Business Visualizations

The Largest Companies in America That Are Still Run by the Person Who Founded Them

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In the corporate world, leadership changes are practically expected. CEOs come and go, boards shuffle seats, and strategies pivot with the seasons. For most large corporations, the founding vision eventually gives way to the influence of successors, but every once in a while, a company manages to scale the peaks of the Fortune 1000 while still being led by the very person who dreamed it up in the first place.

Going from running a business out of your garage to managing a multi-billion-dollar operation requires an impressive mix of genius, grit, and endurance that most would struggle to sustain across decades of board meetings, bold bets, and bottom-line pressure.

So, what does it take to build a business worth billions and still be the one calling the shots? To find out, our team at The Chartistry has pulled together a graphic that maps out the largest companies in the U.S. that are still being run by the same people who started them.

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Businesses Still Run by Their Founders

Tech Giants Still Calling the Shots

The tech industry can be a volatile market, especially when billions of dollars are at stake every year, making founder-CEOs in this space a rare species. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (now Meta), is a headline example. From the scrappy days of coding in his Harvard dorm to overseeing Meta’s $134.9 billion revenue machine, he hasn’t let go of the reins. His company now ranks 30th on the Fortune 1000 list, but it continues to operate under the umbrella of Zuckerberg’s vision.

Jensen Huang of NVIDIA is another powerhouse. He co-founded the company in 1993 and continues to lead it as CEO and President. NVIDIA is now a central player in the AI boom, raking in over $60.9 billion in 2024. The company landed at #65 on the Fortune list, and much of that momentum can be traced back to Huang’s technical savvy and leadership style.

Another founder-CEO of a big tech company is Michael Dell. After founding Dell Technologies in 1984, Dell stepped away briefly before returning to steer the company through its privatization and subsequent return to public markets. With $88.43 billion in revenue, it holds spot #48 on the list.

Long-Hauler Founders of the Biggest U.S. Companies

Wall Street can be brutal, yet some of the longest-tenured company founders make the ranks in this industry. Richard Fairbank has run Capital One since 1987, long before online banking was the norm. Under his leadership, the company pulled in $49.48 billion last year.

Larry Fink’s story is equally impressive. He co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and helped turn it into the world’s largest asset manager. It now generates $17.86 billion annually.

Then there’s Mark Millett, who co-founded Steel Dynamics in 1993. It might not make splashy headlines like tech and finance, but this steel manufacturer generated $18.8 billion last year, proving that innovation can lead to immense success in any space.

Is Elon Musk Actually the Founder of Tesla?

Elon Musk is arguably the most high-profile figure on the list, but his relationship with Tesla’s origins is less straightforward than the others on our list. Tesla was actually founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Musk joined shortly after as an investor and took a more active role over time. It wasn’t until a legal settlement in 2009 that Musk was “officially” determined to be a co-founder, along with four others. Today, he serves as the CEO and public face of Tesla, a company that posted $96.77 billion in revenue in 2024.

Why Are They Still Here?

While circumstances vary and some CEO-Founders stick around long after what’s best for the company, research seems to support that many of them remain the right person for the job. A Harvard Business Review study found that companies led by their founders outperformed others in market valuation by 10% over the long term. Especially in the early days when the potential rewards are higher, founders tend to prioritize innovation, take bigger strategic bets, and maintain a stronger emotional commitment to the company’s mission.

Additionally, founder-CEOs often make faster decisions, have deeper customer intuition, and are more adaptable when navigating new markets. These traits help fuel long-term growth and can serve as a stabilizing force in times of disruption. That said, success depends on their ability to scale alongside the business. The most effective founders seem to grow their leadership style as the company matures, surrounding themselves with experienced teams while staying grounded in the original vision.

In many cases, large companies will also adopt dual-class stock structures, which help founders maintain some control even as ownership becomes more distributed.

Out of the 1,000 biggest companies in America, only 59 are still run by their founders. Amounting to less than 6 percent, it’s both inspiring and daunting how successful many of their companies have become.

Along with shaping industries and building legacies, they’re keeping their original visions alive in a world that often trades the leadership of innovative founders for business-savvy executives. Their stories serve as a reminder that leadership is about commitment and conviction as much as it is about keeping a business running.

At The Chartistry, we know that there’s a great story behind every dataset. Explore more trends in executive leadership, company growth, and market innovation in America’s largest companies on our Business Visualization page. Or, if you’re looking for more inspiring stories of success, check out our Finance Visualizations.

