Founder and CEO, Nasty Gal / age 30

Sophia Amoruso's life wasn't always so glamorous. In 2006, the retail entrepreneur was dumpster diving for vintage gems at Salvation Army rag houses and selling them on eBay from a rented pool house in San Francisco. Fast-forward eight years and the Sacramento native has transformed her website into a more than $100 million–a–year company, landed a $49 million investment from Index Ventures, and expanded operations to more than 150 countries. Her meteoric rise is based on her website's inventory of reasonably priced, retro-inspired crop tops, edgy printed booty shorts, and vintage Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent pieces, which she sells to fashion-forward 20-somethings. With no advertising or storefront, Nasty Gal has attracted an extremely loyal fan base through social media and garnered partnerships with the likes of shoe designer Jeffrey Campbell and Aussie label Shakuhachi. In May, Amoruso infiltrated bookshelves with #GIRLBOSS, a business bible–meets–gritty memoir aimed at eliminating Millennial-specific bad manners in the workplace. It's been lauded as the Lean In for young women. This year, Amoruso continues her West Coast domination with plans to open Nasty Gal's first brick-and-mortar store in Los Angeles and expand from clothing and shoes into cheeky (and no doubt emoji-emblazoned) home goods.

Each October, we're presented with the biggest quandary of the year: Narrowing down the Bay Area's abundance of stellar luminaries to an exclusive selection of trailblazers for our annual Hot 20 list. After weeks of review and all-out debate among our editors, this year's round-up comprises the most energizing influencers of our time. You'll meet a pioneer of electric cars, a branding prophet, a major league all-star, and a Stanford dropout-turned-biotech virtuoso. Best of all, there's more awesomeness where these came from. See them all here.

This article was published in 7x7's October 2014 issue. Click here to subscribe.