The 7 most creative entrepreneurs of 2016

While starting up, the question about new ideas often arises. Thinking ‘out of the box’ isn’t easy and not everyone can be termed creative. Be it technology, apparels, or food, some products seem to be a little bit more different and fun than others. They click with consumers, and the next thing you know, they are the talk of the town.

Here are seven of the most creative entrepreneurs of 2016.

Piera Gelardi and Christine Barberich, Co-founders of Refinery29

Refinery29 is an American global women’s media company that covers fashion, style, and culture for women.

From 158 million to 334 million people, its audience increased across multiple platforms in 2016. On September 26, 2016, Refinery29 launched the 67% Project, a cross-platform initiative promoting plus size visibility across the fashion arena. The project refers to the 67 percent of the American women who are plus size but seldom seen in magazines and ads.

R29 and Getty Images partnered and launched the 67% Collection, a curation of images to showcase plus size women as they are in real life.

Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, Co-founders of Airbnb

We all know Airbnb helps accommodate guests in unique spaces and acts as a platform for hosts to make money by opening their homes up to travellers and visitors.

In 2016, Airbnb expanded its range of services to experience packages. Users can look for activities based on their passion from traveling, taking a lesson from a samurai sword artist, learning to make a dress to getting a makeover done in various countries and cities. Each experience has its own poster and trailer as well.

This year, the company plans on expanding to flights and services. In July 2016, Airbnb was valued at $30 billion.

Alex Chung, Co-founder of Giphy

Giphy is the one stop destination for people looking to spice up their social media posts with GIFs. It has been integrated into Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Tinder, Twitter, and over 600 other services. Valued at $600 million, the company launched Giphy Studios, a new initiative to create original animated content. Its work includes partnering with media companies and events to bring out real-time GIFs.

John Hanke, CEO and Founder of Niantic

John Hanke, the brain behind the highly popular reality game Pokémon Go, is no doubt a creative entrepreneur. His unique game enraptured users and also attracted big companies such as Starbucks and Sprint that agreed to open gyms and Pokéstops at their stores.

In December 2016, Hanke released the much-awaited Apple Watch app.

Lior Ron, Co-founder of Otto

Otto, the company that created technology for self-driving trucks, sold to Uber for a reported $680 million. As part of Uber, the company will be a major player in getting autonomous vehicles on the road.

Otto’s first delivery was the shipment of 50,000 beers of Budweiser 120 miles across Colorado.

Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani

The Greek yoghurt brand Chobani, which has been valued at $3 billion, was founded by Hamdi Ulukaya. In 2015, Ulukaya founded the Tent foundation to aid refugees and improve the lives of 60 million people who were forcibly shifted across the globe. Ulukaya has employed 300 refugees in his second domestic manufacturing facility located in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang, Founders of musical.ly

With about 135 million users around the globe, musical.ly is an app that makes it easy to create music videos by allowing users to lip sync with songs from popular artists. The company recently launched its live streaming platform called live.ly, where music lovers will be able to broadcast through the live.ly app, while the streams will be viewable on musical.ly.

These entrepreneurs have invented and innovated. They are risk takers and their creations have left a huge impact. Wouldn’t it be exciting to go that extra mile and walk a different path?