Founders of Major Corporations Still Serving as CEO

The list of America’s largest companies that are still run by the person who founded them is based on data from Fortune’s list of the 1,000 biggest companies in the United States. Just 59 of the 1,000 biggest U.S. companies are still run by the person who founded them. The founder must be the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, as of June 2025, to be included.

 

Rank Company Forbes 1000 Rank
(as of July 2024)
Revenue
in Billions
(as of July 2024)
CEO Name Year Founded Title
(as of June 2025)
1 Meta Platforms 30 $134.90 Mark Zuckerberg 2004 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
2 Tesla 40 $96.77 Elon Musk 2003
(Musk was designated as one of five co-founders in 2009 via a settlement.)
Co-Founder, CEO
3 Dell Technologies 48 $88.43 Michael Dell 1984 Founder, CEO, Chairman
4 NVIDIA 65 $60.92 Jensen Huang 1993 Co-Founder, CEO, President
5 Capital One Financial 91 $49.48 Richard Fairbank 1987 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
6 Salesforce 123 $34.86 Marc Benioff 1999 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
7 Apollo Global Management 136 $32.64 Marc Rowan 1990 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
8 Coupang 168 $24.38 Bom Kim 2010 Founder, CEO, Chairman
9 Block 186 $21.92 Jack Dorsey 2009 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
10 Steel Dynamics 221 $18.80 Mark Millett 1993 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
11 BlackRock 231 $17.86 Larry Fink 1988 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
12 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals 311 $13.12 Leonard Schleifer 1988 Co-Founder, CEO, President, Co-Chairman
13 Wayfair 346 $12.00 Niraj Shah 2002 Co-Founder, CEO, Co-Chairman
14 Carvana 377 $10.77 Ernest Garcia III 2012 Co-Founder, CEO, President, Chairman
15 Airbnb 396 $9.92 Brian Chesky 2008 Co-Founder, CEO
16 Intercontinental Exchange 397 $9.90 Jeffrey Sprecher 2000 Founder, CEO, Chairman
17 Sanmina 433 $8.94 Jure Sola 1980 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
18 DoorDash 443 $8.64 Tony Xu 2013 Co-Founder, CEO
19 Prologis 463 $8.02 Hamid Moghadam 1983 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
20 Blackstone 464 $8.02 Stephen Schwarzman 1985 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
21 Skechers U.S.A. 465 $8.00 Robert Greenberg 1992 Founder, CEO, Chairman
22 Super Micro Computer 498 $7.12 Charles Liang 1993 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
23 Insperity 541 $6.49 Paul Sarvadi 1986 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
24 Under Armour 577 $5.90 Kevin Plank 1995 Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
25 SS&C Technologies Holdings 600 $5.50 William Stone 1986 Founder, CEO, Chairman
26 Fortinet 622 $5.31 Ken Xie 2000 Founder, CEO, Chairman
27 Urban Outfitters 635 $5.15 Richard Hayne 1970 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
28 Ares Management 644 $4.99 Michael Arougheti 1997 Co-Founder, CEO, Director
29 Nexstar Media Group 648 $4.93 Perry Sook 1996 Founder, CEO, Chairman
30 Compass 654 $4.89 Robert Reffkin 2012 Co-Founder, CEO
31 EPAM Systems 669 $4.69 Arkadiy Dobkin 1993 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
32 Antero Resources 670 $4.68 Paul Rady 2002 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
33 Snap 679 $4.61 Evan Spiegel 2011 Co-Founder, CEO, Director
34 Zoom Video Communications 683 $4.53 Eric Yuan 2011 Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
35 Rivian Automotive 692 $4.43 RJ Scaringe 2009 Founder, CEO
36 PriceSmart 697 $4.41 Robert Price 1993 Co-Founder, CEO (until Sept. ‘25), Chairman
37 eXp World Holdings 708 $4.28 Glenn Sanford 2008 Founder, CEO, Chairman
38 Toast 766 $3.87 Aman Narang 2012 Co-Founder, CEO, Director
39 Akamai Technologies 771 $3.81 Dr. Tom Leighton 1998 Co-Founder, CEO
40 ScanSource 776 $3.79 Michael Baur 1992 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
41 Dream Finders Homes 784 $3.75 Patrick Zalupski 2008 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
42 Century Communities 794 $3.69 Robert Francescon 2002 Co-Founder, CEO, President, Director
43 Euronet Worldwide 796 $3.69 Michael Brown 1994 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
44 DraftKings 798 $3.67 Jason Robins 2011 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
45 Atlassian 811 $3.54 Mike Cannon-Brookes 2002 Co-Founder, CEO
46 Roku 820 $3.49 Anthony Wood 2002 Founder, CEO, Chairman
47 Cheesecake Factory 828 $3.44 David Overton 1972 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
48 Chefs’ Warehouse 830 $3.43 Christopher Pappas 1985 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman, President
49 AppLovin 847 $3.28 Adam Foroughi 2012 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
50 PACS Group 869 $3.11 Jason Murray 2013 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
51 Coinbase Global 870 $3.11 Brian Armstrong 2012 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
52 CrowdStrike 883 $3.06 George Kurtz 2011 Founder, CEO
53 Matador Resources 930 $2.81 Joseph Wm. Foran 2003 Founder, CEO, Chairman
54 Viasat 932 $2.80 Mark Dankberg 1986 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
55 Roblox 935 $2.80 David Baszucki 2004 Co-Founder, CEO
56 ProFrac Holding 971 $2.63 Ladd Wilks 2016 Co-Founder, CEO
57 Playtika Holding 982 $2.57 Robert Antokol 2010 Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman
58 Stagwell 993 $2.53 Mark Penn 2021 Founder, CEO, Chairman
59 Dropbox 997 $2.50 Drew Houston 2007 Co-Founder, CEO

