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It seems every time someone mentions Wegmans, the insanely popular grocery-store chain prevalent in upstate New York (as well as parts of New England, Virginia, and Maryland), people go absolutely nuts.

Wegmans has 85 locations, and tens of thousands of enthusiastically loyal customers at each one. It's even opening a store in Brooklyn, New York (rumored to take up an entire city block), and people are ecstatic.

I grew up 60 minutes north of Manhattan. I frequented Stew Leonard's for my supermarket experience (and the A&P), and up until this weekend, I had never been to a Wegmans. I also definitely didn't buy into the hype that surrounded it.

That all changed.

I asked to visit Wegmans this weekend, on a trip to the Pennsylvania Main Line. It's located off of Route 29 in Malvern, in a big shopping center.

I was not prepared to be won over by Wegmans.

I grew up close to Stew Leonard's in Danbury, Connecticut.

Every year, the research company Kantar Worldpanel launches its annual Brand Footprint study, revealing the most chosen and fastest growing consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands in the world.

The study analyzes 11,000 brands in 35 countries and ranks them based on Consumer Reach Points, a metric based on how many households around the world are buying a brand and how often.

Kantar Worldpanel also provides data on the most bought brand in each of the countries it looks at. Some you may never have come across before.

10. Tide — owned by P&G. The detergent brand is also known as Alo, Vizir, or Ace in some countries.

Consumer Reach Points: 1.44 million.

9. Dove — owned by Unilever. The toiletries brand has moved up three positions in the rankings since last year's report.

Consumer Reach Points: 1.46 million.

8. Knorr — owned by Unilever. Knorr's stock cubes, flavor pots, and powder mixes are popular the world over, but the brand's ranking has fallen one place since last year's study.

Consumer Reach Points: 1.65 million. 

Climate change can seem like a massive, invisible, slow process.

At times, it can seem like something we won't be able to visualize until it's too late. 

A collection of images (from NASA, unless otherwise noted) proves otherwise. In these images, you can see the unmistakable mark that human-induced climate change is making on the planet. 

Rivers and lakes are shrinking, forests are being cut down, and as the Earth gets warmer snow and ice are melting far sooner than they should be.

Snow melt on Matterhorn Mountain, Switzerland, August 1960 vs. August 2005

Aral Sea shrinkage, Central Asia, 2000 vs. 2014

Melting Muir Glacier, Alaska, 1882 vs. August 2005

As new graduates prepare to enter the "real world," colleges and universities gather them into auditoriums to absorb wisdom from great leaders.

Most of that wisdom is forgettable. A lot of it is clichéd. (Dream big! Follow your passion!) But some of it resonates — even years later, even if you're not graduating, even if you haven't graduated in years.

We've collected some of the best advice from some of the best speeches in recent (and not-so-recent) memory, worth reading and listening to for any grad — or anyone looking for a little guidance.

Max Nisen and Lynne Guey contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Sheryl Sandberg: If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on.

Addressing the Harvard Business School class of 2012, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg began with a story from her own career: the time she almost turned down the offer to join Google because it was too low-level. She explained to then-CEO Eric Schmidt that the job didn't meet her criteria.

And that's when he gave her advice she passed onto the newly minted MBAs: "Get on a rocket ship."

"When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves," she recalls him saying. "And when companies aren't growing quickly or their missions don't matter as much, that's when stagnation and politics come in." So take note: "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on."

Watch the full speech here.

Transcript

Salman Khan: Live your life like it's your second chance.

The Khan Academy founder urged his fellow mega-achieving MIT grads to not lose sight of what really matters. 

"Imagine yourself in 50 years," he advised the class of 2012. Reflecting back on your life, "you'll think of all the great moments with your family and friends," he said. Then you'll look back on your regrets. You'll wish you laughed more, loved more, danced more, appreciated more, he said. You'll wish "that you better used the gifts you were given to empower others and make the world better."

Then he posed a thought experiment: what if a genie could take you back? What would you do differently?

Now, do that. "You really do have the chance to do it all over again," he said — starting right now. As of today, "you can be the source of positivity that you wished you had been the first time around."

Watch the full speech here.

