Forbes releases 30 under 30

Any monkeys manage to make the list this year?

30 Under 30 Finance: The Top Young Traders, Bankers And Dealmakers
The rising stars of finance can be found on both the buy and sell sides of Wall Street, working for big banks like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, hedge funds like Och-Ziff Capital Management and BlueCrest Capital Management, and private equity firms like Blackstone Group. They are also starting up their own investment management businesses and entrepreneurial ventures that aim to shake up the financial services sector.

The 30 young traders, bankers and dealmakers who have made their mark by the age of 29 are not only pushing serious amounts of money around, they are also innovating new financial products and strategies—and generating some controversy in the process.

Take Lucas Duplan, who founded Clinkle, a digital wallet that aims to change the way consumers conduct financial transactions. At 22, this Stanford computer science grad has managed to raise $30 million from billionaires like Richard Branson and Peter Thiel, and big shot venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, even though he has yet to release his product. Duplan has also hired former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy to be Clinkle’s chief operating officer. But Duplan has been slammed by tech reporters and bloggers for the large number of Clinkle employees who have either quit or been fired in a short period of time. Duplan’s over-the-top video ad for Clinkle has also raised eyebrows. “At the end of the day only one thing will matter: Do people like and use our product?” says Duplan. “Our focus is not on the press or who is backing it. Our focus is on product.”

Another young entrepreneur, Fred Ehrsam, is trying to help Bitcoin go mainstream. As the digital currency becomes more of a phenomenon, the 25-year-old former Goldman Sachs currency trader is working to make Bitcoin more accessible. He is cofounder of Coinbase, which is attempting to build a PayPal for Bitcoin and recently raised $25 million in a financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz, making it the top-funded Bitcoin startup.

Big financial institutions, however, remain as influential as ever and are well represented on this year’s 30 Under 30 Finance list. Goldman Sachs has three of its employees on the list, including Andrew Silverman, a star bond trader who at age 28 was recently promoted to managing director. Morgan Stanley has two representatives on the list, including Jeffrey Sun, a 29-year-old executive director who is the firm’s primary trader in oil products options, managing the investment bank’s exposure to things like jet fuel and diesel.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/01/06/30-under-30-finance-…

57 Comments
 

Oldest 20 year olds ever! Lucy is definitely 29 going on 40.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

Testament to what banking hours do to you

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use.
 
yeahright

Oldest 20 year olds ever! Lucy is definitely 29 going on 40.

Made me lol.
Don't waste your life only thinking about money and prestige
 

Some of these people are ridiculously impressive and easily deserve the spot. Others leave a bit to be desired. I'm not sure how they source their candidate pool, but I'm a bit surprised that these represent the top 30 people in their twenties. No offense to Katie Keenan, but at 29 she is an associate at Blackstone. That seems like a pretty standard path to me. Similarly Matt Schoenfeld is an associate at Morgan Stanley at age 26. I have no doubt he will go on to have a successful career, but top 30?

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

CB, these aren't necessarily the top 30, but rather the top 30 of those who apply. I have a feeling this is a lot like book, indie movies, and podcasts awards where the various parties who make those books, movies, and podcasts have to apply to have a chance to win the award.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 
heister

CB, these aren't necessarily the top 30, but rather the top 30 of those who apply. I have a feeling this is a lot like book, indie movies, and podcasts awards where the various parties who make those books, movies, and podcasts have to apply to have a chance to win the award.

I would assume that these ppl make a ton of $ for their respective firms, and the title is more of a meaningless formality. And their base compensation is irrelevant when compared to their bonuses.

With that said, a 29-yr old MD @ GS. Must be bringing some good business.

 

Lost touch with a kid from grade school...an uh, just re-found him. What a way to do it!

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people."
 

That awkward moment when you see your interviewer on this list.

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

Wow, really impressive people. Looks like a lot of these positions (e.g. founder of a 9 or 10 figure fund) required substantial connections. Curious if there's kind of a common link between 90% of the finance entrepreneurs, such as elite prep schools and wealthy and well connected parents. I would think being a finance entrepreneur would be the single most difficult thing to do as a young adult given that experience is such a highly valued commodity when it comes to fund raising.

 

If this were, say, 1985 I would definitely try to get my name on this list for the sake of building my resume and being able to sell my services even better. In 2014 with the complete lack of privacy I would in no way want my name on one of these lists so people can go online and make fun of me, or look me up on Facebook/linkedin/twitter/instagram, or question the veracity of my claims publicly, or email my boss or clients, etc. I would want to be successful and anonymous.

 
Best Response

Those who wonder how these lists are populated ought to read this essay by Paul Graham on PR firms: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Journalists are unfortunately too busy trying to write novels nobody will read to actually do their job. Hence this.

The nominations are not random nor a money honey pot; you can bet every name on this list has an agenda, especially when the nomination process is this easy (it would be more interesting if one had to know who the nominating committee is and approach them via your network). "Hey John, the nominations for 30 under 30 are up again, can you put my name in? here's a couple paragraphs you can use."

I know because I do the same thing myself. You never know when you might need to add an extra line on your CV or negotiate a higher package at a competitor, and people are suckers for brands because like journalists, they are too lazy to do their job on the whole (and you only need one good offer). Conferences, awards, lists, brand names are great things to help a lazy stakeholder make an important decision without thinking too much.

Just like with wine. "Oh, it's 3 euros more, but it has a gold medal! Must be good" - never mind that another 50 wines got a gold medal at the event and the judges probably either didn't taste it, or got so blind drunk that they couldn't tell the difference after the first 4 samples. I always wondered why they bothered with silver medals - guess some people like to pick the second best "cos it's probably better value".

 

Great post, +1

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

This is a joke. I know of a case last year where someone was put in this list because the writer/editor of the list went to college with the person I worked with, and my coworker was put in the list because they needed to "fill up space." Kid you not!

 

30 successful people highlighted for their hard work, and 100 WSOers lined up to rag on them out of jealousy. I'd expect nothing less...

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people."
 

I doubt anyone is shitting on the people on the list per se, but rather shitting on the list itself.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Some of the guys running own funds/Pm's at op funds are impressive but most of this list is very unimpressive versus expectations of top 30 of finance.

 

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Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

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