 

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/

Corporate Websites

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Business Visualizations

The Top 100 AI Uses in 2025

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The team at Qualtrics released a fascinating new study on the 100 most common ways people are using AI in 2025. They gathered their data from the Harvard Business Review and showed how each use rose or fell in popularity since 2024. As AI continues to grow, improve, and infiltrate more areas of life, these uses are sure to change. But this graphic serves as a great study of the state of AI usage in 2025. Netizens can use this chart to get inspiration for incorporating AI into their next project or use it as a reference when studying AI’s impact on society.

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The Top 100 Ways People Are Using AI in 2025 (and How They’ve Changed Since 2024)

The team found that AI use could be separated into six broad categories. Here are the areas, along with how much use has increased since 2024:

Personal and Professional Support

  • 30% (up from 17% in 2024)

Content Creation and Editing

  • 18% (down from 23% in 2024)

Learning and Education

  • 16% (steady from 2024)

Technical Assistance and Troubleshooting

  • 16% (steady from 2024)

Creativity and Recreation

  • 11% (down from 13% in 2024)

Research, Analysis and Decision Making

  • 9% (down from 10% in 2024)

The most popular and fastest-growing category of AI use is in personal and professional support. This category can encompass many different ways to use AI, such as scheduling, planning workouts, prepping for job interviews, organizing life, and even as a coach through parenting and interpersonal challenges. In fact, the number one use for AI in 2025 is as a therapist or counselor. Many professionals are concerned about this widespread use for therapy since an AI can’t think or empathize as a human can. The average AI user may not realize that AI is a predictive text model that bases its responses on probability and statistics rather than logic and compassion.

Although this use case is declining, many people still use AI for content creation and editing. This can include composing emails and social media posts, experimenting with blogging and creative writing, creating ad copy, structuring business plans, and more. AI is also used to check for errors and refine tone and writing style. Many value preserving their human voice, and this use case has fallen in ranking.

AI is often used for tech assistance, with an increasing number of people using it to create code. AI’s ability to develop workable HTML or automate IT tasks and debug human-written code has vastly improved, so it’s no surprise this use has gained popularity over the past year. AI can be used for less serious purposes, too. People like to experiment with ideas and gain inspiration from AI technology. They use it to compose poems and bedtime stories, get recipe ideas, or plan their next Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

This graphic makes it clear that AI and its uses are constantly evolving to serve people in new ways and adapt to the changing needs of different users. It’s sure to change and adapt in ways we won’t always predict.

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Business Visualizations

Study Identifies the Best Cities for First-Time Real Estate Investors

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People who want to jump into the real estate investment market have an important question to contend with: Which city should they invest their money in? The team at LLC Attorney has arrived with answers in their new study, which condenses tons of information on the real estate market to identify the 50 best cities for first-time investors. Each town has its own unique characteristics, benefits, and setbacks, but as the team proves, they each offer a powerful incentive for real estate investors.

The team started their study by pulling the 100 most populated cities from the Real Estate Investment Index and pinpointing their 50 ideal cities. The towns on their list are affordable, have high rental income potential, and have landlord-friendly laws. To create their list, the team considered state-level laws on rentals, rent-controlled cities, and the job market in each location. Their potential rental income calculations are based on average monthly rent, median home sale price, gross rental yield, and the market temperature. As for landlord-friendliness, the team considered average eviction time, security deposit limit, and rent control laws.

