The peoplebehindthe ideas

Andrew Huberman is an American neuroscientist and tenured Associate Professor at Stanford School of Medicine. His research includes visual circuits, neural plasticity, stress responses and mechanisms of nervous-system repair. After studying at UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley and UC Davis and completing postdoctoral work at Stanford, he joined the Stanford faculty in 2016. Since January 2021, he has hosted the Huberman Lab podcast about science and its everyday applications.

Neuroscience · Vision · Neuroplasticity

Annie Duke is an American author, speaker and consultant focused on decision-making under uncertainty. Before dedicating her work to decision science, she built a professional poker career, earned more than four million dollars in tournaments and won a World Series of Poker bracelet. Her book Thinking in Bets translates lessons from that uncertain environment into tools for professional and personal choices.

Decision-making · Uncertainty · Cognitive bias

Chris Voss is the founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group. Before training executives and commercial teams, he spent 24 years with the FBI, becoming its lead international kidnapping negotiator and the lead crisis negotiator for the New York City division. He is also the co-author of Never Split the Difference, which adapts techniques developed in crisis situations to business negotiation.

Negotiation · Tactical empathy · Communication

David Vélez is the Colombian entrepreneur who founded Nubank in 2013 after experiencing the bureaucracy and opaque fees of Brazil’s banking system firsthand. With Cristina Junqueira and Edward Wible, he turned that frustration into a digital bank built around a no-annual-fee card and a simple mobile experience. In May 2026, Nubank reported serving 135 million customers across Latin America.

Fintech · Entrepreneurship · Customer experience

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is a Nigerian entrepreneur and investor, widely known as Iyin or “E.” He co-founded Andela in 2014 and Flutterwave in 2016, two African technology companies that later became unicorns. After stepping down from Flutterwave’s leadership in 2018, he formalized Future Africa in 2019 to support founders building the continent’s infrastructure and services. As of July 2026, Future Africa identifies him as a Partner.

African entrepreneurship · Fintech · Payments

Jensen Huang is an engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. He has served since inception as its president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board. Under that continuous leadership, the company moved from PC graphics chips toward an accelerated-computing platform whose GPUs and software are used across gaming, scientific research, and artificial intelligence.

Accelerated computing · Artificial intelligence · Semiconductors

John Mackey is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Whole Foods Market in 1980 and led the company for more than four decades. Starting with a small natural-foods store in Austin, he helped build a national retailer before its acquisition by Amazon in 2017. He retired as CEO in September 2022. As of July 2026, he is co-founder and CEO of Love.Life, a company bringing food, healthcare and wellness into one experience.

Food retail · Natural foods · Conscious capitalism

Merry Ba is a Dakar-based coach and trainer. After studying accounting and finance in Paris, her career shifted toward neuro-linguistic programming, Ericksonian hypnosis and the observation of body language. She founded Institut Merry Ba on 9 January 2019 to provide coaching and training programs. As of July 2026, the institute appears in SICPNL’s directory of accredited schools.

Coaching · Neuro-linguistic programming · Leadership

Oumar Sow chairs the Management Board of Groupe CSE, the Senegalese infrastructure company founded by his father, Aliou Ardo Sow. After studying finance in the United States, he joined the family business in 1987, held operating responsibilities in Sierra Leone and Guinea, and helped lead its transition into a holding group. In 2026, CSE still identifies him as its Management Board chairman.

Infrastructure · Construction · Family business

Oussama Ammar is an entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding The Family in 2013 and for teaching publicly about building and scaling startups. He was selected for Forbes’ 2016 30 Under 30 Europe list and served on the European Union’s Global Tech Panel launched in 2018. As of July 2026, he describes his work as independent, hands-on venture building from Dubai.

Entrepreneurship · Scaling · Acquisition

Sara Blakely is the American inventor and entrepreneur who founded Spanx in 2000 with $5,000 in personal savings. She turned a wardrobe frustration into a patented product, then grew the company without outside funding for its first 21 years. In 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Spanx at a $1.2 billion valuation; Blakely retained a significant ownership interest and became Executive Chairwoman.

Entrepreneurship · Bootstrapping · Invention