Transcript

Neil Gaiman: Do the stuff that only you can do.

Acclaimed British author and artist Neil Gaiman's advice to the 2012 graduates of the University of the Arts is holds true whether you're a painter or a poet or a nurse practitioner.

"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you," he advised. "Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can."

"The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself," he warned — "that's the moment you may be starting to get it right." 

Find the full speech here.

Transcript

If you're a human with a phone or TV, chances are you've at least heard of "Game of War."

The mobile war-strategy game, made by Machine Zone, is making a ton of money (it has the second-highest gross in the App Store), and with Kate Upton as its spokeswoman it has clearly spent a ton of money in advertising.

But is "Game of War" worth the hype?

After trying it out for a couple of weeks, we have to answer a resounding no. This game is disaster.

Here's the load screen. This is important because if you don't have a reliable internet connection, you will spend a LOT of time staring at this screen. You can't play "Game of War" without a connection.

Chances are you've seen one of the game's ads, which are plastered everywhere. This one came up in another game altogether ("Trivia Crack").

Once you get it open, this is what you see. Find the arrows confusing? That's how our eyes feel. There is way too much to look at here and click on. Some options are ads to buy in-app purchases, some are actual gameplay controls, and some are resource monitors — the list goes on and on.

Although the national rate of workplace fatalities is on the decline, some jobs remain incredibly dangerous. 

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, a total of 4,585 fatal work injuries were recorded in the US in 2013 — the second-lowest number recorded since the BLS began collecting this data in 1992.  

10. Construction laborers

Total fatalities for 2013: 220

Fatality rate (per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers): 18.1

According to the BLS, these workers perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. They may operate hand and power tools of all types, and may clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials.

9. Electrical power-line installers and repairers

Total fatalities for 2013: 27

Fatality rate (per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers): 21.5

According to the BLS, these workers install or repair cables or wires used in electrical power or distribution systems.

8. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers

Total fatalities for 2013: 231

Fatality rate (per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers): 22.9

According to the BLS, farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers run establishments that produce crops, livestock, and dairy products.

It pays to have a Shark on your side.

Every entrepreneur that hooks a Shark as a partner sees at least a slight bump in sales as a result of the so-called "Shark Tank" effect — but only companies that take the long view toward sustained growth turn out to be good investments.

Here are six businesses that walked out of the Tank with a deal and have been scaling up ever since, generating a handsome return for their big fish investors.

Pipsnacks

Brother and sister team Jeff and Jen Martin struck a deal with Barbara Corcoran in the beginning of season six for their company Pipsnacks, whose flagship product Pipcorn is an all-natural miniature popcorn that doesn't get stuck in your teeth or cause digestive problems.

After Corcoran invested in the Brooklyn-based company, she took the product nationwide by adding co-packers in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Pipsnacks's sales went from $200,000 prior to "Shark Tank" to more than $1.1 million within just three months of the company's landing a deal with Corcoran.

Sun-Staches

In season six, novelty sunglasses company Sun-Staches attracted a $300,000 investment from Shark Daymond John, who immediately secured a licensing deal for the company with Marvel Entertainment.

Having access to Marvel's roughly 8,000 characters for its sunglass designs has certainly paid off, helping the company generate $4.1 million in sales in less that five months, just shy of the $5.7 million in revenue it earned the previous year.

Q-Flex

When 13-year-old entrepreneur Andrea Cao made a deal with Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban for her handheld massage device Q-Flex during season six, she had just $20,000 in sales.

Since launching a website and moving manufacturing out of her garage and into a fulfillment center, sales have risen to $500,000. Cao and her mother have also had to hire four employees to help with customer service and product assembly.

Disney's next big film, "Tomorrowland," starring George Clooney is in theaters Friday.

If you've seen the trailers, it's kind of difficult to decipher what the film is all about. 

A young girl (Britt Robertson) is transported to a mysterious, futuristic world called Tomorrowland, at the touch of a magic pin.

In actuality, the film, named after the futuristic section of the Disneyland theme park, was inspired by Walt Disney's original vision for Epcot.

