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Jason Ross has always been the person his friends would turn to for the latest on cool things. And thanks to his Mom, Ross was always a discount shopper. His business, JackThreads.com , "is about everything I'm about, which is cool, cutting edge brands, and products at 40 to 80 percent off retail," says Ross

Siamak Taghaddos and David Hauser met as undergrads at Babson College while both were managing businesses they started in high school. One of their biggest challenges was how to answer work calls while in class. "If a customer wanted to place an order for a product, the only number I could give them was my house line," says Taghaddos.

What if everyone had a friend who was a beauty editor—someone to sort through the gazillion products and tell you not just what’s best, but what's best for you and how to use it?

If Matt Lauzon has his way, his online custom jewelry company will one day "take on Tiffany head-to-head." That may seem like a bold prediction, but consider that Gemvara , which is just more than a year old, had a $10 million run rate at the end of last year and, as of this spring, is venture capital funded to the tune of more than $25 million. The company allows consumers to customize jewelry by design, stone, and metal, and offers more than a billion styles from which to choose (including Kate Middleton-inspired earrings and a reasonable facsimile of Natalie Portman’s engagement ring). Lauzon carries no inventory; he sources his gemstones and diamonds from suppliers in the United States, then works with several manufacturers (also domestically) to produce the jewelry as it’s ordered.

Jennifer Schnidman Medbery knew that teaching math at a New Orleans charter school would be tough, even though the school, Sci Academy, had attracted a "dream team" staff. What surprised her was that the most challenging aspect of the job wasn't connecting with the kids, so much as it was keeping track of their progress and behavior on a day-to-day basis.

When you buy a silk Goddess Scarf from the online retailer Gianna Fair Trade, not only are you getting a stylish new accessory, you're also helping Mae Ta, the Laotian mother of five who made the garment, send her children to school.

At a Boston bus station in early 2007, Drew Houston opened his laptop to finish some work while waiting for his bus. As he turned on his computer, he froze. "I could see my USB drive sitting on my desk at home, which meant I couldn't work," the 28-year-old says.

On a recent Thursday , Hipmunk's CEO, Adam Goldstein, laid out his travel plans.

In the midst of the Egyptian revolution, David Gorodyansky and Eugene Malobrodsky, co-founders of AnchorFree , came in to work one sunny morning and realized something peculiar: Overnight, their company had scored about a million new customers in Egypt. "It was absolutely fascinating," says Gorodyansky. "Our original idea for AnchorFree was to make your Facebook and e-mail become just as secure as a banking site.

When Adam Witty was eight years old, his father was laid off from his job at AIG. "Rather than find another job, he decided he was going to start a company," recalls Witty, who is now 29.

Searching for the right college can be stressful, frustrating, and expensive. All those overnight visits; all those hours in the car with mom and dad; all that time spent with the odious Fiske Guide

Ankur Jain is the founder of the Kairos Society, a network of college entrepreneurs dedicated to changing the world through business. And socializing. Which is, in fact, business

Alexa Andrzejewski returned to San Francisco from a vacation to Japan with an idea: a field guide to global food.

Jason Baptiste is nothing if not confident . "We're sitting between two huge shifts," he told the audience at TechStars's Demo Day on April 11. "The shift in the media industry from print to digital, and the shift in the entire computing industry from point-and-click to touch-enabled devices

A look behind the scenes at what it took to make it onto this year's list, and at some of the emerging trends it illuminates about young entrepreneurship today. What does it take to make the 30 Under 30 list? It's a question that we're asked often, and one that's a bit difficult to answer.