Bill Ready

The next time you're splitting a bill with your friends using Venmo, PayPal's smashing success of a social payments app, you can thank Ready. This Kentuckian took the helm of payments startup Braintree in 2011. A year later he brought Venmo into the fold for about $26 million. A year after that PayPal bought Braintree for $800 million. Venmo's indomitable rise owes to Ready's leadership. In the past year, PayPal bestowed a promotion upon him: He's now chief operating officer at the $104 billion payments giant.