Check out Disney's original plan for Disney World and Epcot > 

After Disneyland was built in California, Walt had an idea for another Disney project in Florida; however, he passed away in December 1966 before he could see it come to fruition. Before he died, he filmed a video two months earlier expressing these plans in detail. Bits and pieces of it can be seen in trailers and features promoting "Tomorrowland."

Disney produced the nearly half-hour video, found on YouTube, for Florida Legislators to get permission and rights for his project. In it, Disney laid out his big ideas for his massive Florida project. 

Called "Project X," Walt's Florida expansion wasn't about Disney World, though it was a small part of the picture.

Rather, Disney's plan consisted of building his own perfect Utopian city: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow—Epcot.

While Disney's film brings this vision to life a la Tomorrowland — a place full of hopes and dreams — Disney's original video for Epcot sounded like a scene straight out of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which envisioned a similar world back in 1932.

Located partly in Orange and Osceola Counties, Disney picked the center of the state for his Florida project on purpose, reasoning it would be easy for tourists and residents to arrive by car.

The land was located between Orlando and Kissimmee, a few miles from the crossing point of Interstate 4 and the Sunshine State Parkway (this was before I95 was finished).

The theme park and all the other tourist facilities—hotels, motels and recreational activities—were meant to fill one small part of Disney's Florida project. This part alone is five times the size of California's Disneyland.

The 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is nearing its conclusion. Judging by the entries National Geographic is showing off, the competition looks tough.

In last year's contest, there were more than 18,000 entries to the contest. Photos are divided into four categories: Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place, and Spontaneous Moments.

Entries for this year's contest are being accepted until June 30th. If you think you've got what it takes, enter here.

The grand prizewinner gets an eight-day trip — the National Geographic Photo Expedition: Costa Rica and the Panama Canal — with airfare for two.

To celebrate the end of the contest, National Geographic has shared some of its favorite entries from the "Travel Portraits" category with us here.

A Mongolian toddler helps her mother with the laundry by hanging clothes on their ger, a traditional Mongolian tent.

This man is an Aghori, a secretive Hindu sect of holy men known for eating corpses. They believe doing so will make them ageless and give them supernatural powers. The Aghoris are marked by colorful body paint and clothes.

A young monk at the Shwe Yan Pyay monastery in Nyaung Shwe, Myanmar. The monastery was built in the 1800s and is richly decorated with mosaics and golden ornaments.

With demand for air travel in Europe growing at an impressive rate, the need for world-class airports is at an all-time high. Leading aviation reviewer Skytrax recently released the results of its annual World Airport Awards, which includes a list of the best in Europe.

The Skytrax annual rankings are based on the impressions of over 13 million fliers from 112 countries. More than 550 airports were included in the survey, which covers 39 service and performance parameters, including facility comfort, location of bathrooms, and the language skills of the airport staff. 

10. London City Airport (LCY)

Yearly passengers: 3.4 million

Previous rank: 9

Why it's awesome: Located in the heart of English capital, City airport offers travelers direct access to London's booming central business district. 

British Airways offers a special business-class-only flight to New York's JFK International Airport. 

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by London City Airport.

9. Madrid-Barajas International Airport (MAD)

Yearly passengers: 39.7 million

Previous rank: N/A

Why it's awesome: Madrid-Barajas is one of the busiest airports in Europe and serves as a hub for Iberia Airlines as well as Air Europa. 

Skytrax reviewers loved the stylish architecture but complained about the lack of dining options.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by Airports Council International.

8. Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)

Yearly passengers: 9.1 million

Previous rank: 8

Why it's awesome: Located just 15 kilometers (9 miles) southeast of Cologne, Germany, CGN is a major hub for the budget carrier Germanwings. 

Skytrax reviewers praised the airport for its modern architecture and its clean and efficient terminal buildings.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by Cologne Bonn Airport.

Ever wondered what "Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort's Instagram posts would look like?

Look no further than the feed of Timothy Sykes, a multimillionaire who, just like Belfort, made a fortune trading penny stocks in his early twenties. Also similar to Belfort, he has a side career teaching people how to be as successful as he is. 

And most importantly, Instagram photos of his enviable lifestyle seem like they're ripped from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie based on Belfort's life.

