Chair, Idealab

Founded in 1996, Idealab is one of the longest-running startup incubators in the nation and has launched over 150 companies. Of these, more than 45 have been acquired or gone public. After graduating from the California Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Gross founded GNP Development Inc. and started Idealab after a prolific career as an early web technology entrepreneur. He founded educational software publisher Knowledge Adventure, now JumpStart Games Inc., in 1991, and later launched early search engine GoTo.com Inc., which was eventually acquired by Yahoo Inc. He is on the board of trustees of Caltech and on the board of the Art Center College of Design.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 8