Gumroad

Located:  California

Founded: March 2011

Size:         2-5 employees

Gumroad offers users a short URL which would help them to directly sell their products, in their personal network. Sahil Lavingia, founder, is just a 19 year old kid but has one great resume. When he was in school, he would think of an app idea and ask a freelancer to develop the same for $50, later after testing the app, he would sell them on market places for $1,000. He did this for almost more than 20 times and made about $100,000 by the time he was 15. He was one of Pinterest’s earliest employees. Gumroad has big names as investors like Max Levchin (founder of PayPal). Today he is receiving a flurry of term sheets form VC’s for much more of it.

Path

Located:  California

Re launched: November 2011

Size:         30-50 employees

Path is considered to be the only company that Facebook worries about. It is a mobile social network which got 2 million users within 2 months after its relaunch.  It also has user engagement three times better in terms of post frequency and length of visits than Facebook. It is also poaching talents from companies like Spotify. Founder Dave Morin, doesn’t seem like he would be settling for a small exit, it was rumored that he turned down $100 million buyout offer plus a whopping $25 million earn out over four years from Google.  

The company has a good financial backing and it doesn’t seem like it would go away any time soon. It also has plans of raising $20 million at a jaw dropping $250 million valuation.