These Top Business Schools Are Feeders Into Forbes’ 30-Under-30 Retail & E-Commerce List
Forbes’ prestigious annual 30 Under 30 list recognises 600 business figures spread over 20 industries each across America, celebrating individuals who have achieved incredible success in the span of a year. Launched in 2011, the list has expanded to feature figures from Europe, Asia and Africa.
Forbes’ list for 30 Under 30 2020 features a number of categories, including Finance, Art & Style, Food & Drink, Hollywood and Entertainment and many more, and here below we take a look at some of the entrepreneurs, who have managed to “Crack The MBA” from some of the finest business schools around the world. In the first post of the series, we take a look at
entrepreneurs who are making great strides within the retail and e-commerce industry.
Jessica Assaf (Harvard Business School, Class of ‘16)
An MBA graduate from the Harvard Business School, Jessica is the co-founder of Prima (founded in 2019), a CBD (cannabidiol) wellness and beauty brand that prides itself on the core values that seek an escape from the daily stressful lives, the mental, physical and emotional imbalances people battle from today and much more. Partnering with Christopher Gavigan, the cofounder of The Honest Company, and Laurel Angelica Myers, another Honest alum, the trio were able to raise $3.25 million for Prima from Lerer Hippeau and Greycroft, the largest seed round for a CBD company.
Lia Winograd (NYU Stern School of Business, Class of ‘19)
Yet another MBA grad from NYU Stern School of Business, Lia Winograd is the co-founder of Pepper (founded in 2017), a company which designs bras for women with small busts, along with a coworker, Jaclyn Fu. Launched in 2017 as a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $10,000, Pepper has a distribution deal with retail brand Urban Outfitters, and projects a revenue of $6 million in 2020.
Rooshy Roy (The Wharton School, Class of ‘19)
Taking the power of Indian skincare to the world, Rooshy Roy, a first-generation Indian-American decided to explore a rather untapped market where she offers clean, effective cosmetics rooted in ancient beauty rituals to the USA through her skincare brand aavrani (founded in 2017). An MBA graduate from The Wharton School, Roy has raised $1.7 million in funding from First Round Capital and General Catalyst. Beyond skincare, aavrani also supports young women’s education in India through a partnership with Shanti Bhavan School, a non profit education organisation.
Kyle Simon (Columbia Business School, Class of ‘17)
An MBA graduate from Columbia Business School, Kyle Simon co-founded The Clear Cut (founded in 2017), a service that allows customers to get custom engagement rings directly online, with his wife, Olivia Landau. Simon’s previous experience in diamonds comes from his diamond mining company in Sierra Leone, which he started in 2013 on the principles of fair trade and sustainable development. Started as a blog and an Instagram account to help people buy bespoke jewelry designs, the husband and wife duo managed to scale up and are now expecting to double their sales in 2020 to $11 million.
For the entire list of entrepreneurs within the retail and e-commerce industry, you can click here.
