Dive Brief:
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Top executives from tech companies topped Fortune's annual 40 Under 40 list of the most influential people in business. Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom shared the No. 1 spot with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook is Instagram's parent company, and the photo-sharing app surpassed 1 billion users this year.
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Second placed was cinched by the co-founders of Lyft, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer. Fifth place was secured by Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, followed by Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, in eighth place.
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Whitney Wolf, founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble, and Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, both represented women in tech on the list. El Kaliouby is training machines to understand and interpret human feelings.
Dive Insight:
Notably, most of the names on Fortune's list are both co-founders and chief executives of their companies. It is fairly common for tech companies to replace their founders or "creatives" with career managers or executives for various reasons.
For example, Steve Jobs was famously criticized for his style of management and often clashed with then CEO, John Sculley. By 1985, Apple's board and Sculley pushed Jobs out of the company. Jobs then returned to the company and named its official CEO in 2000 and held onto the role until his passing in 2011, but not before handpicking Tim Cook to replace him.
A similar situation was true for Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick. Kalanick was plagued by reports of sexism and other controversial behavior. Months after Uber's board essentially forced Kalanick out, it was disclosed the company tried to hide a 2016 data breach.
Notably, Wolf was a co-founder of Tinder before resigning from the company following sexual harrassment from the other co-founders, Justin Mateen and Sean Rad. Rad was replaced as CEO of Tinder in 2016.
Though some of the other names Fortune listed have remained under the radar, Zuckerberg has taken the spotlight in recent months. Facebook is continuing to thrive despite criticisms around data privacy and spending money in opposition to California's consumer privacy bill.
