4 of 10
BACK NEXT
4. Gokul Rajaram
Then: Product management director, AdSense
Now: CEO of Chai Labs

Rajaram, known at Google as one of the godfathers of AdSense, still remembers fondly the night before it launched. His team had been given less than six months to complete the program, and that night he and Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent five hours debugging what would soon become one of Google's biggest cash cows, generating $1.45 billion in the third quarter of 2007 alone. Rajaram, 33, left Google in November to start his own company, Chai Labs. He's keeping mum on what it does, allowing only that the startup is targeting consumers. "Working on AdSense gave me that entrepreneurial itch," he says. "My favorite memories at Google were the early days when I worked with small teams. It was an incredible rush."

NEXT: Aydin Senkut
Last updated July 28 2008: 1:44 PM ET
More Galleries
5 companies that make business 'beautiful' Profits are a necessity, says a new book by a French design team, but sustainability and simple pleasure matter, too. More
10 cars that got a bad rap The scrap heap is piled high with lousy cars. But a few famous flops deserve a little reconsideration. More
5 great stocks for the long haul Some investments make sense at particular stages. Then there are the stalwarts. We've asked five elite fund managers for their top long-term stock picks. More
Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2013 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2013 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2013. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.