Gies Business and iVenture Alumni Among Forbes 30 Under 30 Recipients for 2024

Two Gies alumni and leaders from two former iVenture Accelerator startups have been named to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list, which recognizes innovators under the age of 30 across 20 industries who are “changing the world forever.”

John Summit (Schuster) (ACCY '16, MAS '17) was selected in the Music category. John is a high-energy DJ whose productions have amassed more than 500 million streams and 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. John launched his own record label, Experts Only, in 2023.

Rapunzl, co-founded by Gies alum Myles Gage (FIN ’16), is a free mobile and web platform that gamifies financial education for middle and high school students. Students can simulate real-time stock and crypto portfolios, interact with a financial literacy curriculum, and enter national scholarship competitions. Using Rapunzl’s Educator Portal, teachers can manage their classrooms, create curricula, and deliver assessments. The platform has reached all 50 states and since launch, Gage and Rapunzl have worked with major companies like HSBC, KPMG, and Mastercard to impact nearly 100,000 students.

In our expanded Gies community, two companies who got their start in the iVenture Accelerator program were also named to the list.

Natrion, co-founded by Alex Kosyakov (iVenture), is working to produce solid-state batteries for mass market electric vehicles. Since its founding in 2018, Natrion has already received $3.2 million in funding from high profile investors including Mark Cuban. What makes them stand out amongst competition? Natrion patented a new material called LISIC (Lithium Solid Ionic Composite) which can be deployed in existing gigafactories to convert them to high-volume SSB manufacturing.

Trala, co-founded by Vishnu Indukuri and Sam Walder (iVenture), is an app that offers one-on-one violin lessons and has reached more than 600,000 people from 193 countries. With over $15 million in funding from the CEOs of Duolingo, LinkedIn, and Reddit, and support from top musicians like violinist and conductor Joshua Bell, Trala aims to provide jobs for musicians interested in teaching and increase accessibility to music education.

“Perhaps what’s most remarkable about these two startups is that even though they’ve expanded rapidly, they are very much in tune with our current community of students,” said iVenture Director Manu Edakara. “They continue to be fantastic mentors and guides for our program.”