It’s not like you can just fill out a form and say, “I made a mean avocado toast.” Forbes employs hundreds of judges—CEOs, venture capitalists, and celebrities—to sift through 15,000+ nominations. Fifteen thousand.
They look for three things: impact, innovation, and potential. Basically, you need to have already broken something (the mold, not a window) and show you could break even more stuff. Getting accepted has about the same odds as winning a scratch-off ticket, but with more LinkedIn notifications.
Surprising fact: you don’t need to be a billionaire. You just need to be a scrappy genius who has disrupted something boring, like garbage collection or office supplies. One woman got in for starting a company that turns fish scales into eco-friendly glitter. True story.
Who Actually Makes the Cut? (Spoiler: Not You)
The list is split into categories like Finance, Science, Music, and Social Entrepreneurship. In the “Music” category, you’ll find people who can fill arenas. In “Science,” you find people who can fill a petri dish with world-changing bacteria.
Past honorees include Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg, and Simone Biles. But here’s the funny part: many of them were total unknowns when they made the list. That random guy who invented a better mousetrap? He’s now a legend in the rodent-disruption sector.
What Is Forbes 30 Under 30 List - Design Talk
The criteria are also hilariously vague. One year, a judge admitted he voted for a candidate simply because the startup’s name sounded like a Star Wars character. So yes, there is an element of chaos.