But that's where the similarities end. Unlike the real-life "Wolf," Sykes has never been convicted of any crimes related to his exploits (although he did once receive a cease-and-desist letter from Shaquille O'Neal).

In fact, he recently defended the legality of penny stock trading in Forbes.

“There’s a whole nasty stigma around penny-stock traders,” he said. “To this day, I still get emails from financial websites that say what I do is illegal. It’s based on misinformation.”

Okay, all that said, let's get to the good stuff: Sykes's totally over-the-top Instagram feed.

Sykes insists that he doesn't have any extraordinary skills, besides wanting a better life for his loved ones and being able to make it happen.

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He captioned this photo, "I don't post pictures like this to rub in what I have vs what you don't have, it's to inspire you & help you realize I'm not special...if I can make millions of dollars in the stock market, you can too!" [sic]

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Most people's vacation #tbts aren't as luxe as this photo of Sykes's shot of the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto pool.

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College graduation is an exciting event, but it also marks a nerve-wracking step into the real world.

Help ease the transition with graduation gifts that are both thoughtful and practical. We've rounded up 10 gifts any recent college graduate will appreciate, from furniture for their new pad to a nice dinner out.

Bring a piece of their college town to their new apartment.

Memorialize their college town on a fun throw pillow. It's both a tasteful decoration for a new studio and a nostalgic reminder of their college days.

Price: $35

Treat them to a dinner for two at a local restaurant.

Treat the grad (and a friend) to dinner at a local favorite in their new city. Not only will it give them a chance to explore, but a nice meal out is always a welcome change for anyone on a strict budget.

Need restaurant ideas? Start with our list of the best restaurants in America.

Let them travel in style.

Post-graduation is a prime time to travel, whether it's an around-the-world trip or a quick jaunt home. Make sure your grad is prepared with a suitcase sturdy enough to keep up with them wherever they go, like this hard-shelled one from Longchamp.

Price: $610

Economic forecasting is a difficult game — get it right, and you'll get not only plaudits, but potentially a lot of money too.

But get it wrong, and you'll never be able to take it back. Your predictions will live on, and potentially sound extremely funny one day.

The past half a century is riddled with grand projections about national economies and the way the world is going. Some have aged much worse than the others. 

These are some of the very worst.

"Japan As Number One" was released by Harvard social scientist Ezra Vogel back in 1979. It was not an unpopular view at the time that the United States economy would soon be surpassed by prosperous Japan, but it looks pretty ridiculous now.

Irving Fisher, one of America's greatest ever economists, said in October 1929 that he believed equities had reached a "permanently high plateau." Less than two weeks later, stocks plunged and didn't reach the highs they fell from for 25 years.

In December 2007, Goldman Sachs chief investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen made a Fisher-like prediction of her own. She suggested the S&P 500 would hit 1,675 by the end of 2008, a climb of 14% — it actually ended below 900.

With stocks crossing new highs ever so often these days, going short can be tricky.

And traders at the big hedge funds have their targets on stocks they believe will tumble.

Goldman Sachs' latest Hedge Fund Trend Monitor identifies 50 stocks in its 'Very Important Short Position List.' It tracked the S&P 500 stocks with the highest total dollar value of short interest outstanding as of March 31.

The list uses the dollar value of short interest outstanding to gauge short portfolio holdings.

We've ranked the top 23 stocks by value of short interest, from smallest to largest.

SEE ALSO: Here's the top stock pick from each of the 50 biggest hedge funds

AbbVie

Ticker: ABBV

Sub-sector: Pharmaceuticals

Value of short interest: $1.7 billion

Short interest as a % of Float: 2%

No. of funds with stock as Top 10 holding: 14

Avg. portfolio weight when stock ranks among Top 10 holdings: 6%

Recent news: AbbVie acquired cancer drug maker Pharmacyclics for $261.25 per share in cash and stock – a deal worth $21 billion.

