71. Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg

Cofounders, Re/code

In May, Vox Media, which owns SB Nation and The Verge, bought Swisher and Mossberg's 18-month-old tech blog Re/code in an all-stock deal. Multiple sources told Business Insider at the time of the sale that the value of the deal was between $15 and $20 million, in addition to some stock incentives for Re/code's executives.

Swisher and Mossberg, the cofounders of Re/code, raised about $10 million from investors, including NBC Universal and Windsor Media. Business Insider was told the company was on track to generate $12 million this year largely from its conference business; the website pulled in only about 2.5 million monthly readers.

Despite the impressive revenue figure for such a young media company, Mossberg and Swisher noticed some disturbing trends in the media landscape that caused them to sell Re/code. Other websites, like Vox, had much larger audiences and had raised much more capital; Swisher and Mossberg would have had to give up their controlling stakes in Re/code if they wanted to remain independent.

They'll be continuing to break tech news for Vox under new leadership, and they'll help Vox build out a strong conference business.