Picture the stereotypical twentysomething entrepreneur. Maybe they wear hoodies to work. They might like to tell you how they’re disrupting one thing or another. Maybe they look a bit like the guys from Soylent.
Now check out Noah Cowan. Yes, that’s him in the dust mask, sharpening a custom-handled knife. No hoodie, no app, no creative office space. And even if Soylent’s four founders look the part and have the backing of a big venture capital firm, they don’t quite fit the Silicon Valley or Silicon Beach stereotype, either. They engineer food, not software, and they count lots of long-haul truckers among their fans. Read their stories and those of other local business founders – all in their 20s, and all hard to pigeonhole – in this special report, the Business Journal’s annual roundup of 20 up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Profiled:
Jordan Furniss and Taylor Moss
Michael Townsend and Kyle Hill
Rob Rhinehart, Matt Cauble, David Renteln and John Coogan