Source: Goldman Sachs

salesforce.com

Ticker: CRM

Sub-sector: Application Software

Value of short interest: $1.8 billion

Short interest as a % of Float: 4%

No. of funds with stock as Top 10 holding: 6

Avg. portfolio weight when stock ranks among Top 10 holdings: 6%

Recent news: Salesforce shares jumped to an all-time high on Tuesday after a solid earnings report. The company has reportedly hired advisors to help with a potential takeover bid.

Source: Goldman Sachs

Merck

Ticker: MRK

Sub-sector: Pharmaceuticals

Value of short interest: $1.9 billion

Short interest as a % of Float: 1%

No. of funds with stock as Top 10 holding: 7

Avg. portfolio weight when stock ranks among Top 10 holdings: 5%

Recent news: "Merck KGaA’s first-quarter earnings missed analyst estimates as the German manufacturer of drugs and specialty materials spent more on marketing and research as it tries to reinvigorate its pharmaceutical business,"Bloomberg reported. 

Source: Goldman Sachs

We live in a complex, ever-changing world, with several opportunities and dangers ahead of us.

We've taken a closer look at 20 of the most important economic, political, environmental, and social themes that define the state of our world and its future.

China's rise and its challenges, the emergence of robotics as a major economic force, Greece's fiscal woes, and the threat posed by a warming climate are among the most important things happening in the world today.

Source

Source

Image: Reuters

Source (Pakistan agreement)

Source (Russia agreement)

Some people know what they want to do from an early age and focus on it relentlessly.

Others are driven enough to reinvent themselves, changing careers and industries, and continuously push until they find the thing that works.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, for example, faced hardship when he first started, writing in "How To Win At The Sport Of Business" that "when I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment." On the other hand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was a Xerox salesman dreaming of good coffee.

As a reminder that the path to success is not always linear, we've highlighted what Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and 19 other fascinating and successful people were doing at age 25.

Martha Stewart was a stockbroker for the firm of Monness, Williams, and Sidel, the original Oppenheimer & Co.

Before her name was known in every American household, Martha Stewart worked on Wall Street for five years as a stockbroker. Before that, she was a model, booking clients from Unilever to Chanel.

"There were very few women at the time on Wall Street … and people talked about this glass ceiling, which I never even thought about," Stewart said in an interview for PBS's MAKERS series. "I never considered myself unequal, and I think I got a very good education being a stockbroker."

In 1972, Stewart left Wall Street to be a stay-at-home mom. A year later, she started a catering business.

Mark Cuban was a bartender in Dallas.

At age 25, Cuban had graduated from Indiana University and had moved to Dallas. He started out as a bartender, then a salesperson for a PC software retailer. He actually got fired because he wanted to go close a deal rather than open a store in the morning. That helped inspire him to open his first business, MicroSolutions.

“When I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment,” Cuban writes in his book “How to Win at the Sport of Business.” “I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation.”

Arianna Huffington was traveling to music festivals around the world for the BBC with her boyfriend at the time.

Before she was Arianna Huffington, she was Arianna Stassinopolous and at the age of 21, she met the famed British Journalist Henry Bernard Levin while on a panel for a quiz show.

The two entered into a relationship and he became her mentor while she wrote the book "The Female Woman" attacking the women's liberation movement. The book was published when she was 23.

For the next few years, Huffington traveled to music festivals around the world with Levin as he wrote for the BBC. Her relationship with Levin eventually ended because he did not want to marry or have children. Huffington moved to New York City at the age of 30. That year, her biography of Maria Callas was published, which she dedicated to Levin. 

She told William Skidelsky at The Observer:

"[Levin] was my mentor. Our second date was to see 'The Mastersingers' at Covent Garden. Our first trip abroad was to Bayreuth to see 'Wagner's Ring.'"

While summer used to be the time of year that most TV shows took a break, this summer is more crowded than ever.

There are new offerings from streaming services and networks alike.

In order to help narrow it down, here is a guide for the must-watch shows of summer 2015.

"Wayward Pines" (FOX)

Premiere date: Thursday, May 14 at 9:00 p.m.

What it's about: A secret service agent (Matt Dillon) travels to a small town to solve a mystery. What he finds out, however, is that he may never leave it alive. 

Why you should watch: "Wayward Pines" is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

A series of high profile box-office bombs have turned him into a convenient punching bag. Perhaps this foray into television will finally be the project that restores him to "Sixth Sense" glory. Since the show debuted, reviews have been positive.

