Phillip Ragon, founder and CEO of InterSystems, built one of the most influential private software companies in the world by focusing on high-performance data platforms for healthcare, finance, and government systems. Since founding InterSystems in 1978, Ragon has guided the company’s development of mission-critical database and interoperability technologies used by hospitals, banks, and national infrastructures globally. Known for remaining fiercely private, profitable, and independent, he has prioritized long-term engineering excellence over short-term growth. Ragon is also a major philanthropist, supporting global health, education, and human rights initiatives.

Peter Gassner, cofounder and CEO of Veeva Systems, built one of the most successful vertical software companies by focusing exclusively on cloud solutions for the life sciences industry. After an early career at Salesforce, where he helped scale enterprise cloud adoption, Gassner launched Veeva in 2007 to serve pharmaceutical and biotech companies with regulated, mission-critical applications. Under his leadership, Veeva became a publicly traded, highly profitable software company known for deep industry specialization, long-term customer relationships, and disciplined execution. Gassner’s approach exemplifies the power of focus and vertical expertise in enterprise software.

Patrick Hanrahan is a pioneering computer graphics researcher and Stanford professor whose work helped define modern real-time rendering and GPU-driven visual computing. Best known as a co-creator of Pixar’s RenderMan rendering system, he laid the technical foundations for photorealistic computer animation used across film and media for decades. In academia and industry, Hanrahan’s research bridged graphics hardware and software, influencing the evolution of programmable GPUs and real-time graphics pipelines. Widely respected for translating deep theory into practical systems, he remains one of the most influential figures in computer graphics and visual computing.

P. J. Hyett, cofounder of GitHub, helped create the platform that became the default home for modern software collaboration, reshaping how developers build, review, and ship code at global scale. As GitHub evolved from a developer tool into a foundational layer of the internet’s software stack, Hyett played a key role in its early product DNA and community-first growth, helping turn open-source momentum into a dominant enterprise platform. GitHub’s rise culminated in its landmark acquisition by Microsoft, cementing Hyett’s place among the entrepreneurs who defined the modern developer economy.

Olivier Pomel, cofounder and CEO of Datadog, built one of the most important cloud observability platforms by anticipating the shift to distributed, containerized infrastructure. After early engineering roles and time at Wireless Generation, Pomel launched Datadog in 2010 to unify monitoring across servers, applications, logs, and security in a single, developer-friendly platform. Under his leadership, Datadog scaled rapidly with the rise of cloud-native architectures, serving enterprises and high-growth startups alike, and went public in 2019. Known for product focus and technical clarity, Pomel has helped define how modern software is built, observed, and secured at scale.

Max Lytvyn, cofounder and chief revenue officer of Grammarly, helped build one of the world’s most widely used AI-powered productivity platforms, transforming how people write and communicate online. A Ukrainian-born entrepreneur, Lytvyn co-founded Grammarly in 2009 alongside Alex Shevchenko and Dmytro Lider, scaling it from a niche grammar tool into a global company serving tens of millions of daily users across education, business, and consumer markets. While his cofounders focused on engineering and product, Lytvyn drove commercial strategy, partnerships, and enterprise adoption, playing a central role in Grammarly’s evolution into a multibillion-dollar software company at the forefront of applied AI.

Max Levchin, cofounder of PayPal and CEO of Affirm, is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential fintech architects, having helped define digital payments, online identity, and modern consumer credit. As PayPal’s original CTO, Levchin built the company’s core anti-fraud and risk systems, laying the groundwork for one of the internet’s most successful financial platforms. He later founded Affirm to reinvent consumer lending with transparent, installment-based payments that challenge traditional credit cards. A prolific angel investor and cofounder of the Founders Fund, Levchin has backed and shaped dozens of iconic tech companies, earning a reputation for deep technical rigor, product-driven leadership, and long-term conviction.

Matthew Prince, cofounder and CEO of Cloudflare, is one of the most influential figures in modern internet infrastructure, building a company that now protects and accelerates a significant share of global web traffic. After cofounding Cloudflare in 2009, Prince led its transformation from a security startup into a critical platform providing content delivery, DDoS mitigation, zero-trust security, and edge computing services to millions of websites worldwide. Under his leadership, Cloudflare has become a publicly traded company trusted by governments, enterprises, and developers alike, known for its principled stance on internet resilience, free expression, and cybersecurity. Prince’s blend of technical insight, public advocacy, and long-term vision has positioned him as a central architect of the modern, secure internet.

Matthew Calkins, founder and CEO of Appian, built one of the most enduring low-code software companies by betting early on automation, workflow, and enterprise speed. Launching Appian in 1999, Calkins steered the company through multiple technology cycles, positioning it as a core platform for digital transformation across government and large enterprises. Under his leadership, Appian went public in 2017 and became a recognized leader in low-code development and process automation. Known for his long-term vision, intellectual rigor, and independent thinking, Calkins has maintained founder control while shaping how organizations build and deploy software at scale.

