Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are two men who regularly appear at or near the very top of the list of the wealthiest people in the world. But well behind them, and on their way up, are an entire cohort of people who seem likely to join them at the apex of the financial empire class. Who will be the next Warren Buffett or Bill Gates?
We’ve compiled a list of likely successors based on the following criteria:
- Already a billionaire - to give a good head start
- Young, under 40 - to provide the necessary time horizon to amass a mega fortune
- Running a successful business - to ensure future wealth creation
There are plenty of people in the billionaire class who are wealthier than the ones on this list, but they are either considerably older, or they represent inherited money. Generally speaking, inherited money tends to be more static than the kind that is generated by business ventures. For that reason, the hundreds of other billionaires in the world have been excluded from this list.
Speaking of which, here is the list…
Mark Zuckerberg
It’s hardly a surprise that Mark Zuckerberg would be on this list. With wealth that already runs well into the tens of billions of dollars, he is well on his way to joining the likes of Buffett and Gates at the head of the pack.
Just 29 years of age, Zuckerberg was estimated to be worth it excess of $33 billion as of last July. He is one of the founders of Facebook, and currently serves as its chairman and chief executive officer.
Zuckerberg reached the $1 billion mark at the tender age of 23, and continues to drive Facebook forward. With more than a billion users worldwide, the company is practically an industry unto itself. Follow Mark on Twitter @finkd
Evan Spiegel
Just 24 years old, Evan Speigel is the chief executive officer of Snapchat, a mobile photo messaging application that allows users to take photos, record videos, and text and drawing and send them to a controlled list of recipients. The company is now estimated to be worth between $10 billion and $20 billion, and Spiegel is worth at least $1.5 billion - at a very early age. Follow Evan on Twitter @evanspiegel
Sean Parker
At age 35 Sean Parker is the founder of the computer file sharing service, Napster, as well as several other companies. In a previous life, he was also president of social networking at Facebook. As of as of last September his net worth was estimated to be well in excess of $3 billion.
Parker is also a managing partner at The Founders Fund, and a co-founder of Plaxo, Airtime and Causes. He seems to be a pure entrepreneur who has a knack for getting into the types of businesses and industries where the money is. Follow Sean on Twitter at @sparker
Related Article: 5 Surprising Habits of the Ultra-Wealthy
Dustin Moskovitz
As of 2013 Dustin Moskovitz had an estimated net worth in excess of $8 billion - and he’s just 30 years old. Like many of the people on this list, he is an Internet entrepreneur. He’s also a co-founder of Facebook from which he departed in 2008. Despite that departure, he retains a 2.34% interest in Facebook, representing a significant slice of his wealth.
After leaving Facebook, he co-founded Asana - a web and mobile application designed to enable teamwork without email - with former Facebook engineer, Justin Rosenstein. Follow Dustin on Twitter @moskov
Elizabeth Holmes
Also 30 years old, Elizabeth Holmes is a health technology entrepreneur, and founder and chief executive officer of health technology and medical laboratory services provider Theranos. She has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion.
Holmes started her company as Real-Time Cures while she was a sophomore at Stanford University. It was the original name of Theranos. She was just 19 years old at the time, and started the company using her tuition money.
She subsequently dropped out of college, however she is credited with having 18 U.S. patents and 66 non-U.S. patents in her name. It’s clear that she is only at the beginning of her run. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter at @eholmes2003
Drew Houston
Drew Houston is yet another Internet entrepreneur – are you noticing a pattern??? He is the founder and chief executive officer of Dropbox, which is an online backup and storage service. At age 31, his net worth was estimated to be $1.2 billion as of March of 2014, though Dropbox is estimated to have a valuation as high as $10 billion. He has been named as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs by several major media sources. Follow Drew on Twitter at @drewhouston
Brian Chesky
Brian Chesky is 33 years old, which is a very young age at which to be a billionaire. In fact, as of April of last year, his net worth was estimated at $1.5 billion. How did he amass such a fortune?
Chesky is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the hospitality exchange service Airbnb. He has a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, and he and roommate Joe Gebbia - both unemployed at the time - started the company as Air Bed and Breakfast. And as the saying goes, the rest is history. Follow Brian on Twitter @bchesky
Robert Pera
At age 36, Robert Pera is estimated to be worth $2.5 billion. Starting out as a hardware engineer at Apple, he left the company in 2005 to start Ubiquiti Networks, a manufacturer of wireless products with a primary focus on under-served in emerging markets.
Pera is the CEO of Ubiquiti Networks, and is also the principal owner of the NBA Memphis Grizzlies. He reached the billion-dollar club at the age of 34, but has grown that figure nicely in the past two years. Follow Robert on Twitter @RobertPera
Naruatsu Baba
Japanese born Naruatsu Baba is estimated to be worth nearly $2 billion, and is 36 years old. He is the founder and majority owner of Colopl, a Japanese smart phone-game maker. Baba founded the company in 2008 as a smart phone game developer, and still owns 59% of the company. The company has five of the largest grossing apps for Android smart phones, and is growing rapidly.
Jack Dorsey
At age 38, Jack Dorsey is the oldest of the up-and-coming billionaires on this list. But he has a net worth estimated at $2.3 billion as of last October, and is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. He still owns 5% of the company. He is also the founder and CEO of the mobile payments company Square.
Square is the name of a mobile device that accepts debit and credit card payments. It was released in 2010, and attaches to various smartphone devices, allowing users to swipe cards and then sign for confirmation. The company itself has been valued at $3.2 billion. Follow Jack on Twitter @jack
Will you be next?
So there you have it – 10 rising billionaires who may one day join the likes of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at the very top of the world’s wealth. If you want to be one of them, be sure to earn your first billion dollars before you turn 30, and being some sort of Internet entrepreneur seems to be the preferred route.
Think you can do it?