"Aquarius" (NBC)

Premiere date: May 28 at 9:00 p.m.

What it's about: Police officer Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny) goes deep undercover to track Charles Manson and his family. 

Why you should watch: With "The Jinx,""Serial," and "Thought Crimes," America's recent fasciation with true crime is far from over. Now, the infamous (yet endlessly fascinating) legend of the Manson family gets its own hour. Just like "Hannibal,""Aquarius" looks as far from a network show as possible, which might be why we are so excited for NBC's latest drama. 

"Halt and Catch Fire" (AMC)

Premiere date: Sunday, May 31 at 10:00 p.m.

What it's about: This drama set in the early 1980s traces the beginnings of the home computer.

Why you should watch: The show received mostly positive reviews in its first season. But with some tense-looking commercials and some cool posters, it looks like AMC is now putting a lot of energy behind this show. Perhaps they are looking for a new period piece to fill the huge, nearly impossible to fill gap left by "Mad Men" in the network's schedule.

Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is a proud member of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business class of 1981.

He often returns to the school's Bloomington campus to offer his business advice and conduct Q&A's with students. 

He also comes back to party at the local bars. 

In 2012, video surfaced of Cuban dancing to "Gangnam Style" at Kilroy's, a sports bar in Bloomington. 

Cuban has been spotted at a number of local Bloomington bars over the last few years. Whenever he shows up, students and other locals flood the scene. 

 Cuban's partying antics have been well documented. 

After the Mavericks won their first championship in 2011, Cuban famously racked up a $110,000 bar tab while parting at Miami's Club Liv with Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Brian Cardinal and Shawn Marion. 

Cuban used to play for IU's rugby team, notorious for their wild parties.

When he was still in college, he even bought his own bar, Motley's, in Bloomington. It was his first real business venture, and he had just turned 21. 

"I took the proposition to [former IU rugby teammate] Evan Williams, and he got into the idea. We were both big proponents of beer and so, you know, I learned early you stick to the things you know,"Cuban told local magazine Bloom Magazine. "Partying and drinking were things I was excelling at, for better or worse."

This commercial for IU shows a noticeably cleaner version of Cuban's time in college.

SEE ALSO: A brief history of Steve Ballmer's epic freak-outs

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban's 12 rules for starting your own business

The majority of ad tech companies on the public markets may have fared badly in recent months, but behind the scenes there are some seriously interesting pre-IPO ad tech startups 

This ranking looks at the hotter companies subject to IPO (or at least big exit deal) rumors right now. Our data comes from CrunchBase, LinkedIn, our own reporting, and that of other business publications. We've tried to rank them by revenues, but have also taken into account headcounts, venture funding, and recent news and whispers.

See our methodology at the end.

27. Sharethrough: The largest "native" ad exchange

CEO: Dan Greenberg

Employees: 160

Estimated revenues: We believe around $30-$40 million, net. 

Total venture funding: $28 million 

Comment: The company operates a "native" ad exchange and is targeting annual revenue of $100 million by the end of the year. It is profitable.

26. Taykey: Supported by Google's Eric Schmidt

CEO: Amit Avner

Employees: 90

Estimated revenues: We estimate around $30 million

Total funding to date: $32 million

Comment: Taykey's latest funding round was led by Eric Schmidt's venture arm Innovation Endeavors. The company, which plugs its software into more than 50,000 social sources — such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and BuzzFeed — to provide insights to marketers on what is trending now for their desired audiences says it has grown revenue by 600% since January 2013. Avner told us he expects this triple digit growth to continue into 2015.

25. Socialbakers: A well-respected young CEO and huge client base

CEO: Jan Rezab

Employees: 330

Estimated revenues: Greater than $30 million.

Total venture funding: $34 million

Comment: Rezab was named one of Forbes' "30 under 30" in marketing and advertising earlier this year. His social media management and analytics company has more than 2,700 clients, and is considering the possibility of going public. Rezab says the Prague-based company has doubled in size every year "for a while now," and this year it is concentrating its efforts on US expansion.