodriguez

FiscalNote creates an artificial intelligence platform that scours federal and state databases for information about pending legislation. The platform uses machine learning to predict the likely outcome of a bill, by assessing information about the bill's sponsors, the committees it winds up in, and the language of the bill itself. The core product is useful to companies in highly regulated industries, such as health care and biotechnology, and to technology companies with consumer-facing products or services. Founder Tim Hwang has created organizations with a public policy focus from his teenage years on. His study of political science, international affairs, computer science, and engineering at Princeton informed his decision to found FiscalNote. The company got early funding from tech luminaries such as Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, billionaire investor Mark Cuban, and New Enterprise Associates.
Note: All data as of 1/31/16