After reading comments on this thread I realize there’s some young potential founders following this. So I thought I’d offer my experience from 2018:

My background:

I spent 4 years building mailmyprescriptions.com into the lowest priced online pharmacy before half a dozen clones. In 2018 we were the highest ranked (trustpilot) and lowest priced. Read the reviews... literally saving lives and increasing quality of life. Do you know what $1-2k a year in savings is to a family with an income of $50-60k? We saved Americans over $10m last year. That’s more than what congress has done on drug prices in years.

I bootstrapped the company, and eventually raised $m’s on my own from FO’s and strategics - without a network (an achievement by itself) and this is when healthtech wasn’t sexy.

I also did this while starting a family and eventually got massive burn out. I left the company a few months ago.

Prior to that I bootstrapped in the ad space instead of going through college and taking on the debt.

So to conclude: no network, no degree, bootstrapped disruptive health startup while starting a family.

The nomination:

I got an email from them asking to fill out a survey and so I went through the process. (You can also self nominate - see end of comment)

If they consider you then you fill out a 10-min survey and they exchange some emails thereafter if you make the cut. There’s 3-4 rounds of cuts from what I recall. There are an equal number of questions about what you actually do as the “how popular are you” questions: who invested in you, how much, notable board members, press coverage, etc.

I knew based on those questions it was unlikely I would get on the list going into it.

I also gave pretty short answers ( I was more worried about >60 min hold times because we had just gotten product market fit) and probably shot myself in the foot.

Either way they emailed me and told me I didn’t make the last cut. I never looked at the list, and this thread just prompted me:

Most of the people on the list are doing some really incredible stuff, specifically actual scientists. Founders in under-serviced markets like Africa. Etc.

But there is a webmd clone that somehow raised $9m.

And one person on the list is an investment associate at a notable VC. With no notable investments.

If you look at each of these lists you’ll see the trend that if you have a notable VC Investment, and/or work for a notable company, and/or people from the same company keep getting on, then it becomes obvious that while there are some serious outliers on these lists: Forbes still has to serve the corporate interests and make sure some of their people are “on the list”.

I’ve been trying to mentor some young founders during my sabbatical and a few of them are convinced these lists will get them more business. They are spending more time on self nominating through their network than just asking for a check for the friends and family round!

They want to brag. It’s a problem with millennials and subsequent generations on social media. It’s FOMO. It’s social media envy.

Let me tell you something: You WONT.

You will get one linkedin bump with a few hundred views.

The next day you will wake up and be the same person you were the day before.

If you think it will help you raise money... the VCs know the list is rigged, they get 20-something associates on it every year, so what do they care?

They produce these lists every year with more and more categories - the value of the list has been diluted to oblivion.

Who’s made the list? Theranos CEO. WeWork CEO.

Time is money. If you (italic)get(/italic) nominated, cool go for it. If not: don’t waste your time.

Go get product market fit! Generate EBITA! Build something awesome!