Big things in business always start small—a spark, an idea, a moment of inspiration. Yet in today’s digital economy, they can scale fast. Two of the three giants at the top of our World’s Most Admired Companies list—Apple and Amazon—were created in garages not long ago. The third, Alphabet (formerly known as Google), started as a dissertation project and is still just a teenager. The three now have a combined market value that’s roughly equal to the gross domestic product of Mexico.
That’s why at Fortune we celebrate size as an aspiration. And it’s why we are launching Venture, an all-new section of Fortune.com that will serve entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and people who nurture the spirit of founders and innovators, wherever they may be. Fortune’s focus is not “Big Business,” but rather the people who want to succeed big in business.
Writing about fast-growing startups is nothing new for the magazine. We annually celebrate our “40 Under 40,” many of whom are entrepreneurs, and we publish an annual list of Fastest-Growing Companies. But the rapid growth of our digital platforms in the past two years has given us the opportunity to reach a much broader audience than ever before. Venture will use all the rich tools of digital and social media to provide inspiration, insight, and advice to a new generation of business disrupters.
To help us do that, we’ve hired Lauren Covello, previously managing editor of Entrepreneur.com, as editor of Venture. She will be joined by our own social media maven, Polina Marinova, as deputy editor. They will work closely with assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher, who oversees 40 Under 40 and who has made interviews with entrepreneurs a staple of Fortune Live, the weekly video show she hosts. Over the coming months they’ll be building Venture into a multimedia platform for both original journalism and contributions from entrepreneurs, influencers, and other experts.
To honor the launch of Venture, this issue of Fortune tells the story of 15 people who are upending a broad spectrum of business. They range from 18-year-old Anya Pogharian, who wants to revolutionize the costly and cumbersome dialysis process, to Wall Street veteran Blythe Masters, who hopes to use block-chain technology to remake banking, to Scooter Braun, who has changed the power equation in the music business. We suggest you pay close attention to these folks; one of them may be about to disrupt your business.
As we continue to grow, Fortune will stay faithful to its mission—to be an in-dispensable resource for those who aim to succeed big in business. And we imagine that’s a mighty big group indeed.
A version of this article appears in the March 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “Big Ambitions.”
