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As many of you may have realized, 2026 is the new 2016. In honor of the trend taking over social media, we’ve decided to throw it back to Under 30’s own 2016, to highlight the founders, athletes and cultural icons who graced the Forbes list that year.

So imagine this: The year is 2016. You open Instagram (just a six-year-old app at that point) and posts of King Kylie and videos of the viral mannequin challenge flood your feed. As social media booms, so does the consumer industry. Many of today’s cult-followed brands are launching and growing—like Khloe Kardashian and Emma Grede’s Good American jeans, Jen Rubio and Steph Korey’s Away luggage, and now megapopular health tracker Oura, to name a few.

But it was also a year of financial shakeup. Brexit resulted in a $2 trillion loss across the global markets in just one day. And President Trump’s first election in November jump-started a years-long fluctuation in the U.S. Dollar—emblematic with a midnight crash of the S&P 500 on election night, followed by a surge the very next day as business owners held out hope for massive corporate tax cuts and deregulation.

Uncertainty was all but accepted at that point, but consumers and business owners alike were determined to make it big. Fintech founder Vlad Tenev gave them the platform to do just that.

Robinhood was founded in 2013 by UCLA dropouts Tenev (who was the face of the 2016 Under 30 Finance list) and Baiju Bhatt. Initially built for hedge funds and banks as customers, Robinhood eventually pivoted its focus toward consumers. The cofounders wanted to “use technology, design and rock-bottom pricing to undercut existing retail brokers like E-Trade and Fidelity,” according to Tenev’s Under 30 profile. So they rebranded in 2015 as a commission-free stock trading app that could be used by anyone with a smartphone. A year later, more than $2 billion in trades had been executed on the platform. And Tenev had raised $66 million for the startup.

Robinhood’s democratizing of trading for everyday users entirely reshaped the market. Just four years later, incumbents like Charles Schwab, E-Trade and Fidelity also eliminated their fees.

Between then and now, Robinhood hasn’t been entirely devoid of scandal: They’ve faced data breach concerns, system crashes, and most notably, complaints that they were protecting hedge funds during the GameStop fiasco when they restricted the purchase of GameStop and AMC shares. But all in all, the platform has continued to come out on top. After an IPO in 2021, Robinhood now has a market cap of $98 billion—and Tenev himself counts a $6 billion personal net worth. They’re now in the midst of another pivot: a nearly full focus on crypto that they hope will set them up for the next decade, too. (Read more on that here.)

Like Tenev, many other founders on the 2016 list took consumers by storm. Ty Haney founded her athletic apparel company Outdoor Voices in 2013. A former athlete raised in Boulder, Colorado, she ended up at New York's Parsons School of Design, where she created the five-piece collection of essential activewear that inspired the startup. When Haney was featured on the Retail & Ecommerce list in 2016, the company had $8 million in venture backing, from investors like General Catalyst. Outdoor Voices, known for their slogan “Doing Things,” was popping up everywhere: They had storefront locations in New York City and a headquarters in Austin, Texas. By 2018, it was worth $110 million.

But by 2020, crisis struck. The brand was allegedly burning through millions of dollars a month and Haney was pushed out of her CEO seat. Within a few days in 2024, all 16 storefronts were shuttered.

While Outdoor Voices struggled to compete with apparel heavyweights like Lululemon, Haney spent her time elsewhere. She founded customer loyalty startup TYB (which stands for Try Your Best) in 2021, which raised $10 million in 2022; and energy drink company Joggy in 2023. Joggy then faced legal challenges in October 2024 when investors filed a suit. But fear not, Haney rejoined her original startup Outdoor Voices in summer of 2025. They’re now focused on online sales, and Haney has integrated TYB into the Outdoor Voices brandfold as a primary means of growth. And Joggy’s still selling its plant-based and organic beverages.

More legends from the 2016 list span athletes, movie stars and more: Steph Curry was the face of the Sports list, just months after winning the 2015 NBA finals. He’s since gone on to win three more. And Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky was named. At the time she was a 5-time Olympic gold medalist and the record holder of the 400m and 800m freestyle. She now counts 9 Olympic golds and 14 total medals, making her the most decorated female swimmer of all time. Meanwhile, Dakota Johnson, Zendaya and Pete Davidson were named to the Hollywood list.

As 2016 trends, it’s only right that we pay homage to the businesses and brands that made 2016, and the subsequent decade, what it was. What are your predictions for the next 10 years?

More next week,

Alex & Zoya

Inside the Forbes 30/50 Summit: New Voices, New Energy

Kicking off on International Women's day, Forbes is returning to Abu Dhabi for the fifth annual 30/50 Summit! From fashion and entertainment to sports and entrepreneurship, this Summit convenes women shaping what’s next. Join emerging leaders and established icons, including speakers: Diane von Furstenberg, Georgina Chapman, Jordan Chiles, and so many more for powerful conversations, mentoring moments and immersive experiences that spark connection across generations.

Apply to attend today!

50 Over 50 Global: 2026

Forget Under 30 for a second. Forbes’ latest 50 Over 50 Global list dropped this week, featuring women from around the world who are making feats and marking firsts in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. Check out the list here.

Lister Lowdown

-MiResource, a software startup that connects college-age individuals with mental health providers, announced Wednesday that it has entered into a partnership with Findhelp, a free platform that helps people locate programs and resources for food, housing, healthcare and more. MiResource was named to the Forbes Under 30 list in 2022 after raising $3 million in seed funding.

-Grab your popcorn. Netflix just dropped major announcements, starting with a new reality series starring Forbes Top Creator and 2024 Under 30 Social Media alum Alix Earle. The unscripted series, which will feature Earle alongside her family, will be available later in 2026. Netflix also revealed it will bring nine video podcasts to the platform in the U.S. and Canada, including Therapuss with fellow Top Creator and Under 30 lister Jake Shane.

-More on pop culture. DJ, record producer and 2024 Under 30 Music lister John Summit has announced a major Ibiza residency this summer. Summit will take over Mondays at Ibiza’s [UNVRS] nightclub from June 1 through July 27. His label, Experts Only, is also set to make its UK debut with two shows at the iconic Saltburn Tofte Manor in July. (Talk about a Euro Summer?!) That’s not bad for a former Big Four CPA—read our story on Summit’s wild career pivot here.

On Our Radar

-This month, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced it raised a staggering $15 billion. According to the venture firm’s own Ben Horowitz, that accounts for “18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025.” So where is that money going? Technology, of course. The funds have been allocated toward sectors such as “American Dynamism," apps, and biotech. “If America fails to win technologically, it will lose economically, militarily, geopolitically, and culturally. And the entire world will lose as well,” Horowitz wrote in a blog. (a16z)

-Siri might be getting a makeover. Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to transform its voice assistant into a chatbot resembling OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The new conversational AI would be built directly into upcoming versions of iOS, making it available across the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, is reportedly providing the underlying technology, and shares of both companies rose following the news. (Bloomberg)

-Continuing our trend for throwbacks, this week marks the 20th anniversary of Disney’s High School Musical. Feel old yet? It was just the beginning for Under 30 star Zac Efron and his fan favorite cast mates like Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu. (USA Today)