By Forbes Staff,Mir Hwang,Zoya Hasan
Copyright forbes
Whether it’s AI transforming music or tech reimagining sustainability in retail, here are the startups shaping the future with creative innovation.
Camila Victoriano wasn’t trying to start a company — she was just trying to make the news more interesting. While working on R&D at The Los Angeles Times, she realized that readers might become even more engaged with a story if they could listen to it. She went on to launch a dozen podcasts at the publisher, and eventually turned her audio-storytelling skills into a startup of her own.
She cofounded Sonoro in 2020, a media company that now produces nearly 20 podcasts in English, Spanish and Spanglish. She started with telenovela-style shows like “Tejana” and “Princess of South Beach,” which Sonoro created, wrote and developed in-house. But Sonoro has since expanded its offerings and now partners with more than 300 creators — like 22 million-follower comedian Franco Escamilla and 10 million-follower influencer Karina Garcia — to develop, produce and monetize their own shows, host live events and adapt them into film and TV projects.
“Collaboration and creativity were part of our DNA from the start, because creativity is in fact always a collaborative endeavor,” she said. “Tech will not solve a lack of creativity or fix lackluster collaboration … but it can bring them to a new level.”
Victoriano is one of countless Under 30 Listers who have successfully combined tech, collaboration and creativity to build their brand. To highlight those living at this intersection, Forbes editors reviewed the past five years of 30 Under 30 honorees to identify 15 standout companies that exemplify this blend. Each of the following are small businesses — defined by the small business administration as a company with fewer than 500 employees and average annual receipts of less than $7.5 million — based in the U.S. And each one believes in pushing human creativity forward through innovation.
“You need collaboration to foster creativity,” Victoriano said. “Ideally, tech will close whatever gap may exist between the two, but not to replace either.”
Courtesy of GigFinesse
Mir Hwang and Ryan Kim
Cofounders, GigFinesse
Live entertainment platform GigFinesse mixes creative with logistics. Founded by Mir Hwang and Ryan Kim, the startup connects venues with performers to build fan-favorite concerts, provide booking management, real-time event analytics and marketing services. With nearly 30 employees and $10 million in funding, GigFinesse has supported over 50,000 shows nationwide — around 1,000 live performances a month.
Tim Tadder for Forbes
Camila Victoriano
Cofounder, Sonoro
Sonoro isn’t just tapping into the next wave of media; they’re leading the charge. With $12.5 million in funding, the podcast company cofounded by Under 30 alum Camila Victoriano turns successful audio shows into video series, live events, merchandise, and even film and TV. Sonoro specifically focuses on the Latino and Spanish-speaking populations. And the team of 45 employees spans LA, NYC and Mexico City.
Courtesy of Housewarming
Bobby Pinckney and Michelle Yin
Cofounders, Housewarming
Bobby Pinckney and Michelle Yin launched Discz in 2020, which turned AI-powered recommendations into a music discovery platform. In 2024, they launched Verse, a customizable canvas app that lets consumers, brands and artists create visual collages. Now, they’re embarking on a new social media platform in the age of AI. The app, called Housewarming, will launch to the public in October. The cofounders have raised more than $10 million to power their multiple AI-backed creative apps.
Tim Tadder for Forbes
Cofounder, Treet
Treet leverages clothing resale to increase revenue and decrease waste for fashion brands across the globe. Cofounder Sonia Yang’s responsible for the tech at the startup, which helps retailers build out tools for customers to purchase pre-owned pieces directly from the brands. Treet’s behind the resale capabilities for clients like Girlfriend Collective, Dôen and 120 others.
Courtesy of SignUp Media
Mariella Satow
Founder, SignUp Media
Mariella Satow is using tech and creativity to make the movie-watching process more accessible. The New York-based entertainment startup, backed by $1.7 million in funding, provides sign language interpretation for content on Netflix, Disney+ and more via a Chrome extension. Two hundred contract employees collaborate with SignUp to interpret film and TV content for more than 25,000 weekly users.