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The Best Cities for First-Time Real Estate Investors

Out of all 50 cities, the team determined that Port St. Lucie, Florida, is the best city for first-time real estate investors to buy property. This growing city shows no signs of slowing, with median property sale prices lower than other major Florida cities, like Miami and Tampa. The job market in Port St. Lucie is strong in healthcare and education, and business-friendly for entrepreneurs. These factors all combine to represent a city that’s attracting more residents every day. It will be a reliable source of rental income for investors.

Cape Coral, Florida, took the second-place spot for similar reasons. Low property taxes, a growing population, and residents flocking to beaches and parks for seasonal living push up the Cape Coral housing demand and rental potential. The lone midwestern city in the top four is Cleveland, Ohio, drawing in investors with affordable housing and lots of demand because of the strong employers based in this lakeside city. Garland, Texas, comes in fourth with more affordable housing than neighboring Dallas, while still located close to all the dining and entertainment that Dallas offers. Popular Garland employers include FedEx, Interceramic USA, Presbyterian Hospital, and Arena Brands, Inc.

In addition to focusing on the 50 cities the team lists, they suggest that first-time investors look to more seasoned investors for advice. Many expert investors speak at conferences, publish guidebooks, and produce educational videos to share their knowledge. Networking with fellow investors is another great way for new investors to gain support and learn quickly. There are countless networking opportunities on social media and in local groups like your local chamber of commerce. Last, investors need to decide whether they’re looking to buy property close to home that they can maintain themselves, or property far away, in which case they’ll need to hire a property manager. No matter your path, the LLC Attorney team offers a great start with this data.

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Business Visualizations

New Collection of Cybersecurity of Tips and Statistics Highlights Importance for Business

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Cybercrimes are an all-too-common occurrence that every modern business needs to protect itself from. The team at Ooma makes a compelling case for this with a new graphic packed full of information on cyberattacks and tips on cybersecurity. Data leaks and ransomware attacks can affect large and small businesses, leading to very real consequences that can impact customers. These attacks can destroy finances, disrupt operations for weeks, and damage the essential trust between customer and business.

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How businesses should be protecting themselves from cybersecurity threats in 2025

Cybersecurity is the protection of digital systems and networks from attacks that can involve phishing scams, malware installation, and data theft. Bad actors can be motivated by anything from financial gain to espionage and even the entertainment of a prank. Cybersecurity strategies allow businesses to protect themselves with a combination of data encryption, staff training, network security, and threat monitoring.

Businesses have to invest in strong cybersecurity, as we can see from global spending exceeding $1.25 trillion in 2025. This number doesn’t sound so high when cyberattacks are expected to cost the economy ten times that amount in the next year. The average cost of a data breach for companies is over $5 million, not including fines, reputation damage, and revenue loss.

Some areas of business are targeted more often than others. These sectors include:

  • State institutions/political systems: 51.78%
  • Critical infrastructure: 41.73%
  • Corporate targets: 15.14%
  • Social groups: 6.17%
  • Media and education: Around 6% each

Attackers go after these sectors the most because daily life and economic stability depend on them, so they have high value to criminals and bad actors from other nations. Threats come in many forms, and to some extent, every message opened online is a risk, but these are the most common threats:

  • Phishing: Fraudulent emails that trick employees into revealing passwords and sensitive data.
  • Ransomware: Malicious software that blocks access to data and files until a ransom is paid.
  • Malware: Software that’s damaging and gains unauthorized access to a system.
  • Data breaches: Unauthorized individuals gain access to confidential information.
  • Denial-of-service attacks: A server or network is purposely overloaded to become unavailable to users.
  • Insider threats: Employees who maliciously or accidentally compromise security systems.

After making the threats clear, the Ooma team shared the best cybersecurity tips for businesses. Their list includes:

  • Train employees to prevent cyber-attacks.
  • Install antivirus software.
  • Keep security software up to date.
  • Use a firewall and data encryption to stay secure.
  • Secure all Wi-Fi networks.
  • Use strong passwords.
  • Create user accounts for every employee.
  • Enable multi-factor authentication.
  • Back up important business data.
  • Limit employee access to data and software installation.
  • Restrict administrative privileges.
  • Secure your payment systems.
  • Protect business mobile phones.
  • Monitor cloud service providers.
  • Conduct regular cybersecurity audits.

The team’s chart, which is fully illustrated and easy to read, provides a wealth of information on their advice.

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