1. Perry Chen & Yancey Strickler

Kickstarter

preview for Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter: Movers and Makers

(Video by Jane Nisselson / Virtual Beauty)

In 2009 this duo unveiled a website that lets ordinary people provide support—often just $5 or $10 at a time—for creative projects by artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Crowd funding has since transformed areas such as game design and hardware development as well. So far Kickstarter members have contributed nearly $1 billion to 55,000 projects, helping to launch the Pebble smartwatch, the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, playgrounds, orbiting satellites, and 20 movies that were screened at 2014's Sundance festival.

Résumé builder: Chen was waiting tables at a Brooklyn diner when he shared the idea for Kickstarter with Strickler, a regular customer.

2. Carl Bass

Autodesk

Few people have democratized the tools of invention the way Carl Bass has. Autodesk has always been a leader in computer-aided design (CAD) software. In recent years the CEO has led the company's push into 3D modeling, striving all the while to make digital design and manufacturing tools accessible to tinkerers and small business owners. Under his leadership the company has released the Autodesk 123D suite of easy-to-use apps, partnered with the MakerBot 3D-printer company, invested in the maker-space TechShop, and bought Instructables, a leading online community for sharing DIY projects.

3. Lisa & S. Scott Crump

Stratasys

The Crumps are pioneers in the development of 3D printing. In 1988 Scott started working on a toy frog for his 2-year-old daughter, fashioning it layer by layer using a mixture of polyethylene and candle wax dispensed from a glue gun. Stratasys, the company he launched with his wife, Lisa, has since used Scott's Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology to become a leading maker of 3D printers. FDM powers high-end industrial machines, but it's also found in the inexpensive desktop devices sold by MakerBot, which Stratasys bought in 2013.

4. Nick Woodman

GoPro

Woodman, a surfer, set out to design a wrist strap for shutterbugs riding waves. Eventually, his R&D sessions in the ocean led to the world's most adventurous video camera. In the decade since, GoPro lenses have ascended to space, plumbed the ocean depths, and survived thousands of rough-and-tumble shoots on bicycles, skateboards, snowboards, hang gliders, weather balloons—you name it. Once every 3 minutes a new clip featuring the exploits of a GoPro user is uploaded to YouTube. And that reveals Woodman's greatest achievement: unleashing the creativity of millions of amateur moviemakers.

5. Beth Comstock

General Electric

preview for Beth Comstock, General Electric: Movers and Makers

(Video by Jane Nisselson / Virtual Beauty)

Beth Comstock is the chief marketing officer for GE, but her efforts stretch far beyond traditional corporate lines. She firmly believes that the century-old global titan can benefit from aligning itself with the upstart maker movement, and so she seeks out new ideas by sponsoring hackathons, funding startups, and partnering with creative hotbeds such as Quirky and TechShop. No surprise, she is also fueling a culture of agility and inventiveness in GE's own R&D facilities. In doing so, she is blazing a path for other industrial giants.

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