Courtesy of VX Media
Valerie Zhang
Cofounder, VX Media
This fully bootstrapped creative agency turns brand campaigns into artistic, fast-paced and fashion-forward content. Launched by Under 30 alumna Valerie Zhang, VX brought in $6 million in 2024 revenue, and is on track for $8 million in 2025, thanks to its social-first campaigns featuring products from clients like Lancome Paris, Nespresso and H&M.
Courtesy of Nu Media
Cofounder, Nu Media
Award-winning marketing agency Nu helps F&D brands stand out. Franchises like East Coast ramen chain Kyuramen group, food conglomerate Chubby Group and more turn to Nu for social media marketing, public relations and influencer campaigns. Nu is based in NYC and counts more than 35 employees.
Courtesy of Diem
Cofounder, Diem
Think: ChatGPT, if it specialized in answering questions about friendship, egg freezing or relationship advice. This social search engine is powered by AI and a proprietary community database to answer young girls’ most pressing questions — and give them a space to talk about the answers. They’ve raised $5 million to power the global community.
Courtesy of Tamber
Founder & CEO, Tamber
Tamber lets artists collaborate with an AI co-producer, whether they’re stuck on a lyric, exploring new melodies or building a track from the ground up. Founder Zoe Wrenn, a self-taught coder and musician, calls it a “bionic arm for musicians,” designed to amplify creativity without taking the wheel. Currently in closed beta, the platform is being used by over 300 artists and has raised $3 million from investors.
Courtesy of Songtools
Danny Garcia
Cofounder & CEO, Songtools
Music marketing, simplified. Used by over 100,000 independent artists, managers and small labels, SongTools is an all-in-one platform designed to streamline music promotion. Features like SongFly enable artists to launch targeted ad campaigns across platforms like Instagram and TikTok with a single click. Instead of managing multiple tools for landing pages, playlist pitching, blog content, and advertising, SongTools centralizes the entire marketing workflow. It’s backed with nearly $5 million.
Courtesy of Nova
Aidan Cullen and Alex Gruszynski
Cofounders, Nova
LinkedIn Jobs for creatives. Since launching in 2023, Nova has posted over 25,000 opportunities on its site, from production crews assembling shoots to billion-dollar companies recruiting full-time creative and marketing teams. With $1.8 million in pre-seed funding, the platform is evolving into becoming a one-stop shop for all things creative and freelance, allowing workers to get their deal memos, payments and protections in one place.
Courtesy of Giggs
Founder, Giggs
Working behind the scenes at major concerts like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour isn’t just for insiders anymore. That’s why Nikki Sanz created Giggs, a platform that teams up with industry giants like Live Nation and Red Light Management to open up backstage music jobs to the public. So far, Giggs has connected over 30,000 vetted professionals with 1,500 employers across touring, festivals, corporate events, theater and live productions nationwide and beyond.
Courtesy of WishRoll
Amit Bhatnagar, Pritesh Kadiwala and Fai Nur
Cofounders, WishRoll
Seventeen million dollars allows WishRoll to create innovative social apps. Their first release, Kiwi, is a music-sharing platform often called the “BeReal” of music. Most recently, they launched Status, an AI-driven social simulation game where players live as AI-generated characters within a virtual social network, navigating dynamic relationships and challenges. Both apps have surpassed 2 million downloads.
Courtesy of Pika
Demi Guo and Chenlin Ming
Cofounders, Pika
Pika is reimagining how videos get made in the age of AI. Founded in 2023 by Stanford dropouts Demi Guo and Chenlin Ming, the idea was born after the duo struggled with clunky tools while competing in a film festival. Their answer? A more intuitive, creative platform for generating and editing videos from simple text and image prompts. Today, Pika’s free app empowers over 500,000 users to create everything from anime to photorealistic footage — no video experience required. It’s backed with $135 million in funding.
Courtesy of Twelve Labs
Cofounder, Twelve Labs
Control+F, but for video. Twelve Labs lets users instantly find specific scenes, tag content across hours of footage and even generate written descriptions of what’s happening on screen. Whether it’s spotting a chase scene or pulling up every clip of a cat wearing sunglasses, Twelve Labs makes it fast and ridiculously easy. Backed by $77 million, the startup is putting AI to work on the world’s endless video archives.
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