15 companies that will change the world

These game-changing startups are likely to upend existing industries - and spawn new entrepreneurial opportunities.

PatientsLikeMe
Ben Heywood helps patients help themselves by connecting them to each other.
PatientsLikeMe
CEO: Ben Heywood (President)
Disruption: An online community where patients discuss and track medical conditions
Disrupted: The health-care industry, medical research

There's plenty of basic data about diseases on the Internet, but there are few central repositories for firsthand accounts about what living with those diseases was like. PatientsLikeMe consolidates such personal accounts and helps patients track their progress. The deep and engaged community has only a few thousand members, but is already a boon to medical researchers; access to such communities of patients is a fast bypass around restrictive privacy rules.

Blinkx

Raydiance

Expensr

Zipcar

MFG.com

Virgin Charter

PatientsLikeMe

Bloom Energy

Vanu

Zink

A123 Systems

Renewable Energy Group

Desktop Factory

Cree

One laptop per child
The New Disruptors video series Editor-at-Large Erick Schonfeld discovers startups with the potential to overturn existing industries or open up entirely new markets. (more)
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.