Forbes' annual 30 Under 30 list — primarily designed to make you feel bad about your station in life — is out for 2015, and three Dallasites are on it. Brennan Potts, Shama Hyder and Hunter Pond were among the more than 600 Millennials celebrated.
The feature, which Forbes has been doing for the last four years, looks at the top young people in 20 categories, ranging from art and style to healthcare to education to finance.
Potts, 29, who is the co-founder of Titanium Exploration Partners, received top billing in the energy section for the investment firm's quick success in the fracking game in South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale. He founded the company in 2014 with two partners, and the firm has already raised $300 million in private equity funding.
The Baylor graduate told Forbes that they “started this company in my home in Dallas and actually invested our first $20 million off my kitchen table.” He previously worked with Valor Petroleum and Upland Oil & Gas.
Hyder, 29, is a University of Texas at Austin graduate who founded Marketing Zen Group in 2009; she is also the best-selling author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Forbes estimated that her company generated $2 million in revenue last year, and Business Week previously named her one of the 25 best entrepreneurs under the age of 25 in North America.
The tastiest selection was Hunter Pond, 27, who founded East Hampton Sandwich Co. in 2012 in Snider Plaza. Pond now has two more locations, with plans for seven more by 2017. Forbes says his sandwich success came from recognizing a gap in the industry: “one of too much focus on the bread and too little on what’s in-between.”
Marketing Zen Group founder Shama Hyder.
