30 AND UNDER: These are the rising stars in tech who are driving innovation

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Changing the world takes vision, grit, and hard work.

And it takes just enough crazy to believe you might actually pull it off.

That's what makes the young generation of innovators so important. Chock-full of fresh ideas and optimism, today's crop of up-and-comers aren't wasting time waiting in line; they're building the companies and products of the future right now.

We've rounded up a list of those ahead of the curve: The entrepreneurs, CEOs, and product gurus, ages 30 and under, who are driving innovation from Silicon Valley to South Africa. To be eligible for this list, the person had to have done something awesome in tech in 2018.

Business Insider combed the tech landscape, from startups and tech giants to venture capital firms and investors, to find the most interesting and noteworthy rising stars. Here they are:

Title: Cofounder and CEO of HubHaus

Age: 24

As millennials continue to move in droves to expensive cities, startups are hatching creative solutions for helping them find affordable housing. HubHaus leases large homes, typically with five to 10 bedrooms, from owners and finds community-seeking renters to fill them.

Launched by Shruti Merchant and her cofounder Kerry Jones in 2016, the company has expanded to 82 properties in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. It's eyeing an expansion outside California in 2018, thanks to a recent round of $10 million in funding, according to Merchant.

Title: Founder of Ethereum

Age: 24

Vitalik Buterin first began working on ethereum when he was still a teenager. Today, the cryptocurrency built on ethereum's blockchain technology, ether, is considered one of the most influential cryptocurrencies in the world— spiking to nearly $1,500 in early 2018. 

Buterin, who stepped away from venture capital earlier this year, has remained an active figure in the cryptocurrency community.  In January, Buterin said that he expects 2018 to be a landmark year for ethereum: Already, the project's technology has spurred numerous blockchain applications and decentralized apps. 

Title: Cofounders of Relativity Space

Age: 27, 25

Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone left their jobs as engineers at Blue Origin and SpaceX, respectively, to start their own company, Relativity Space. The pair have developed an enormous 3D printer for manufacturing rocket hardware which they hope will make it possible to build rocketships in just a few days. 

In the future, Ellis and Noone hope their technology will be used to print spacecrafts on the planet Mars. Already, the pair has engineered the largest metal 3D printer in the world, which they say can currently manufacture 95% of the materials for a functioning rocket. In three years, they hope to launch a 3D printed rocket into space.

 So far, the company has raised $45.1 million from investors including Mark Cuban, Social Capital, and Y Combinator. 

Title: Founder of The Longevity Fund

Age: 24

Laura Deming has defied the limits of age from early on. She began her college education at MIT at age 14. Two years later, she dropped out to pursue a career in developing anti-aging technology through Peter Thiel's fellowship program.

Now, the 24-year-old has founded her own $22 million venture capital fund, called Longevity Fund, in an effort to spur research efforts in the field of anti-aging. 

Title: Cofounder and president of Jopwell

Age: 28

After Ryan Williams met his cofounder, Porter Braswell, on the trading floor of Goldman Sachs, the two quickly discovered a shared interest: mentoring other young black people. The fast friends left the finance firm in 2014 and created a job-hunting site dedicated to matching people of color (namely black, Latinx, and Native American) with great jobs and internships, particularly in tech.

Over 85 of America's leading companies, including Lyft, Pinterest, the NBA, BlackRock, and Pfizer, among others, have partnered with Jopwell to more easily connect with minorities.

Jopwell has facilitated "tens of thousands" of connections to possible employers to date.

See Also:

• Immigrants founded and co-founded half of all the billion-dollar startups in 2016, creating over 33,000 jobs
• A company you've probably never heard of is quietly building a fleet of self-driving semis that could revolutionize the trucking industry. And the founder says it has one big advantage over Tesla, Uber, and Waymo.
• San Francisco's contested mayoral race is finally over — and the tech-backed candidate is the new mayor

SEE ALSO: Meet the rising stars in New York tech who find hot startup deals and manage millions of dollars