Joseph Liemandt, founder of Trilogy and ESW Capital, is one of the most discreet yet influential figures in enterprise software, building a vast portfolio of companies by acquiring and optimizing underperforming software assets. After becoming a young tech millionaire with Trilogy in the 1990s, he shifted to a buy-and-build strategy through ESW Capital, assembling hundreds of enterprise software businesses and implementing data-driven, remote-first operational models long before they became mainstream. Known for his anonymity, contrarian discipline, and rigorous process engineering, Liemandt has quietly shaped the economics of enterprise software while amassing one of the sector’s most substantial private fortunes.

John Sall, cofounder and executive vice president of SAS Institute, helped transform a university statistics project into the world’s largest privately held analytics software company. An expert in statistical methods and visualization, Sall led the development of JMP, SAS’s widely adopted exploratory analysis software used across science, engineering, and industrial research. Alongside cofounder Jim Goodnight, he has championed long-term, employee-centric management and reinvestment in research over short-term profit, making SAS a model of sustainable tech growth. A major philanthropist in education, nature conservation, and science innovation, Sall’s impact spans both the global analytics industry and public access to scientific literacy.

John Bicket, co-founder and CTO of Samsara, turned a PhD-level tech project at MIT into a multibillion-dollar industrial Internet-of-Things company. After earlier selling his first startup, Meraki, to Cisco for $1.2 billion, Bicket teamed up with Sanjit Biswas in 2015 to build Samsara—fusing sensors, AI, and cloud software to monitor fleets, equipment, and field operations across thousands of enterprises. With stakes valued at around $3 billion each post-IPO, Bicket reflects the rare path from academic research to top-tier tech billionaire, while steering product strategy, engineering culture, and long-term innovation at the heart of the connected-operations era.

James Scapa, founder, chairman, and CEO of Altair, has spent four decades building the company into a global leader in simulation, high-performance computing, and data analytics. Starting Altair in 1985 with a small engineering team, Scapa helped pioneer computer-aided engineering tools that transformed product design across automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, and technology industries. Under his leadership, Altair expanded into cloud computing, AI, and enterprise analytics, evolving into a multibillion-dollar publicly traded company. Known for his long-term vision and engineering-driven culture, Scapa remains one of the most respected leaders in applied simulation and computational science.

James Goodnight, cofounder and longtime CEO of SAS Institute, built one of the world’s largest privately held software companies by pioneering advanced analytics long before “data science” became a global discipline. Since 1976, he has led SAS with a distinctive focus on research, long-term product development, and a famously employee-centric culture that consistently ranks among the best workplaces in America. Under his guidance, SAS grew into a multibillion-dollar enterprise whose software powers decision-making for governments, corporations, and institutions worldwide, earning Goodnight recognition as a visionary architect of the modern analytics industry.

Jack Dorsey, tech entrepreneur and cofounder of Twitter and Block (formerly Square), has been a defining figure in the evolution of social media and digital finance. As Twitter’s cofounder and longtime CEO, he helped shape modern online communication, while at Block he revolutionized mobile payments and financial inclusion through technology. Known for his minimalist leadership style and focus on decentralization, Dorsey has increasingly turned his attention to Bitcoin and blockchain innovation, positioning himself at the intersection of technology, finance, and social change.

Jack Dangermond, founder and president of Esri, is a pioneering figure in geographic information systems (GIS) and digital mapping technology. Since founding the company in 1969 with his wife, Laura, he has transformed Esri into the global leader in GIS software, used by governments, businesses, and researchers in more than 100 countries. A landscape architect by training, Dangermond has combined environmental vision with technological innovation to help organizations make data-driven decisions about land use, sustainability, and urban planning. A dedicated philanthropist, he has donated hundreds of millions to environmental conservation and education.

Garrett Camp, Canadian entrepreneur and investor, is best known as the cofounder of Uber and the founder of startup studio Expa. Before reshaping urban transportation with Uber, Camp created StumbleUpon, the pioneering web discovery platform acquired by eBay in 2007. At Uber, his vision helped scale the company from a niche car service into a global ride-hailing giant operating in hundreds of cities. Through Expa, he continues to back and build innovative startups, cementing his reputation as a tech visionary with a knack for disruptive ideas.

Frank Slootman, chairman and CEO of Snowflake, has earned a reputation as one of Silicon Valley’s most effective scale-up leaders, steering three companies to multibillion-dollar valuations. After leading Data Domain and ServiceNow through explosive growth and successful IPOs, he took the helm of Snowflake in 2019, guiding the cloud data platform to a record-breaking $33 billion IPO in 2020. Known for his no-nonsense leadership style and relentless focus on execution, Slootman has become a benchmark for operational excellence in the tech industry.

Ed Hallen is the co‑founder and Chief Product Officer (later Chief Strategy Officer) of Klaviyo, the Boston-based SaaS platform powering email/SMS marketing and customer data for over 100,000 brands, including Unilever and Citizen Watches  . A systems engineering graduate from UVA and MIT Sloan MBA, he previously led product at Applied Predictive Technologies and held roles at Google before launching Team Engine in 2018.

Devin Finzer is the American entrepreneur who co‑founded OpenSea in December 2017, becoming the largest global marketplace for NFTs. A Brown University alumnus in computer science and mathematics, he previously built Claimdog (acquired by Credit Karma) and worked at Pinterest, Flipboard, and Google on product growth. OpenSea’s rapid rise made him one of the first NFT billionaires in 2022, though its valuation has since declined amid market turbulence and regulatory pressures.