29. Howard Lerman

Cofounder, Yext , Confide, and Ahoy

Serial entrepreneur Howard Lerman kept busy this year as the cofounder of three different ventures.

In June, Yext, a company that helps businesses manage local content, listings, social pages, store pages, and campaigns online, raised $50 million in a Series F round led by Insight Venture Partners’ Deven Parekj with participation from Marker, IVP, and Sutter Hill Ventures. After the fundraising round, Yext had a $525 million post-money valuation and it expects to go public in 2015.

Lerman is cofounder and chairman of Confide, an iOS app that launched in December 2013 and sends self-destructing messages. Confide targets professionals who are seeking confidentiality, as opposed to Snapchat, which skews younger.

In February, Confide raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Marker, BoxGroup, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Lakestar, CrunchFund, WGI Group, First Round, Google Ventures, and angel investors.

Ahoy is a Yo-like app that lets you easily send a notification to your friends' phones.