Nima Ghamsari

After becoming one of the world’s top online poker players while still in college at Stanford—where he was classmates with Robinhood co-CEO Vlad Tenev—Ghamsari joined Palantir early as an engineer. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Ghamsari, an Iranian immigrant, founded Blend, which started off automating and streamlining mortgage applications into a quick online process: Blend now powers the digital mortgage apps for major banks including Wells Fargo. The company has raised $385 million in venture capital funding (with its latest round in August), valuing Blend at roughly $1.7 billion. Blend has recently branched out into additional lending products, including consumer and auto loan applications that feature “instant” approvals.